Treadmill Long Run

So I am in California this weekend, without Chris :( Of course I came thinking I was so lucky to be in CA for such a long run (17 for me, as I am behind I redid the schedule and thats what I was on). Lo and Behold, it was POURING! I couldn't believe it! So I went to our local YMCA that thankfully I am still a member of on our family membership (I am not sure when they kick you off of that...but yeah). Unfortunately I didn't know they closed early on Saturdays so at 7 pm they kicked everyone out, and I had just gone a bit over 15 miles! Boo. So, now I'm even more behind I guess, but whatever. Better than 0 which is what it would have been had I not gone to the gym. The longest I have had to run on a treadmill this whole time is 4 miles, so I was not looking forward to it! And they had the speed interval setting on the treadmill I was on, but not in a way that you could time it! Ugh, so instead of it automatically going to my run speed for 5 minutes then my walk speed for 1 minute I had to pay attention to the clock and do math and change manually. Blah. The one thing that I did notice I liked though was that being on a treadmill FORCES you to be consistent with your pace, both during the running and especially the walk breaks. Anyway, I was glad I got it done. And Chelsea ran 17 miles in Provo somewhere. Chris is still hurting :( So we will see what happens for him.

The Eugene Expedition

Did a 23.5 mile run n Eugene, Oregon last week.  Had to do another run in "Track Town USA."  I did a 5 mile run along the river in Eugene a couple of years ago and I was looking forward to doing a longer run there.  I wanted to run on Pre's Trail which is a really nice trail made of soft wood chips on a firm base - very nice to run on.  Unfortunately Pre's Trail is only about 4 miles long so I ended up making it an adventure with exploring and running all over the place.  Here is the map with my run (each marked "lap" is one mile from my GPS, click on it to see the bigger version).

It was a sunny day about 6o degrees with a slight wind from the east.  I had a hotel that was right next to the river trail which led about a mile to Pre's Trail.  It is very nice to run on - very comfortable.  In fact, probably too comfortable.  You can really tell the difference when you move back onto pavement.  I added some photos of the run on my FaceBook page.  I headed right to Pre's Trail and then did a lot of side trips exploring to lay down some more miles.  I figure I would finish along the river trail.  It was interesting exploring a lot of places I have never been before and it almost made me forget I was running.  There were some really good canoe trails/waterways and very nice homes.  I ran around the U of O stadium which is just off the trail. (I have a tradition of running around football stadiums when I visit towns e.g. Auburn, Ann Arbor, College Park MD, UW, etc.).  I retraced my route on Pre's Trail because it felt so nice to run on then took off on the River Trail.  It was getting dark about this time and I ended up running the last four miles in the dark.

About mile 15 I started to get some hunger action going on.  This seemed to get worse each mile after that.  I had been taking some sport beans and nothing else.  It was catching up to me.  Before the run I decided not to drink any sweet sports drinks because I think that is what made me nauseated during my last long run.   At mile 20 I was starving, my mouth was watering and all I could think of was food.  Not just food, but a lot of food, even fried food (which I don't like very much).  At mile 22 I realized that I had a bag of COSTCO gummy things and I ripped my CamelBak off and tore open the pouch and inhaled them.  It was not enough - in fact it made things worse.  I started running even faster, in the dark, to finish so I could eat.  I was constantly scanning the area for anyplace that served food - even a fine restaurant.  Could you imagine this sweaty big guy with a military CamelBak barging into a fine eating establishment yelling "WHERE IS YOUR FOOD!"  Well, the thought made me laugh during my run.  I made it back to the hotel just in time for "Soup Night" - ummm broccoli cheese - it will do.

