Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

The Long Road Back

John's school
Thanks to awesome weather and trail conditions, this week's running was great. I got in the first "long" run of my meager Boston Marathon training. It's in quotes since 15 miles barely cuts it to be called a long run, but it's the longest I've done at once since Baystate, so it fits the definition in my world. After I realized that my hill fitness was crap, I also made sure to get in as much hill running as possible and finished off the week with 5,174ft of elevation gain, and that doesn't include the 1,684ft of elevation gain from Thursday's ski race. Even with one zero day on Monday, I had no problem getting to my goal mileage for the week. 51.4 miles. 4 runs were outside. 2 were on the treadmill. Treadmill running is getting old so if I can stay off of it, I will, but before work runs will almost always be on it. And bad weather/conditions, yep, on the treadmill. Even though running was awesome this week, it did make me realize that I have a very LONG road back to where I was just 6 months ago. And that's very frustrating.

Like I said before, my goal is to run 50ish mile weeks thru February and then maybe jump up to 60 if I can for all of March. With my planned long runs for March being 18-20 miles, I really shouldn't have trouble getting 60 miles, or close to it. And that's my max. I've learned over the years that 50-60 is about all my body can handle on a regular basis. Plus, I just don't always have the free time like most people do to spend my life running. And even when I do have some extra free time, I like to do other things than just run. I'm not obsessed with running like most runners I know. I'd rather choose going kayaking or hiking over a second run for the day because those are things I enjoy just as much.

I took a zero on Monday as planned and was actually surprised that I felt pretty good for Tuesday's long run. Still had hamstring and tendon soreness, but not horribly. I thought I'd feel the 10 mile race a lot more, but I think it was too slow to affect me much. Or maybe I just needed that one day off from running to be all set.

As upsetting as the 10 mile race had been, I moved on from it quickly. It showed me where I am and basically what I need to work on. I also tweaked my race schedule around a bit after that. I had planned to do the USATF-NE Indoor Champs and was still on the fence about the Cowtown Half Marathon, but I have backed out of both. I honestly couldn't afford either of them right now after paying for the Mt Washington Road Race and my Wilderness EMT refresher class, so it worked out anyway. So I'm ok with it. I have 3 races planned for March. Definitely the Thristy Leprechaun 5K in South Portland, which I will enjoy immensely since it's replacing the New Bedford Half Marathon from Hell for me. Haha. And Eastern States 20. The 3rd is a toss up between the Irish 5K in Pawtucket and a half marathon in Maine. The half would be good training and the timing for it is ideal. Since I'm not doing Frank Nealon 15K either, it would be nice to have another good training race thrown in there the beginning of March. Doyle's is the last race on the schedule before Boston.

So I'm kind of worried about Boston. It's only 60 days away! I feel like I'll be ready for the distance, but I am SO slow right now. It's so bad. I feel like my legs just can't move with speed at all. This body I'm running with doesn't feel like mine. It really doesn't. Nothing feels right. It doesn't feel like me. I honestly didn't think that 8 weeks off would set me back this much, and I'm not really sure what to do about it. This is probably when I could use some sort of guidance, but I'm not going down that road again. I think if I had more time like I did in 2016 with the last injury, I would be ready. I had 2 more months to come back after my 8 weeks off so I started with speed first and jumped into a lot of short distance races and then still had time to be decently ready for Boston. Of course, my injury was sudden then. It didn't drag on forever as I slowly got more and more out of shape like I did this time. I feel like I'm basically trying to recover from a year of being off....and I'm not even recovered from the injury! I'm going to be doing more actual workouts starting this next week. I've only done a few here and there and the indoor meet. Racing was always my speed work so I'm very far behind.

Keeping my runs off Strava starting this week was a big help mentally for me. I'm so glad I did it and plan to keep them on private until Boston. No one needs to see my disaster...well, except my 5 or so blog readers! Haha. On that note....

Running for the Week

Monday, 2/4- Planned zero day. Lifted weights at work instead. Did not regret it.

