Running Chick

I had another seventeen miles on the schedule on Saturday morning. I was more than a bit apprehensive heading out the door because of last week’s disaster.  A stop at the local watering hole on Friday night earned me a running buddy in the morning, though, so I was happy about having company to get me through the tough later miles.

I’m sporting my new Brooks Glycerin 10s, the flashy black and lime green version.

My feet bothered me so much after last weekend, that I ordered them right away.  I can’t seem to get more than about 230 miles out of a pair of shoes, it’s depressing. Fortunately, these were on closeout from Running Warehouse (the best online running store ever!) and I found a 15% off coupon, so they didn’t end up being all that expensive.

While I’m on the subject of things I use, the Nathan Trail Mix 2-bottle hydration belt is what I use for long runs, but I’m fining that I’m running out of fluids before my run ends so I just ordered the 4-bottle version. Anyway, I typically carry two flasks of Nuun, tons of Sweedish Fish and fig bars.  I’ve not been using gels for the last several weeks because they decided to declare war with my stomach. I religiously wear my ProCompression socks during long runs (and after).  I don’t get any lower leg achiness or next morning tightness at all when I wear them.  I wish I would have discovered them a few years ago. I just started experimenting with electrolyte tablets (S-Caps). I took one on Saturday and I didn’t die, so that’s good.  I did notice a lot less dried salt on my skin, so it must have done it’s job.

Anyway, Saturday. I ran to the bridge and picked up G and we ran out to McLain Park.  We maintained a fairly brisk pace to Hancock Beach where I stopped to top off my water bottles.  Onward & upward, though what seemed like a million miles of construction on M-203, but the traffic was minimal.  Josh drove out to to the park (he was our shuttle home) and biked back to meet us.  He had six miles on his schedule so he ditched his bike and ran with us for the last miles.  Around mile 15 my quads started to get painfully tight and I felt like I just need to stretch them out, so I told the guys I’d meet them at the park and took off.  My last two miles were just under 10:00. They felt much better after that and I contemplated going for 18, but then Josh & G showed up and I was saved from my insanity.  We stood in the very, very cold waters of Lake Superior until I couldn’t feel my feet anymore (approx. 5 minutes) and then hung out on a park bench until Josh returned from his run.

Compared to last week, this run was a victory.  I ran out of water (boo) and had one unscheduled bathroom break (boo), but outside of that, it was pretty good.  However, I will not call these long runs easy because they definitely aren’t. Each one is a struggle, both physically and mentally.  I’m sort of dreading these next few weeks, because my mileage just keeps on going up and I keep on asking myself what in the heck I’ve gotten myself into.  I like running and all, but holy shit this is a lot of running.  Last year, I got so burned out during the big miles phase of my half marathon training that I had to do a 50% cutback week to stay sane. So I’m trying really hard to stay positive and roll with the ups & down of running this many miles to avoid the same problem this year.

Weekly recap - 34.30 miles @ 10:40. Monday, 5 @ 11:21 (Tech Trails with Josh & Zoe), Wednesday, 8.33 @ 10:37, Thursday, 4.01 miles @ 9:54 (3rd mile was 8:55) and Saturday, 17 @ 10:40.

Pretty much sums up the final miles of my 17 mile run this morning.  Feet aching, out of water and food, and I think it’s a good idea to climb a giant hill.  What the hell was I thinking?  Running does do that to you, though. You have a couple of really good runs, think you’re all badass and then it bitch slaps you right back into your place.

Josh does this climb on his daily bicycle commute to work and he says it’s pretty brutal on a bike.  Basically it’s a 500’ elevation gain in just over 3 miles on a twisty road with no shoulder and in terrible condition.  Add in a bunch of lunatics driving way too fast and there you have Cole’s Creek Road.

Josh and Zoe did come to rescue me with about 1.5 miles left, just as I was giving serious thought to dropping down to the half marathon instead of the marathon.  Either I got a second wind or Zoe pulled me up the rest of the hill, but we knocked the last of the miles off at a 10:19 pace, that’s faster than my entire long run put together!

Aside from my aching feet, and the shitty last five miles, my run was pretty uneventful.  It got a little warm in the end once the sun came out, but the morning was long-sleeve weather. 

