16 Mile Roundup

Man, it's been quite a week.  Last week was the disastrous (for me) Love Your Liver Valentine's Day 16-Miler.  This is a special run that the team does every year as kind of a way to inject some fun into the long training season.  They encourage people to dress in V-day related costumes and then drive us out to Mile 9 on the course (roughly Natick Center) and then we run the rest of the way in.  Its great experience for us since we're on the actual course the whole time instead of doing out and back runs from FitCorp where we're on and off the course.  

That's the idea anyway but things went horribly wrong for me.  I started off okay, but because we were off our usual routine my head never really got into the run and I was struggling to stay motivated the whole time.  I walked some and then in the midst of the hills in Newton I remembered why I run and was able to get my head in the game again.  That didn't last long though because just before Heartbreak I came across a runner who was in a worse way than I was and walked with him a bit.  I got into Brookline before I realized that I was developing multiple blisters on each foot.  I made it to the end with a dismal time and feeling demoralized - honestly the feeling was familiar, it was just the way I felt during my first (and only at the moment) marathon.  That time I felt like I couldn't finish and somehow managed to after a long and arduous ordeal.

This week I've soaked my feet in epsom salts a bunch of times and all of my blisters except one have gone away.  I also had a great 7.7 mile Crossroads run Thursday so I went into this mornings long run feeling positive.  We had the choice of 14.7, 16 or 18, and I was on the fence about which to do.  My coach has set up a training schedule for me that called for 14 miles but I was kind of thinking that 16 was a challenge that I was up to.  

I've been thinking about my running pace lately, and by pace most runners mean how many minutes it takes them to run 1 mile, which is a good metric for comparing two runner's speeds.  I'm typically a pretty consistent 10 minute per mile runner which is 6 miles per hour and I think isn't too bad for a biped, though it's by no means fast on the scale of marathon runners.  Coach Brian has decided that my goal for the marathon should be 4 hours 20 minutes (which as you all know is not one of my 3 listed goals), a perfect 10 minute mile pace, but in order to do that I have to do some miles faster to make up for the miles that I will inevitably do slower.  I'm being realistic here not self-deprecating.  In order to achieve this goal I have to do some training runs faster and some realistically slower, and so Coach Brian had me set to do 14 miles at a 10:43 pace.  That wouldn't be pushing my limits much, but is still good since I did my 8 miles the other night faster than the 9:55 pace he wanted me too.

I'm going on a bit long here so I'll try to keep the description of today's run short.  It started off fine except for a intermittently ridiculous headwind that was nice to have at our backs for the return loop.  When I got to the 14 mile turn in Newton Center it was decision time on if I was going to take another swing at 16.  I felt good and so I went for it.  this meant that I got to Heartbreak Hill and the hill before it, but today that was no big deal.  The only thing that came close to being an issue here was getting sweat in my eyes (a first for that) that had me thinking of borrowing one of my Dad's old 80s style blue and red sweatbands.  I would look totally rad in that.  By the time I got to the last water stop I was definitely feeling tired and sore, but good enough to make it through the end.  And then the blister in the center of my left foot popped.  

That didn't hurt, but Damn. the aftereffects sure did.  The final three miles were very painful and I was in a constant mind game of trying to block out the pain.  Now, a popped blister doesn't hurt much on the scale of human experience, but running on one after 13 miles is way beyond the scope of my daily pain experience.  I had made it this far without really walking that much, just across a few streets and at water stops, but this blister sure derailed that effort.  I made it back to FitCorp having run most of the way, though Sheri caught me walking on Beacon Hill and ordered me to get running.  What could I do?  She's the Runner's Council Chairperson, so I ran the rest.  

There was only a little bit of blood on my sock when I got to the locker room, and an open blister hurts a lot when it gets wet in the shower, plus it looks gross (I have a picture if anyone wants to see, by request only of course).  Needless to say, I'm going to be more careful about blisters in the future.  In the end I did the 16 miles at an average 10:10 pace, well ahead of where Coach Brian wanted me to be, and I'm happy with myself because some of those final miles were at well over an 11 minute pace.  Not bad.

I'm posting some pictures of the silly costume's from last weeks run on my other site, and you can see them here:  http://web.mac.com/andyhint/Canaveral/V-Day_16-Miler.html

16

Just finished the 16-miler am I'm waiting at the gym for Molly to finish
showering. What a day. Nice weather, but the run was kind of an
emotional disaster. Somehow I just wasn't ready to run today and that
just pervaded nearly every step of the way. Now I'm sore and have
blisters and a bloody nipple. That's right, I said bloody nipple.

More on all that later, now it's time to party

Urban Run

It's Thursday so that means another run from Crossroad's.

We had a nice break from the cold over the weekend, and Tuesday it warmed up for the snow (if you consider 30F warm), but overnight it dropped like a bad habit and at the start of the tonight's run it was near to 19F.  This caused my usual running partners to sally out and stay home.  Most of the group had already left to do the Woodland Hills run by the time I got there, so I couldn't do that (not that I would have anyway, that's way too much work for a Thursday), so I was on my own for a run.  

The goal was to do about 5 miles, which I could normally do on the river, but the wind along the river was strong and I wasn't sure that the paths wouldn't be too icy.  I decided to try out a course that I had once planned for an earlier Crossroad's run that was about what I was looking for. 