Tuesday, 2/5- Long run day! And the weather was FANTASTIC! Yay!! So glad this fell on my long run day (and yes, my long run days are during the week), and especially my first long run in 4 months. The out-and-back from Wonalancet into North Sandwich has always seemed like a great training run for Boston since it's mostly downhill for the first half and uphill for the second. There are a lot of rollers in the middle there, too, so this run is definitely good training for hills, which I desperately need. 15 miles was the plan, and I stuck to it. I remembered the last time I ran this route was last year when I was suffering from anemia and had to stop and walk and was very exhausted and dizzy. Today, I felt decent even though my tendons and hamstrings were still sore. The hamstring soreness had at least subsided significantly after the day off on Monday.

I started in Wonalancet and ran into North Sandwich. Turned around just past the 113/113A intersection and came back. I found the short steep hills were where I struggled the most. The long hills weren't fast, but I didn't struggle up them at all. I could feel that I was out of shape, though, and looking at my heart rate after it was pretty obvious that I was putting in a lot of effort for a minimal return. So that's good at least since it's something definitive. Overall the run wasn't bad. I felt ok and the 15 miles wasn't a struggle as far as the mileage goes. So I was happy with it. 1:59:47. 7:58 avg pace. 1,108ft of elevation gain. I was generally happy with this, even though it was slower than I'd prefer. Right now, I think my long runs are just going to be focused on getting the miles in.


Wednesday, 2/6- Early morning treadmill run before work. Only 3 miles. 22:40. 7:33 avg pace. I actually intended to run slower.


Thursday, 2/7- Crossed my fingers that Hurricane Mt Rd would have decent conditions so I could get a run in with some decent elevation. Turned out to be some of the most solid conditions I've ever run on on the North Conway side. I was super psyched since it felt so easy to run up the road. The other side was pretty close to perfect as well, just very, very slightly on the soft side, but I couldn't complain. Just used microspikes. Ran to the opposite gate then back up and had to hit the detour up and down Black Cap. The frost up there was super cool! It was SO foggy which made it difficult to even see since everything was just all white. Really, really enjoyed this run. It was what I needed today. 10.3 miles in 1:59:50. 2,829ft of elevation gain.



No view at the summit of Black Cap today


Friday, 2/8- Since John's skiing at Cranmore was cancelled, I decided to go down to Tamworth early to do my run as an out-and-back from the Village up Depot Rd. I only had 7-8 planned. After the day before with the 10.3 mile run and then the ski race, I was feeling super beat for this run. The tendons were also really sore. Had a headwind on the way back which made me lose interest and just wanted this run to be over. 7.1 miles total in 54:43. 7:42 avg pace. Only 143ft of gain. Maybe hills would have been better.

Saturday, 2/9- Only had a short run with hill repeats in the plan for today. I was going to do the hill in my neighborhood but after John and I tried walking out in the INSANE cold wind, I flaked out. But seriously, though. I've never experienced wind like that at my house before. It even blew my door open twice. It was nuts! So I had no shame in taking my hill repeats to the treadmill. I recreated my neighborhood hill as close as I could which was about .15 miles per repeat at 8% grade. I ran a mile a warm up and a mile cool down. .15 rest in between at 6mph with the grade from 2-8%. It was a bit of a strategy with the incline, but I got it down, and this workout was perfect. 10 repeats. I increased speed slowly over the course of them which is something I struggle with on the road. The times don't reflect this just because I was using a treadmill, but my slowest was 1:18.4 and my fastest, 1:14.1. I think I could do these faster, and I do actually prefer my hill, but this was a perfectly fine substitute.

Sunday, 2/10- What a beautiful day! Ran from home down 113 to the snowmobile trail for an out-and-back. 11 miles total in 1:44:07. About 20 seconds per mile faster than the last time since conditions were PERFECT. Really enjoyed this run. 1,101ft of elevation gain. I didn't take any photos during this one except an attempt of a helicopter that flew low right above me. I still have no idea what they were searching for.

Workouts

I did 3 days of LIIFT4 workouts for week 2. Chest/Triceps, Back/Biceps and Shoulders. The core workouts actually got better so I only added in on Insanity Max 30 Ab Attack workout during the week. I did 3 days of 10 minute glute activation and only one day of that eccentric hamstring exercise with the ball. I totally slacked on that for some reason. I do like this exercise a lot, though. Totally targets the hamstrings well. Going to do better this next week with that one, I hope.

