North Face 50...er...35-miler

That's right. I only made it through 35 miles.

And now for the gory details.

I got up to Delafield around 3PM on Friday (eating a nice lunch before I left of a bunch of Swedish pancakes and 2 fried eggs, YUM), went to packet pickup, and on the way back to the hotel, stopped at the Waterstreet Brewery for dinner. Polished off some French onion soup (didn't eat the cheese, though), one beer, and maybe half of my main course of salmon over spinach linguine with a bunch of vegetables. Had one more beer back at the hotel and organized my stuff for Saturday.

It had rained all day Friday, but was calling for partly cloudy on Saturday. Still, when I woke up (after sleeping maybe all of 3 hours although I stayed in bed for about 7.5), it was misting pretty well. So the only change I made was to cut out holes for my head and arms in a large garbage bag, figuring the rain would stop soon enough.

Even without sleep, I felt just fine since I've been sleeping a lot. My legs felt good, having done a peppy 20 minute run on Friday morning. Stomach was good, too, everything felt good. I lubed my feet liberally with Vaseline, suited up and left for the race just before 5AM. Since I can't read up close with my contact lenses in, I couldn't really read the map, and turned off the first road too soon, but figured I had time and that the road I was on would surely run into the main road to get to the park.

I got to the race site around 5:15 and it continued to mist. I was happy I had my garbage bag on, although I could have gone without it, but I just do not retain heat well when it's cold. I think it was mid-30's at the start.

GO and we are off, and I just sort of stayed with a big group of people, hoping they wouldn't be going too fast, and as soon as we hit the first hill, everyone walked it, so I figured I'd be OK. Hit the first aid station faster than goal pace (14mpm was my goal), but didn't feel like I was pushing it in the least, which I can tell by my breathing. I didn't really need to get anything at the first stop, but I looked around and just went on my way. I kept the bag on because it wasn't making me uncomfortable or anything.

I kept drinking Coke and just running easy and walking up the hills. I had to be careful on some of the steeper downhills because everything was wet from all the rain plus there were lots of leaves, rocks and assorted twigs and sticks. Now even though I run on what I call a trail near home, it is perfectly groomed and there are no rocks or really much of anything to dodge, and this is where I think my training failed me.

About 10 miles in I could already feel my quads going what the hell? But it was just pain, and I was OK with that and knew that I could put up with a whole lot more to get through 50 miles. 16 miles in I finally ditched the garbage bag and discovered that I was in fact, pretty drenched with sweat, but it was ok, at least some of it would dry off. I was ahead of pace at this point, and except for my quads and a little pain in my right shin, I felt fine. I took some chicken broth with a quarter of a PB&J sandwich and that hit the spot.

The next aid station came fast after about 5 miles, and I was thinking, huh, this is the farthest I'd run since ROTPM, and even though my quads felt like hamburger, I felt good, except that thing on my right shin was starting to hurt more. The next leg was 7 miles, and I enjoyed it, because once I got there it would be my longest run ever.

Did I mention we ran through plenty of water? I didn't worry about blisters as my feet were well-lubed, and the cool water actually felt nice in a way. Oh and there was plenty of mud, too.

Approaching 28 miles, I could feel my right shin hurting a lot, especially on an uphill or downhill, but it seemed I could manage on flats. We had to run 7 more miles back to the prior aid station, and there was plenty of up and down in that, and about 3.5 miles out, my right shin was really, really hurting. I stopped and pressed on it, and it felt really bruised right over the tibia. I didn't really think I had a stress fracture, but it hurt so bad that I took some Tylenol and tried to soldier on.

That didn't last but another .5 miles when it hurt to even walk and I even limped when doing that. It was right then and there I decided I would just make it back to the aid station and pull out. It sucked to walk, but I could do it in a way that hurt less than running, but it still hurt. One guy ran by me and asked if I wanted him to send someone out to get me, and my pride got the better of me and I said I'd just walk it in.

