Joe's Running Blog

9/21/20 Training Update: Streets = Miles & Hills

Now that I am betwixt races, and finding running in the woods less satisfying than it was during the summer due to poor visibility, the Map Project (f/k/a the Streets Project) has kicked into a higher gear. And much to my surprise, I suddenly seem to be just a handful of runs from the end.

On Thursday of last week I decided to go for a jaunt on the south side of College Hill in hopes of filling in the rest of downtown. There were a few streets just off Main Street to hit, including a couple that really shouldn’t be streets, as they are really just driveways into the parking lot behind all the Main Street Stores. After that it was around the corner and uphill. And downhill, then uphill. Then more uphill and then downhill. This is the way it is in Montpelier, as I’ve mentioned before – almost all the side streets are on the side of a hill. The biggest piece of strategy here was to find a way to run down Charles Street, which is one of the steepest in town. I managed that, and used the opportunity to run a couple of little streets off Barre that I probably could pick up any time, but then I had to go back up, albeit less steeply, to finish my run. Sadly, this was kind of a generic neighborhood run. Ten kilometers, 500 feet of elevation gain, and nothing particularly interesting happened.

On Sunday I had the opportunity for another run to fill in more of the map. This is to be my last long run before I run the Leaf Peepers virtual half marathon in two weeks. For training purposes I was thinking 10 miles would be in order. I also figured that the run I was planning, up Towne Hill Road and down all the side streets, would be a little longer than that. But I had time, so I would just run until I was done.

There was no way to avoid turning this into a big loop. I wanted to go up Main Street to the East Montpelier town line, then back down to Towne Hill Road, which would again enter East Montpelier, before going down Gallison Hill Road. I needed to go to the food co-op for groceries after, so rather than add an extra out-and-back tail from the house I parked my car there. This also gave me a great opportunity to pick off the streets that jut off from the bike path.

Sunday early afternoon was a perfect early fall day. The sun was out and temperatures were in the mid-50’s. The only negative were the bruised ribs I suffered the day before from a mountain biking crash. But I took ibuprofen and went out anyway. I had a filling breakfast an hour or two before the start of the race, and was planning on carrying water and a couple of shot blocks, the second one just in case the run was longer than I originally anticipated.

The run started on the bike path, and soon turned into the beginning climb up to College Street. I would run the length of College and on to Main Street. There were a couple of streets off to the left, then the Murray Hill Condos, then back up Main to the East Montpelier town line, from which I would turn around and head back to Towne Hill. One of the streets at the beginning is called North College Street, which I think is dumb because a) it does not connect to College Street, and b) there is no part of the college on North College Street. Regardless, it’s a little side street off of Towne Street, which itself is opposite, but not to be confused with, Towne Hill Road. Towne turns a little corner onto Sunset Ave., which is surrounded by trees and does not at all seem like a good place to see a sunset. The best part of Sunset Ave. is that there is a little pathway at the end that opens onto Cityside Drive- which for its part seems like a great place to view the sunset – and thus saved a little bit of backtracking. I would be grateful for this by the end.

Cityside Drive is mostly the home to condominiums, and it goes on for just a bit too long, which is emblematic of most of the side roads out here – it’s a pretty part of town, but it’s sprawly. House lots are bigger than they need to be, and you have to drive to get to and from town. Near the end of Cityside was a side road, which went up a hill, called Munger Drive. There is one house at the end of Munger, which is emblematic of another problem out here – streets that are basically driveways, but for some reason have a name attached to them.

After Munger I doubled back to Murray Hill Drive, a stealthy climb to more condominiums, before returning to Main Street. From here I had to go to the Vermont Compost Company, which is on the town line with East Montpelier. You know you’ve reached the border when you see the sign that says “HUNTERS: City Limits. No rifle shooting. Buckshot only.” It was time to turn around for a 3/4 mile downhill to Towne Hill Road. This was the first opportunity to make some time, though that’s not what this run was about.

I had done a little bit of Towne Hill Road on runs with Lauren, but not many of the side streets. They are all pretty nice, very idyllic New England fall atmosphere. Well-kept homes and maple leaves changing and falling. And of course, all on the side of a hill. There are some extraneous streets at the end of these streets; for example, at the end of Greenock Avenue, the street turns left and is given a different name, Dyer Avenue. Dyer is where a retriever came running and barking at me, and an old guy yelled “Butter! Get over here!” Butter didn’t really bother me, but s/he distracted me from the fact that Dyer took a right hand turn and continued a little further. I’m already over being concerned about not fully completing it. Similar to Greenock, Hackamore Road has an offshoot called Kildrummy Way, but this one is another glorified driveway. And one without a view to boot!