On Saturday, I finally got started on Chris Dunn's Bulletproof Leg Circuit. This was a sneaky little bastard of a workout. Seemed easy. Only took me 18 minutes, but oh my god was I SO sore the next 2 days. Wowza. I've obviously been neglecting some serious lower body muscles (shut up and get your mind out of gutter haha. That is NOT what she said. 😂) I am in love with this workout already. I have to up my weight on a few of them but not too bad. Looking forward to continuing this. Definitely not looking forward to the soreness, though! Haha.

Skiing, Hikes, Walks

Had another great race at the Racing to the Moon, the uphill ski race series on Thursday. It was super warm out and the course was covered in thick fog. Tonight's race went to mid station for 1 or 2 laps. I always choose 2. He took us up a longer way with some of the same steep climbs from the first race. This ended up being the most difficult course yet. We were all pouring in sweat by the end of it. I went out hard since my competition was there. Took me a good 5 minutes to get in the groove since I was a little fatigued from my 10 mile Hurricane Mt Rd run and the snowshoe walk I had done with the dogs. But once we hit more of the incline, I was in my element. I had the same ski set up as last week which made me more speedy. Managed to pass a few people on the way up. 18:50 for time on the first climb. I couldn't believe how drenched in sweat I was. Transition was just over 3 minutes which was a little too long, and my competition had arrived at my 2 minute mark.

I flew down to the next transition as fast as I could and hurried through the change over. Got going again with two guys who had a faster transition than me. I used them to push myself up this next challenging lap and ended up passing both. 19:57 for the second climb. Luckily, I figured something out and took off a full minute on this transition. I really wanted to beat the other two guys down. Just as I stopped at the finish, one of them came through. Like less than a second behind me. The other one wasn't far. 3.5 miles total tonight. 1,684ft of elevation gain. 52:09 for time. 1st female. Not sure on overall place since Andrew was out on the course and only timed a few people. (Most of us time ourselves anyway). HR averaged 160bpm and was in the 170s for most of both climbs. Killer workout. My clothes were soaked in sweat by the finish. Everybody's were.

Some cool pics Andrew took...

This makes me look small.
Liz and Phil starting the 2nd lap

Ryan about to reach the top of the 2nd lap. This gives you an idea of how steep it was.
I ended up winning the new Ski the Whites Chocolate Baguette from Vintage Bakery. That was really good. Also won a dehydrated quinoa thing that I decided to have for dinner. 10 years ago, I ate quinoa all the time. I had a quinoa dish I brought to every potluck. Then all of a sudden, one day, I couldn't eat it anymore. Doubled over in stomach pain. Every now and then I try again just to see if maybe I can tolerate it again. The answer is no, definitely not. Haha. Tonight was no different. It actually bums me out.



Monday, 2/4- It was in the 50s so I actually walked outside after I sat out in the sun for 30 minutes in just a sports bra. It felt so good. In order to stay in the sun, I walked in a very tight circle for 2 miles. The parking lot was puddles on top of ice so I had to wear my microspikes. Not ideal, but I'd take that over circles in the bay.



Tuesday, 2/5- I still had plenty of energy after my long run to break trail in snowshoes on the Jackman Pond Trail while I waited for John to get out of school. About 1/4 of the trail had been packed down somewhat. The rest we got to pack. To cross over the brook, the trail comes out at the road and you have to use the road bridge before heading back in the woods. Some woman drove by, turned around and came back to offer me a ride. Haha. She thought we were stranded. 2 miles. Took over an hour.




Wednesday, 2/6- Boo. Back to the ambulance bay walk for 30 minutes.

Thursday, 2/7- Went back out to continue packing down the Pillar-to-Pond trail that John and I had broken with snowshoes over the weekend. The horror when I got to the trail to find someone postholed the entire thing!! Completely destroyed the trail. Frozen footprints, some a foot deep. Just ONE person postholing is all it takes to destroy the trail. Why don't people get this?! If you have to posthole, do it off the trail! Grr. So disappointing. I did get to break some of the Muffler trail, but it was either too soft or too solid so it was a very uneven breaking of trail. 1.8 miles. 55 minutes.


