Running • Page 71

Just did my first run with my fancy new watch and now I have a bunch of exercise and running terms I gotta look up to figure out what this all means

 

Lower cadence means usually higher impact forces. “Plodding along”. You’re foot is making contact with the ground for longer thus loosing energy and taking more energy to move forward. Goal is to be more efficient(running economy) means a higher cadence. Lower cadence usually means heel striking and more stress on the kinetic chain hip to foot. Higher cadence usually means forefoot or mid foot striking and less stress on the body; lower injury risk.

 

ohhhh interesting and that makes sense. Thanks! My run over lunch averaged 179 over 6 miles and while I was going much faster than I have in a long time so that’s certainly not my normal average, good to know that essentially a higher number is better

 

The hardest thing for me is going to be divorcing the thought of cadence and speed equating. When he said "your cadence should be the same whether you're running an 8 minute mile or a 10 minute mile" my head literally imploded.

 

First three mile run in two months of PT. Learning a new cadence is going to be an extremely involved process. Running along to a metronome (under music) helps immensely, but my legs tire out so much faster and I’m only halfway to my new cadence.

At least the marathon doesn’t have a scheduled date yet, so it doesn’t feel like a deadline is looming over me.

 

@Garrett what is the weather/temperature like in Tennessee in late April / early May? Is it humid and 60’s/70’s or something different?

I know it’s hard to say “this whole state is like XYZ” since it’s an entire damn state and that’s a lot of area to cover but just looking for a general idea of what to expect

 

which part of Tennessee again?

 

Spencer, TN. About two hours east of Nashville.

 

Ah, Fall Creek Falls...as nothing else is there, haha. About 90 minutes west of my house, ish. I believe that’s up on the plateau, so weather is a bit different up there than here in the valley. Colder nights, cooler days. I’d say 50s-70s will be your daily range. Maybe 80s in the heat of the day.

 

thanks! Wisconsin will certainly have days in the 60’s -70’s leading up to my race date, so glad that the weather won’t be a major difference factor to acclimate to.

 

im surprised your race is going on still. My end of April race was postponed

 

I’m kind of surprised too. i wonder what the max amount of people is for each. Looking at my race it shows that there are still 63 spots open for the 50K, but I don’t remember what it was at when i signed up or how many total it has. And there’s a half marathon too which has 20 spots still open. For all I know it could be 50 people currently signed up and you could stagger them start times.

the race director has been emailing pretty much weekly saying everything is still going as planned so I hope that continues.

 

This post will be basically a diary entry for me and my run today.

I have returned from my last long run before my 50K in four weeks.

Per my Coros Apex watch:
Distance: 21.30 miles
Total time: 4 hours 20 minutes (nice, and that also makes this my longest run in terms of time, beating my marathon time)
Average pace: 12:14 (way too fast)
Elevation gain: 2326 feet
Battery life: only used 4%! Holy shit. I knew this watch was advertised for long lasting but damn. I got it on 3/22 and yesterday was the first time I charged it and I wouldn’t have needed to (out of the box was 67% and yesterday was at 19%).

gear: everything was great. Love my Osprey pack. First time using it with the bladder and two hydration flasks but wasn’t too heavy and I never really felt it which was great. Brooks Sherpa 5” shorts are forever amazing. I don’t know if I’ve ever loved a piece of clothing before but I definitely love those shorts. Had a Brooks tank top on that is super comfy and a long sleeve shirt from Target that was maybe $5 and some no name brand and is insanely great. For socks I wore my compression Mud Gear socks. No issues, but not sure I’d wear them over my Injinji’s for the race. Shoes were Brooks Catamount and had no issues until near the end when I felt my big toe start to hit the front of the shoe. Still haven’t tried out my other trail shoes yet. Maybe tomorrow or Sunday.

today was more about the total time on my feet vs the distance. There is an awesome trail that is about a 5.3 mile loop so each time around I grabbed more water and snacks from my car and then went back to it.