Shortly after Hackamore comes Bliss Road, which is just a dusty little dirt road that I had to run almost half a mile up to the “Buckshot Only” sign before turning around. I have run Bliss with Lauren in the past as well, but only the East Montpelier portion. By the time I got to the turn around I was at nine miles. So this was definitely going to be quite a bit longer than ten when all was said and done.

Bliss Road is right on the East Montpelier border. The option here is to double back or to continue into East Montpelier. Gallison Hill Road, which goes back into Montpelier, is much easier to access as a loop, so I kept going. The good news was that I could skip a couple of side roads now. Except for Maplewood, which is annoyingly just long enough to stretch over the Montpelier town line, resulting in a half mile extra distance on a road that is much less pretty than those I’d seen earlier.

Gallison Hill Road loops around to U-32 high school, at which point it passes back into Montpelier and begins another really steep drop, losing over 400 feet in just over half a mile. It was the fastest part of the run, but too steep to go super fast. And the problem with an extend downhill at this juncture (now over 12 miles in) is that it’s difficult to keep up the momentum when you hit flat ground. That said, I was still running a decent sub-10:00 pace when I got to the flat bit. Just afterward, there is a turn on to a dirt path called Power Plant Road, which leads to a hydro dam on the river. The road is fairly long on Google Maps, but very early on there is a “Private Property. No Trespassing” sign. Map or no map, there didn’t seem like any compelling reason to trespass for this street. There’s a definite vibe that you’re going to come across a bear or a junkyard dog down there, too.

Gallison Hill takes us back to the far end of the new bike path. This is mostly well-worn territory for me, with a couple of exceptions. The first is Country Club Road which, again, is basically a driveway for the Montpelier Elks Country Club. And it’s naturally on a hill. By now it was clear that this would be my second-longest run – I reached the 13.1 mile mark going up this hill – if not my longest ever. There was still at least a mile and a half back to the finish, and a couple more streets to pick off. The bike path heads down Old Country Club Road, to where it connects back to Barre Street. Except Barre Street turns into Pioneer Street when it turns a corner. Off Pioneer Street, crossing over either side, is Pioneer Center, which is really a small industrial park. It’s hard to tell if you’re on the street or the parking lot, so I just ran each side until it seemed like I reached the end.

Now I was on the home stretch, with one more “street” to finish off this run: Gin Lane, which takes one to the lovely Caledonia Spirits / Barr Hill Gin distillery. I love Barr Hill Gin. And yet, this is another driveway into a parking lot that for some reason has been given its own street name. There were too many of these on this run.

By now I could have stopped and called it good. The rest of the run had been filled in many times over, and I had already gone over 15 miles to set a new distance PR for one run. But I still had to get back to my car, on foot, so I just kept running. Just a few minutes later I was done. I was definitely fatigued, and my feet were feeling pretty sore, but I felt good otherwise. Somewhere around mile 12 I had experienced some slightly difficult breathing, which has happened to me before on long runs, but that came around soon enough and was not longer a problem at the end. I was feeling pretty clear headed as well, just ready for a nap.

It boggles my mind that I can just go out and run this kind of distance, and time (2:43), and hills (1,600+ feet of vertical) for that matter. When I first started on this running journey, I would look at the runs others posted on Strava and wonder how they heck they were doing that. I guess you just keep running.

9/16/20: Sodom Pond Four Mile Virtual Race

This week marked the start of the Fall Virtual Race Series for CVR, encompassing the final seven races of the season. In a departure from the previous series, this time we have a two-week window surrounding the originally scheduled race date. The first race in the series, the Sodom Pond 4-miler, had been scheduled for September 23, so the window to run it began on the 16th.

That’s a Wednesday night, and since Wednesday is Runderachievers night, we made the decision to make Runders night race night. Six of us were able to run, Darrel and Cheryl, Kim and Matt, Tara, and me. This group assured me of finishing in the middle: Kim and Matt are faster, Darrel and Cheryl are slower, and I expected Tara to finish in the same neighborhood as me.

True to the original race, and to accommodate peoples’ work schedules, we agreed to meet at the Adamant Co-op for a 6:00 start time. The day had been relatively warm, but the breeze made temps cooler than expected for the race, though very comfortable for running. I had run this race last year, just a few days after the punishing Genny Tenny race, in 36:19, or a 9:05 pace. I had an expectation of besting 34:00 this time, an 8:30 pace, and set a stretch goal of 33:00.