PSA: Don't do this!
Friday, 2/8- After my run from Tamworth Village, I drove over to the Flat Mountain Pond Trailhead to backcountry ski with Phoenix. It was so nice out and the snow was perfect. I had planned 4 miles, but at .9 we hit a very long, steep downhill, and I was feeling too beat to come back up it. Haha. So we turned around there and skied back. Whole trail to ourselves. So glad I brought the skis. 1.8 miles.


When we finished, I had about an hour to spare before picking up John so I was going to fill up my water jugs at the spring and go grab a coffee. Unfortunately, as I was backing out of the trailhead, when I hit some really soft slush it started swerving a bit to the left and then the right so I tried to correct it to the left...only to overcorrect right into some super soft snow. This had been plowed recently so looking in my side mirrors, where I ended up actually looked plowed, but it was just a pile of soft snow. After trying forward, reverse, forward, reverse.... and digging myself out, I realized I was definitely stuck. I had to call USAA roadside assist. Ugh. I only had a 1X on my phone for service, but luckily it was enough to call USAA and then John's school to see if someone could take him home. Hurteau's had to come down from Conway so it took about an hour total. When he got there, what seemed like a simple extrication from the snow turned out not to be so easy because the snow was too soft so he had to drag my car sideways out of it. Luckily, it was done, and I was on my way. But ugh. I can't believe I did that! Snow tires had nothing on that mashed potato snow. Glad John got a ride and that I was out.

You can kind of see my swerving marks



How I felt about my situation as I waited for the tow truck.
Saturday. 2/9- John and I attempted a walk in the morning in that insane wind. It was just too much so we cut it short. Only walked .4. Omg was it cold.


The wind died down enough that we finally went back out for another walk around 3pm at the Bolles Preserve. Saw no one else, which was nice. I was still freezing to death the whole way while John just had on a fleece. Haha. We walked out to the frozen Chocorua Lake. John really enjoyed himself on this walk. He spent about 15 minutes sliding down a frozen hillside. I did the mom gasp every time since I envisioned him cracking his head on a tree. Moms always fear the worst. Haha. We walked out on the lake which was cool, but the wind was still out there and it got cold fast. 2.4 miles total in over 1.5 hours.








John doing a dance




Sunday, 2/10- No walks today. I took John downhill skiing at Shawnee Peak instead. The weather was really nice. Christin Doneski and Jim Boule had won free passes at the Moose Pond Half and gave John and me their passes. I thought today would be perfect. Turned out that I was wrong. It was super crowded, but that wasn't the issue. It was almost all ice!! Ugh! Ended up not being much fun at all. The wind from the day before had blown off so much of the snow. The slopes I'd skied down easily and fast on Thursday night were now just icy sheets. Scared the crap out of me. We still got in some decent runs and John had an ok time. Only stayed 2 hours, but that's our norm for downhill skiing anyway. Haha.




Random Stuff

Got a pic of John feeding the farm animals food scraps when I picked him up from school on Tuesday. He's currently on a school trip in Washington DC as I write this.


Phoenix sitting on my foot rest, something she's never done before.



Dog snuggle time
The biggest whoopie pie ever. My ambulance partner, Jeff, bought it and split it with me.
John and I went to Fryeburg Fire on Saturday morning for the free breakfast for First Responders put on by the Rotary Club. The breakfast was great. I didn't see anyone I knew there, though, which I thought was weird. Looked like most people there were from Maine.


Seriously the best apple cider donut I've ever had.
Not a super exciting week, but definitely a good one. Much better than the week before. Having nice weather helped. Looking forward to our upcoming trip to Texas. Hoping for warm weather and sunshine!



3 comments:

  1. I Sure Do Appreciate All Of Your Photos - Run Strong & Be You

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! Enjoy your blog, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful pics from Hurricane Mt Rd!

    ReplyDelete