Things to remember:

• Drink more water
• Check to see when the sun goes down
• Eat more food
• Bring more food

Brad

Payoff

Wow!  The payoff from the training is really starting to show now.  I did a six mile run today with a 9:44.43 mm.  I noticed that when I hit five miles I was still less than an hour into my run - I have not run that fast in a long time.  This might not seem like that speedy but I think it is pretty good for someone who is getting close to 50 years old.  I figured I would be fast on this run because I have been running 5k runs as my short distance runs during the week and they are around 30 minutes now.  Next week I will be in Eugene, OR and I am going to try to get a 23 mile run in on Pre's Trail (click for more info).  I will probably run on the south side of the river too, to get more miles in (that is where I started training for the half marathon in 2008 it adds a few more miles to the run).  Runners high is cookin' now so I am going to go enjoy it.

-Brad

20 miles

I ran 20 miles yesterday! I can't believe it! After running 17, I wasn't sure if I could do it. My hamstrings were killing me so much when I ran 17 that each step was painful. But that didn't happen this time. I think it might have been from tightening up because it was cold. This time we were on the treadmill so at least it wasn't cold. Running on the treadmill for 5 hours is crazy! I watched "Bouce" with Ben Afleck and Gweneth Paltrow, then an episode of "Monk," then the end of some Lifetime movie--not to mention the other crazy happenings around the gym that Brad spoke about. It was not easy, but I felt pretty good the whole time. I'm a little sore today, but not too bad.

Michelle

"It's a Miracle!!!"

Had a real good 20 mile run yesterday.  The best part is that I was having a lot of joint trouble all week and there was a possibility I was not going to do well and might have to cut it short.  I had been hobbling and limping all week but for some reason I felt like I could do the run.  My thought was I was going to do it if I had to crawl (I kind of get that way when it comes to running - most of you know I broke my toe two hours before my first marathon in 2000, and finished the marathon - it took six months for my toe to heal).  In preparation for the run, I took it real easy on Friday and it helped a lot.  Besides the joint pain, I noticed that my R IT band was tight.  I have two exercises/stretches I learned for this after I knee surgery, and some icing, that I did most of the day on Friday and Saturday morning that seemed to easily take care of that.

So my 20 mile run went something like this.  We were planning on running 12 miles outside on the snowy trail at Ft. Richardson, change clothes and finish on the treadmills at Ft. Rich or the Alaska Club.  However, it was raining (pretty hard) when we were planning on starting and we did not want to get wetter than we usually get.  So we headed to The Alaska Club for what I thought was going to be psychological torture.  The first three miles I had a little hop in my run due to the hip pain - I am sure it looked a little strange.  There was some pain but not as bad as it had been most of the week.  Even with this going on I was doing a lot better than I thought I was going to do.  For some reason, at mile three, all the pain went away and I felt great, I even sped up a little.  Miles 3 to 11 were great - I was zoning out, in another world, so much that I barely knew I was running but the Garmin kept clicking away.  During miles 3-11 some folks we knew came by and ran on the treadmills besides us.  It seemed like there was a comedy show going on around us.  An overly dramatic person was parachute running on the track.  There were people jumping like frogs around the track, lambs and lions playing together, a swarm of locust...  Now this could have been the "runners high" but the friends running around us seemed to be acknowledging the strangeness too.  Back to the run, miles 11 to 14 were getting tougher but tolerable, I slowed down a little knowing that I still had a ways to go.  Miles 14-17 were tough and I was feeling OK but I started to feel like my hips and knees were very tired of supporting my body - just from standing, never the less the running.  I had already changed my shirt at mile 11.  I did not feel any blisters coming on but I decided to change into the second pair of socks I brought.  I sat down for about three minutes, changed my socks, and started running again.  It was not hard at all to start running again - in fact it rejuvenated me and miles 17-20 I felt really good.  I kept up my same pace and those three miles went pretty fast.  I felt pretty good right after the run - not sore at all.  However, I was nauseated for about two hours, right after, which luckily went away.

It has been about 12 hours since we finished and my joints feel fine - a lot better than last week.  I also think, for some reason, that I have the least amount of soreness that I have had after any long run.  There are a few muscle aches but very minor.  I can move around without any problems at all.  Defiantly healed from what I was going through last week.  Just some very minor quad and shoulder soreness, no IT band problems, and I am NOT LIMPING!  It is a MIRACLE!