I think I did good nutrition and liquids wise. Each hour I aimed for around 230 calories and 35-50 carbs and succeeded until the third hour when I the pretzels I tried did not work and the baby food I had wouldn’t open lol so that was a bit rough. Consumed about 75 ounces of water and 25 ounces of Gatorade. Snacks were a mix of Teddy Grahams, granola cereal, mini clif bars and only one gel. After awhile though the last thing I wanted to do was eat anything so not sure how that will effect me come hours 5, 6 and 7 at the 50K.

And as I’ve known from prior experience but never with this much elevation gain in one run, the mind goes to some dark places around mile 17-19 lol. Especially when you can’t just turn down a side street or something and cut it short if you want. Learning a lot about trail running thats for sure!

interestingly, I had the MapMyRun app on my phone going the entire time too to see the difference or how close they would be and the app had me at 21.01 miles and only 1179 elevation. I’ll trust the expensive running watch that many others use over the free app, but was surprised by the difference in elevation especiallly.

 

Man, even on rainy / foggy days the trails are so cool to run on. And even better because everyone else mostly stays home so you don’t have to deal with looking out for people.

the only other person on the trails this morning was ironically enough the lawyer / business counsel guy I worked with at a previous job a few years ago. Small world lol

 

So obviously big running world news with Des Linden breaking the 50K world record in under three hours which is insanity.

got a cool email from Coros with her run details since she wears a Coros Apex and one thing I can’t wrap my head around is her average stride length is 4.72. My average stride length is always around 3.25-3.5 when running on roads. Idk if she’s super tall (doesn’t look it) or what but that’s an extra foot and then some per stride length! That’s crazy and makes me wonder if I should try longer stride lengths for short distances and see if that speeds me up or makes me hurt or what

 

Less than a week until my first 50K.

two weeks ago, after a three hour drive, my back was huuuuuuuurting and I could barely waddle for a few days. So immediately I was wondering if I would be able to drive 12 hours to Tennessee and then run a 50K the next day. I’ve debated even attempting to do the race and even attempting to get there and decided today to say “fuck it” and give it a shot. Everything is already paid for so I get nothing back by not trying to make the drive. We’ll see how it goes! Just sucks not being in my 20’s anymore when I was built like Gumby and could drive 10-15 hours a day for weeks on end with no problem.

 

I drove past Fall Creek Falls today coming back from Nashville (my marathon was canceled but the hotel wouldn’t refund the room, so we went anyways) and wondered if you ran yesterday. Nice timing.

 

I’m thankful that it is next weekend and not this weekend because I probably wouldn’t have even tried to go if it was this weekend.

the last two weeks have been a very weird headspace for me and almost a bit of a depression as I tried to grapple with not being able to go and wondering how I would do any out of state events going forward. Sure, I could fly to some but certainly not all. I’m sure mentally I made it a bigger deal than it needed to be, but even just wondering if I would ever be able to go anywhere in a car for longer than three hours made me feel bleak. I may have to take two dozens rest stops along the way and stretch just to get there lol and not thinking of the 12 hour drive back then afterwards the next day lol

but, much like signing up for the event in the first place - I like a challenge and that’s what this will be before, during and after. At least the weather looks like it will be 70 and beautiful so hopefully that holds and helps get me through.

It’s funny, the lead up to the Madison Marathon (my first) was basically perfection. No issues with injuries, shoes or training plans. The lead up to this as had no major issues (besides the back thing two weeks ago) but little things here and there physically and mentally which has made this a much more challenging preparation, which I’m kind of grateful for. No two runs are ever like and certainly no two events are ever alike.

As long as I'm able to get there in time, I’m definitely finishing this thing no doubt (and with no thought on a finishing time) but getting there and being able to get started are the big doubts - but no use worrying about it, just gotta go and see what happens.

 

I made it.

I feel better than I thought I would.

I also am very old and had to stop and pee every two hours which helped so I could stretch too.