I made it to 35 miles under the cutoff, and for a flash thought I'd try and go to 40, but I realized that I might be setting myself up for something really bad, so I withdrew, hanging out to wait for a ride back to the start with 2 more runners who had the same fate with different issues (one guy missed the cutoff and the other had been in pain far longer than I was).

As soon as I got back to base, I went to medical to get ice for my shin. Boy did that feel good! I ran into some friends and chatted. It kinda sucked that I went farther than 50K but did not even get a 50K medal, but hey, that's fine by me. I ate some awesome food, and then picked up my drop bags and hobbled to my car, and I mean hobbled! Getting in the car was no fun, but I only had a short drive back to the hotel.

When I stripped off my tights, I could see what looked like the beginnings of a big bruise over my right shin about 1.5" above the ankle. I got showered and then organized my crap, put a lot of stuff into my car and then came back up (I was able to take the stairs up) and got more ice and iced myself for about 1/2 hour. After this, I was able to walk semi-normally, except for the lack of quads.

I was pretty tired and didn't really feel like getting in the car to drive for another meal, so I ate a Clif Bar and had some beers (I got a growler at the brewery of their Oktoberfest, tasty!) and watched some movies and then drifted off to sleep.

I woke up around 5:30AM for a nature call and couldn't fall back asleep, so I got packed up and left town about 6:30AM. It was funny while I was driving that in order to use my left leg to brake (yes, I drive with both feet), I had to lift my leg with my left hand!

Now for the good stuff...what did I learn?

My training was spot on, distance-wise. I definitely had the endurance to complete 50 miles, just not on a trail. I maybe should have done a 3-week taper, but who knows? Still, I ran 35 miles just 8 weeks after double IM, and so I've gotten in 3 marathons + in just 13 weeks. I feel like I've acquired a new level of toughness in my legs. I might not be cut out for trail running, but that is fine by me. UMC is not trail running! I got to experience my legs being in a whole lot more pain than in an Ironman (in fact, once I pulled out, my first comment was that I'd rather be doing an Ironman!), and I am sure that will come in handy in about 9 months. I felt mentally OK with the time and distance and even enjoyed myself for most of the time.

Someone asked me at the finish area whether I was planning to go for another 50-miler before UMC. The answer is NO. I am still putting plenty of distance into my legs, and feel confident that by race day I will be ready, or as ready as I can be. Besides, I have Goofy Challenge in 11 weeks, and the recovery from a 50-miler doesn't really fit into that plan or even next year, but I will get in a few 20+ mile runs between January and July next year.

On the plus side, assuming this shin thing is just temporary shin splints, I should recover from this 50-miler attempt as for a marathon, and I won't run for a week. I will go for a swim tomorrow and see how biking feels on Tuesday, and then it's back on the wagon.

I may try and rake some leaves today if I feel a surge of energy. Or not. At least it doesn't involve stairs!

Ready for my Big Day

I am ready to go for the North Face 50-miler. All I need to do is get some more sleep tonight, then tomorrow morning a short 20 minute run, pack and drive up to Wisconsin.

I am feeling really rested for this, much like I did before IMLP. My body feels great, well except for my upper body which is getting used to all the hard swimming I've been doing.

Speaking of swimming, in just 6 weeks of focused work, I am getting faster! Now, I am just approaching what I was able to do in 2004-2005, but that is encouraging since it means I should be able to gain even more speed. Next week I begin doing pace test swims, and testing is what keeps me honest, so I'm looking forward to it. So far so good on those long swims, although I am only back up to 5,000 yards, but that will grow quickly in a few weeks. As much as I would like to swim more than 3x per week (frequency being a component of improvement), it is just not going to fit into my schedule most of the time, although between now and Goofy Challenge I should have time on Sundays to get in a nice 30-min. cool down swim after my long run. Mostly I need to build muscular endurance, and my 3 swims per week all work towards that, and my aim is to not slow down as I continue to add distance to my Friday swims.