I ordered some new Glycerin 10’s, which will hopefully take care of my sore feet. I also ordered some S!Caps, which is an electrolyte supplement meant to replace all the stuff that you lose from sweating. I’ve been on the fence about taking them for a couple of years, but now that my runs are getting longer, and I’m sweating more, I decided to give them a shot.  We’ll see how they treat my stomach.  On a side note, I’ve always wondered how much, if any, weight I was losing during a long run but I could never remember to weigh myself before I took off. Today I actually remembered and when I got on the scale when I got home, I found I’d lost just over 3 pounds.  I have to do some reading on hydration, but I think that might borderline on too much. In other words, I’m sweating too much and not drinking enough. 

After some stretching, lunch and a shower we headed up to Calumet so Josh could bike the Swedetown trails. He’s doing the Great Deer Chase mountain bike race in a couple of weeks and wanted to do a pre-ride of the course.  Zoe and I walked around the trails for an hour and then hung out on the deck of the chalet until Josh came & found us.

Last weekend, I did my long run in Waterloo, IA.  Josh finished up a RAGBRAI, a week-long 400-something bicycle ride across Iowa and I headed down to pick him up at the finish. The Waterloo/Cedar Falls area has a pretty extensive paved trail system, so it wasn’t a big deal finding a 15 mile route. Josh biked along with me and did my navigation and carried my extra water. I like having company on my long runs, it makes them go by faster.

Zoe is transitioning well. She’s a lot more calm & mellow than the day we brought her home and she’s not had any accidents in the house.  We’re still working her cues for going outside, and making some really good progress.  She’s getting better on the leash, but there’s still work to be done in that area. She’s skittish around cars, but interested, so she gets distracted easily when they go by.

The cats are also transitioning well, but you can tell they’re not exactly amused by her presence. She mostly leaves them alone, thanks to a few well aimed swats to the nose when she got too pushy.  She’s confined to a crate at night at the moment so their favorite thing is to sit outside the door and stare at her. Probably moon her as well. Brats.

Here’s a gigantic picture of me & Zoe, our new dog.

Zoe was living in Negaunee with her foster family but she came from a shelter in Texas where she was picked up as a stray.  We’ve been wanting a dog for a while, but our old place was small and had a small yard, not exactly dog appropriate. Now that we’ve moved out to BFE and have a bigger house with a lot of land, it was time. We adopted her through the Because of Mandy shelter in Calumet.

Zoe is about 8 months old and is some sort of shepherd mix. I’ve been told she looks like a miniature German Shepherd, but I don’t know what else is in her mix. We picked her up last night and spent most of the evening cleaning up after her. Not exactly as housebroken as I would have liked.  I’m hoping that was just because of the new environment and all the excitement. Fortunately, she is crate trained, so she stayed in there in the night and didn’t have any accidents.

I took the day off to spend some quality time with her, so off we went shopping for a new leash, collar and harness, then we went running. Zoe’s primary job will be to accompany me on my runs. I’m not an overly paranoid person, but what with living out in the boonies where there are wolves and bears and cougars and creepy looking dudes, it was either get a dog or get a gun.  I would probably shoot myself if I ever had to use a gun, so yeah. Dog.

I had four miles on the schedule and since this was Zoe’s first run, my plan was to do them slowly. Our run started at the Houghton waterfront park and we went to campus to visit Josh, then we ran back.  Our first mile was a little rocky with lots of getting tangled in the leash, stopping to sniff stuff and attempting to eat random things, 13:53. Second mile was better, she started to get the hang of running (or, trotting, really) beside me, less tangles, less sniffing, no eating random stuff, 12:06.

After a quick stop on campus to visit with Josh and other random IT nerds who happened to walk by (Uncle James!), we started our journey back to the park. She ran right by my side, no random veering in my path, no stopping. I did discover that she seems to be pretty skittish around cars and seemed a little freaked out at the lunchtime traffic on College Avenue so we worked our way back down to the waterfront trail. We did 12:02 for this mile.

Our final mile was the fastest and the best. Either she’s a really quick learner or she was just too tuckered out to care, but she stuck by my side or a little bit ahead of me and we just cruised along. She got a little distracted by the guys setting up the Kiwanis chicken barbeque at the Dee Stadium, but I don’t blame her, I did too. It smelled so good. Anyway, our final mile was a speedy 11:19.

She had a quick dip in the canal afterwards (ice bath!) and did some stretching in the grass (injury prevention!).

Now she’s sacked out in her crate (recovery!)

Check out those long legs. Wonder if ProCompression makes socks in her size?