Only thing that’s bothering me is my driving leg, behind my knee / side of me. I assume it’s from basically having it in the same position for 11 hours. Tried to use cruise control as much as I could but the last four hours were all non-cruise control as I was zigzagging through the back country of Kentucky (which was a lot of fun but I did not expect that for the journey, I assumed it would be mostly all boring major highways)

now to sleep, which will come pretty easy lol

 

Forgot this thread, aging. Huge congrats on your 50k @marsupial jones ! Now you have to tell everyone you every meet "hey you know I ran a 50k."

I wish I could say I had a 50k coming up and in shape for, but that's not the case. About a month ago I did some impromptu pacing for an elite level athlete(North Face and Smartwool sponsored!), Coree Woltering as he made the effort to set the FKT(Fastest Known Time) on the 349 mile Pinhoti trail in Alabama & Georgia(very cool experience BTW and an awesome opportunity that go dropped in my lap). I developed some achilles tendonitis from the 3 efforts I put in. Basically on the first day I worked 8 hours, waited in the woods with no sleep, ran/hiked 15 miles, went back to work, came home and slept 4 hours, ran another 13 miles, had a day at home, then went back out and ran/hiked 23 miles; didn't warm up for stretch for any of it. Felt the Achilles on the 3rd effort. So I've rested up and cross trained since then with some light running. Went to PT and made sure to get dialed in on my recovery. I think I'm back to running pain free but I'm paying close attention to it. Luckily its not a major case of it, even still though its annoying.

So my plan is 9-10 weeks of base building with mostly slow, easy running building mileage slightly. Warm up for every run, strides, and simple core, upper body exercises, and leg work sprinkled in 2-3 times a week. Then back off, then build toward my 50 mile race in September and then Nov for 100 miler.

I'm committed to knock this shit out and hopefully an injury doesn't crop up to take me out for any amount of time.

 

@marsupial jones tell us about the race!

 

(sorry super long post)

it has taken me a few weeks to come to terms with the race. Still not sure I’m completely “over it”, there are good days and bad, but overall it was a fun experience where I got to meet and talk to a lot of cool people and I wouldn’t trade that in, that’s for sure.

sadly, my first DNF. Some days I blame myself 100% for not finishing and some days I 100% blame the race director and the supplies provided. In the end it was definitely a mix, no one party to completely blame.

The good - Fall Creeks Falls park is beautiful and it was pretty much a perfect day to run on those trails. Lots of different terrain and foliage and the suspension bridge, while not very far off the ground, was very cool. Never been on a suspension bridge before.

90% or the trail was very single file track that was maybe shoulder length wide of a normal person. I was glad I wore a long sleeve shirt, the dudes who wore tank tops (or no shirt at all, which there was a surprising amount of) were super cut up by the end of the race.

hardest part was running on a very small trail basically sideways up a hill. This wasn’t a hill facing you that you run at and up, this was like running at a 20-40 degree angle for miles at a time on the side of a hill / mountain. Ankles were very sore.

Speaking of sore, there were so fucking many slips, trips and falls by me lol. So many “oh shits” mumbled throughout 5 hours and I heard many as well.

There was one spot where you had to climb between two giant fallen trees. That was kind of cool, but I barely fit and I’m skinny as shit. Not sure how bigger bodied people got through, otherwise it was quite the walk into brush to get around (wherever the trunks did end).

the trail was super well marked and I don’t think more than 50 feet passed without a marker and usually the gap was probably only 30 feet at best.

Aid station volunteers were a blast, a lot of fun and super encouraging. Cant say enough great things about aid station volunteers.

the bad / confusing / frustrating:

before the race started the race director did a small speech (normal) telling us what was at the aid stations and that there was an ankle deep 30 feet wide creek crossing at mile 11.

there was no creek crossing.

nothing close to a creek crossing.