This week I only did 2 swims and no riding at all, so my entire body gets to rest up for Saturday, and I haven't rested this hard since the last time I did Goofy Challenge in January, 2007. Well, I have rested AFTER big events, but I'm talking about tapering.

In looking at what I've accomplished since Revenge of the PirateMan, it's encouraging to me. Last year, for the first 6 weeks of my season, I got in about 58 hours of training. This year, for the 6 weeks after ROTPM, I've put in 85 hours, and if you add in the 11 hours of walking I also did, it comes to 96 hours of training. That is a lot for this early in the season, but based on how I feel, I must be doing the little things right in order to do that much.

My weight has hung out right at the 108 lb. mark, but I think I've leaned out just a little bit more, at least according to my massage therapist. If that's true, it means I've added a little muscle, and based on the curvature of my butt, I would have to agree. That's what running lots and lots of hills will do. But I have also been doing extra chinups and pushups twice a week before I swim, and I think my upper back and chest reflect that. It's amazing how little things add up, isn't it? I laugh at people on Facebook who tell me I should try P90X or some supplement stuff. I've been doing this stuff for a long time and have honed my body so much that I think I'm a pretty good judge of what it needs. In a few weeks, I will change up my strength routine a bit, incorporating some movements that were suggested to me during my bike fitting session. I didn't want to start on them before North Face because I wanted to not change too many things all at once. Even though I know my body pretty well, I know that change is an important part of the training stimulus. If I did the same thing every year, well, I wouldn't be improving too much.

So here I am at the end of my first training block for Ultraman. No matter how I do on Saturday, I will consider this block very successful. I have mentally and physically become reaccustomed to hard swim workouts, I have shown that my body can withstand some decent run mileage, and I have not become injured, all after having done an Ironman 13 weeks ago, and double Ironman only 8 weeks ago! If I pull off this 50-miler, it means I've done 3 marathons (4 if you want to count the 50-miler as two) in the space of 13 weeks, holy shit! That is something I never would have considered either fun or even possible just a few years ago.

Huh, well, all that's left now is to finish 50 miles on Saturday. I know I will have fun doing it, maybe not 100% of the time that I am out there, but if I didn't enjoy doing this stuff, I wouldn't do it. I received a book as a gift called "The Runner's Rule Book," and I love it because the first 2 rules are 1.1 Have Fun and 1.2 Expand Your Definition of Fun. While this book is only about running, in my case it applies to swimming and biking as well, and I don't know--I think I am just one of those people who really enjoys this stuff. I see too many people out training that aren't smiling and it makes me wonder why. Sure, there are times when I'm pushing hard and that ear-to-ear grin may be absent from my face, but most of the time I'm just happy that I can do this, and I thank my body, mind and soul for the experience, and it shows on my face.

Well, I won't be checking back in before Sunday, and hopefully I will be able to say I've run 50 miles all in a day!

Week 2 of IMLP Recovery

Things have been going pretty well this week. I haven't had any of the "why am I keeping up training" thoughts that have occurred last year and the year before after the first Ironman. I suppose that's because I have so many things looming in the future that I am not giving myself time to have those thoughts. I do wonder if I will have gotten my recovery right, and won't know for another 3 weeks, right?

I still haven't written my training for the block between Revenge of the PirateMan and Goofy Challenge, but I have sketched out some aspects of it, like how my weekly training pattern changes. I have no idea how my recovery will go after ROTPM. That is something I will play by ear. For sure, at least 3 days of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Then, I will drop my long ride through the North Face Endurance Challenge (the 50-mile run), and instead will be doing 2 long runs on the weekend. I don't mean LONG long as in 15/30, but more like building to maybe one 10/20. This will allow me to sleep in on weekends, and also on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is when I will do rides of up to 1:30. Hopefully I can maintain some semblance of bike fitness on just that! I am going to try and start up my extra strength work in the form of pushups, chinups and jump rope to keep my core extra strong. I am going to keep that Friday long swim, though, at 5,000 plus yards, as I do need to start building towards that big 10,000, eh?