I cut over from the bar to Commonwealth Avenue, which in the Back Bay is actually more like a boulevard in the French sense of it.  There's expensive sandstone row houses down either side, and 2 pairs of traffic lanes divided by a wide, tree-lined walkway that is punctuated every so often by a statue or monument of some kind.  In the winter they put white christmas lights on the trunks of the trees so this area is illuminated in a warm light.  I headed east between the trees and into the Public Garden.  Crossing over what is apparently the worlds smallest suspension bridge (according to the Wikipedia which is never wrong) I noticed a guy clearing snow off the little ice-covered lake that the Swan Boats float on in the summertime.  I imagine he wanted to teach his kids how to play hockey here tomorrow or something - that's the Runner Mind talking again.  At Charles Street I looped around Beacon Hill and came up past the classically beautiful City Hall but neglected to look for the wind turbine on the roof that the Mayor hasn't been good at telling anyone about.  From here it was a quick run over the hill to Park Street T Station and after that I made a right onto Boylston Street.  I then cut across the West side of Boston Common and made a left to reenter the Garden from where I had left it. 

I could tell at this point that I wouldn't make the 5 miles I was looking for if I went straight back to Crossroads, so I decided to act on a thought I had had on the way in.  In order to make up the extra mileage I would run a loop around every statue along Comm Ave.  I know it doesn't seem like it would add much distance, but sometimes when you're running you just do something for the rigor of it, and ignore the fact that people might think you look crazy for doing it.  

First up was a giant statue of George Washington on his horse, and was a big loop because it's still in the Garden and has quite a formal path around it that looped me right out towards Arlington Street where I hit a light for the first time in this 3-mile journey.  It wasn't a long delay and from here it was a straight shot to all those statues and the loops they wanted me to do around them.  On I went and loop I did around:

Alexander Hamilton, slain by Aaron Burr

John Glover, Revolutionary War Hero

Patrick Andrew Collins, former Mayor

The Vendome Fire Memorial, which honors the deaths of 9 firefighters in the line of duty

William Loyd Garrison, abolitionist

Samuel Eliot Morrison, naval historian and sailor 

- after Sam I had a good long straightaway and decided to see if I could sprint it, which I did -

The Boston Women's Memorial

Domingo Sarmiento, one-time President of Argentina

and finally;

Leif Ericson, famed Icelander who may have once sailed into Boston Harbor, depending on your source....

After that I still wasn't quite up to 5 miles yet so I went past Mass. Ave to the Charlesgate overpasses and made the two rights that got me back to Beacon Street and the bar.  I felt strong in the end and sprinted again.  

It was a good run and I was glad to engage the city's beauty and history a bit more than I normally do.  Those statues that I passed range in age by over 100 years and you can tell by looking at them; not because some look old or new, but because of the way you're meant to interact with them.  The older ones are always a bronze man on a huge stone block that you're meant to walk around and observe from afar like a painting in a museum.  The newer ones have smaller parts that you're meant to walk right up to and engage in order to learn their meaning.  the Vendome Memorial has a timeline of the fire and features the names of the men who died on that corner which offers a much different experience than the Bunker Hill Monument in nearby Charlestown (hint, it's a giant stone obelisk).

The thing I'm noticing more and more lately is that when I do a shorter run (under 7 miles) I don't feel very tired when I'm done.  And today I felt that I could up my speed as I was going without getting too winded.  Something tells me that it's time for me to push harder and run faster more regularly.  Uh-oh.

More Snow Running

It's been a few interesting days of  running.  Saturday there was a break in the cold/snowy/icy weather that has held Boston in a death grip, which made for nice conditions for the run up Heartbreak.  In fact, I haven't sweat so much since I started this training as I did that day.  We hit Comm Ave.  and it was all relentless sun and mid-30s.  I even had to take off a layer, which is also unprecedented.  I felt great and even had some extra energy for the last 3 miles which is a rarity for me, especially considering that I was running by myself pretty much the whole way.  My regular running buddies were doing a different course and I didn't fall in with any random people along the way.  It worked out fine though and I had a great run that was pretty close to the 10 minute mile pace that I want to hit.

Monday was warm again, but it had iced over during the night so there were some definite icy patches along the way.  

Tonight was really great though.  Once again there was all kinds of talk about snow hitting us over night, and once again it actually hit later on in the morning.  We had a steady falling of snow all day, but not so much that the plows couldn't handle it so the Hill Repeat workout went on as planned.  It was coming down for the whole run and pretty soon after the plows went by there was a nice layer of snow, and so I tried the YakTrax again (pictured above left).  These things are really great, and I went from being really worried about slipping and sliding in the damp snow to feeling perfectly stable in no time.  We did 7 hill repeats and I'm just really happy that they've gotten easier.  Hills are a big fear of mine for this race, especially since they kicked my @$$ at the BAA Half-Marathon in the fall.  I gather that we'll be doing 7 for a while, and then 8, 9, and eventually topping out at about 10 a night.  Something tells me that will be a bit monotonous.....

In addition to just generally having a good run, it was great to be out in the city during the snow.  Everything was just beautiful and quiet and the light was awesome.  I would have missed it all had I just gone home; hmmm, I guess I need to add that to list of reasons to run a marathon, getting to run hill repeats in the snow.