There wasn’t even the sound of running water anywhere close to mile 11. People I was nearby from miles 10-12 thought like I did, “are we off track?” and if the course wasn’t so well marked we definitely would have thought so. No idea how you get a creek crossing so incorrect. And by the time we got to mile 12 we were at the end of the loop so it wasn’t like it was still coming up, it just didn’t exist. No idea how fast water recedes but there was no way there was a 30 fucking foot wide creek that was ankle deep the day or two before we ran so I have no idea what the race director was talking about.

sadly for the race director, there was more important things he didn’t know shit about that would have people furious at the end of the race.

before the race and in the details when you signed up it stated what would likely be at the 3 aid stations on the course. Race director told us minutes before we started what food and beverages would be at the aid stations. This almost entirely false. Unless the people ahead of me ate everything at every single aid station, there was no food there to begin with. No aid stations had snacks. Which was fine for me, I brought all my food with in my pack, but many did not. And when I asked the volunteers how quickly they ran out of food they said they never had any. When I told them the race director said they did/would, they just shrugged and said, “this is what we were given”.

worst of all, and the reason I didn’t finish, along with who knows how many others, is that by the time I got to aid station 2 at mile 20 at 4 hours 45 minutes, not only was I out of water and Gatorade, so was the aid station. And so was aid station 3. We learned this because the course is set up that you do two loops and at the end of your second loop (which is where air station 3 is) you then go back to aid station 2, then go back to aid station 3 and then go down the road for the last 1-1.5 miles to the start/finish.

So here I am, with a dozen others, with nothing to drink, 11 miles / 2-3 hours to go and nothing available to drink until we reach the finish line. Aid station 2 had plenty of cups! But no water and no Gatorade. Needless to say, people were pissed.

for me, it’s almost 5 hours in, and I’m not anywhere near the end of the pack. I somehow passed numerous half marathon groups who started two hours after the 50K group, so they’d be 3 hours in along with the rest of the 50K group and aid station 2 is ALREADY out of water and Gatorade? This is at least the 7th year of this event and they capped submissions due to covid months ago. I don’t get how you run out of supplies so early (the “cut off” times were 20 minute miles so they should have supplies available until that last person crosses based on their own timeline) and have no backups ready to go but it was a disaster. People coming back from aid station 3 dying for something to drink to be told “oops sorry” and people just getting to aid station 2 being told the same thing (aid station 1 was about 7 miles away).

Knowing that I would not be able to run/move for 11 miles with nothing to drink I decided to call it off, as did many others. I didn’t stick around too long at the start/end where I parked, it sounded like it was becoming a bit of a mob scene with people asking questions.

I’ll enjoy my shirt to wear around the house and while it sucks I didn’t get my wood medallion and can’t say I did my first 50K (or even another marathon distance) i think it’s better than crashing with dehydration in the woods or something like that.

cabin was cool but way too expensive and they really, really skimp on updates. Had I known I had to drive 4 miles to start I probably would have gotten a hotel outside of the park / 30 minutes away for a third of the cost but oh well. Fun experience for the most part.

I have also learned that I will never again sit in a car for 12 hours (each direction). It was basically perfect weather and absolutely no driving issues or slow downs or accidents the entire way there and back and still, it was such a slog. Didn’t help that the last three hours there (so first three hours back) are ALL country roads so you barely go 60, and you’re stopping and turning every ten miles max. I honestly don’t know how I got through it and got back lol. Hitting Indianapolis and seeing Chicago alone was 3 hours and 200 miles away was so painful lmao and knowing there was another 3 hours and 200 miles after that? Ugh. Somehow I did it though and I made it back. But never again. All future races will be done in cities with airports in them or very very close to them with Uber available.

 

That water thing sounds like a nightmare. That race director is extremely negligent. But it sounds like the DNF is far from your fault.

I’m going to Fall Creek Falls next weekend most likely, want me to throw some bows?

 

I bought a pair of Nike Vaporfly Next % from a buddy for $100. He’s only wore them for a 4 mile run in the year he’s had them. He just wanted to get ride of them since they were too tonight. They are size 11 but I’m normally a 10. They might be a smidge too big but they work. Did a hill workout in them. Older pass it up! I doubt I will use them for a good while though since I don’t plan on doing any road races this year as of now.

 

cracked a few of my ribs about 10 days ago. took a week off. been slowly easing back into running. it's tough but it's been nice to do some slower runs. i always have a hard time w/ not going all out, so it's been a good adjustment for me. a local trail run series started up so i'm hoping to get up in those beautiful utah mountains soon.