Again, recovering after NF will be a new thing. For sure no running for 1-2 weeks. I can usually pick up swimming right away, even though I may be dog tired doing it. That's one of the things I really like about triathlon--there's usually something you can do. I think a 50-mile long run will be good preparation for Goofy Challenge, and so I won't be doing any "special" training for that. In fact, I will begin my Ultraman training pattern, adding my long ride back in, in fact I will probably go back to the weekly pattern I am doing now. I'm glad I've been used to back-to-back long rides for years now, as that is an Ultraman-specific thing. I'll keep up the Friday long swim, too.

For me, Goofy Challenge will be more about fun than anything else, since I've done it before, since I'll have friends along with me--Shelley and Brad! We are going to cook up something funny for the 1/2 marathon. After Goofy, well things will get very interesting as I try and do "as much as possible" for Ultraman training. I envision lots of time on the trainer on weekends and lots of time on the treadmill during the week. Whereas an Ironman build is typically 12 weeks, I'm thinking for Ultraman it needs to be about double that, which lets me recover from Goofy for a week or so.

It's a lot to think about! Yesterday I had the pleasure to run with a new friend, Amanda, who is an ultrarunner. I tried not to pester her too much with ultrarunning questions. I know that if I can run with her every so often that I will get faster and smarter about this aspect of Ultraman, particularly nutrition. I need to learn to eat more while I'm running. We encountered several other ultrarunners at Waterfall Glen (so popular because of the 9.5-mile loop, soft surface and well, hills). I was more interested in listening to them, but Amanda told them I was an Ironman veteran, and one guy asked me how I fit in all the training. He had made the big "L" loser sign on his head, and I made the hanging myself sign and said, "I have no life!" Well, whatever semblance of life I had before is going to be even less next year! I don't know if I can do all this, but I am sure going to try.

I managed to run for 1:20 yesterday, and that was enough. When I got home, I thought I should try and get a head start on my 6 hours of riding scheduled for Sunday, since it is predicted to be in the mid-90's, and while if we'd had a normal summer, I could deal with that, I don't want to expose my recovering self to both mid-90's and a 100-mile ride. So I took off on Clipless Fuck and rode for 2 hours. My legs were fried, and the trails were wet from the morning rain, so it was slow going, but I didn't care. When I got home, the temperature was only 86. Then I went for a refreshing 1/2-hour swim, where I tried out my new dinosaur fins. I really like them! I had wanted to go to REI (I need to buy a headlamp for ROTPM and NF), but remembered I needed to go grocery shopping and didn't want to spend much more time driving, so I stretched, got groceries, ate dinner, read a little bit and got to bed early.

My appetite has kicked back in to match my training hours, and it seems I have become obsessed with food. In looking back over the last 3 months, I really wasn't treating myself very often (during the winter I was eating a little richly, but that's what happens when I'm cooking for someone else frequently), and on Friday I went to my Italian deli for prosciutto, and found they had fresh figs, so I've been going a little nuts on fig/prosciutto snacks. I also fixed some carbonara with the prosciutto and freshly grated Parmesan, and have contined eating some great salads. I am trying my best to eat a little more real foods so I'm not dipping into the Twinkies and Gummi Bears as much, but it is work.

Mentally, I'm in a place where I just need to DO IT and not think about it so much. I was pleased on Thursday when I swam that I mostly just thought about swimming and the cool water, but also the fact that I've got only one more week of outdoor swimming, which makes me sad.

Since I got in some riding yesterday, my goal for today is 4 hours or about 80 miles. I figured that since it's going to be so hot (it's almost 80 at 5:30AM), I'll just go out and back for 2 hours from home and then reload bottles and repeat. That saves me driving anyplace and gets me on the road sooner, gets me done sooner, and then maybe I'll still get in that retail therapy later on!

I am already looking forward to dinner tonight--some more pasta carbonara and a couple of glasses of red wine. And then maybe I'll actually read the Sunday paper!

Enjoy your Sunday!