I knew I’d have to have a very good run to reach this goal, especially given the mile climb at the start of the race. But then there was a lot of downhill followed by two miles on Sodom Pond Road, which I had kept a good pace on during the Adamant Half just 11 days earlier. I consulted Strava to study the times of other competitors from last year to try to plan my strategy. I think I am slower uphill and faster downhill than a lot of others, so I decided to aim for under 9:30 the first mile uphill, under 8:00 the second mile downhill, and under 8:15 the last two, flat-ish miles. The high end of those goals is 34:00, but I thought the goal for “under” would shave some seconds, and a final sprint would give me a chance.

We took off right at 6:00. As we started, Tara said she was going to try to keep up with me, and I told her my goal was 33:00. She runs a lot of hills, and I figured she would hang with me at the start, but I got in front of her early. Matt bolted off to a large lead going uphill and I found myself not far behind Kim, who was proving to be a pretty good pacer.

I finished the first mile in 9:13, which was a good start, though it was pretty taxing. I had forgotten that the first .2 of mile 2 were a little more uphill then flat before the downhill portion. This would imperil my “under 8:00” goal for this mile. We turned the corner onto Sibley Road, and while Matt was far ahead I found myself gaining on and then passing Kim. I wondered to myself how long my being in front of her would last.

The two-mile mark is just before the turn on to Sodom Pond Road. My watch buzzed me in at 8:00, which is not “under 8:00.” My time at this point was a little over 17:00, which meant I needed to average under 8:00 for the final two miles to get to 33:00. Okay, that wasn’t going to happen on flat road. I was feeling some tightness and fatigue in my hips and glutes. I had been telling myself that not having run the Genny Tenny – which is nearly 10 miles with nearly 1,000 feet of elevation gain – would benefit me this time around. But I forgot that I had done a long run on Sunday of nearly 10 miles and over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. So maybe I could have prepped for this race a little better.

Somewhere on the back stretch I heard Kim’s footsteps gaining on me, and she passed me at the 3 mile mark. It wasn’t long before she passed Matt as well. I had barely noticed that I had also narrowed the gap with Matt, to the extent that I harbored thoughts of catching him before the finish. But I also knew that was probably more up to him than me. Mile 3 clicked in a little over 8:30, and now the calculus turned to making sure I broke 34:00. I figured I was safe, because my stamina is strong at this distance. But I also had to make sure I pushed to get there.

The final half mile is a little bit uphill before a downhill of about a tenth of a mile to the finish. Matt wasn’t having any of me catching him, and I didn’t have the uphill push to make my case. When I got to the top of the hill my watch said I had .12 to go in a little over a minute. I found one more gear for the downhill and crossed the finish line in 33:53. Goal achieved! I didn’t reach the stretch of 33:00, but I hung with Matt and Kim in a way I didn’t expect, and I am happy with that despite the fact that I know they both have run this much faster in the past. Tara was about a minute behind me, and Darrel and Cheryl were a ways back, though Cheryl beat her previous course PR by three minutes, too!

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 33:53 (PR for this race)
Pace: 8:32 (Strava timing)

9/15/20 Training Update: It’s Still Virtual Season

The Adamant Half Marathon marked the end of the Central Vermont Runners Participation Series of virtual races replacing those cancelled during the summer. And as we head into fall, it’s now time to replace the races scheduled for the rest of the year. CVR has announced the Fall Virtual Race series to cover the handful of remaining races that were cancelled.

In a slight variation from the Participation series, in which runners had basically three months to run each of the races in any order they preferred, there is some structure around the fall series. In this case, runners need to complete the races in a two-week period surrounding the original race date, starting with the Sodom Pond Four Miler in the latter half of September and finishing with the Fallen Leaves series in November. In between are the Leaf Peepers races, both the 5K and the half marathon.

I also have my foundational race, the Corporate Cup, as well as the Heady Trotter virtual four-miler in the mix. And toward the end, there’s the Half Marathon Unplugged, which is still expected to be a live race. It turns out this is a busy season for races. Which is great, as the cooler weather is much more pleasant for running.

So there are two half marathons in there, one on October 25 and one with a more flexible date. I plan to run that one on October 4, to give myself a little break in between. Ordinarily I’d be fretting about training for these races, with the greater focus on the Unplugged race as that one is “for real.” But I am not fretting about the training here, as I have come to realize that I am already training for half marathons.

I’ve been running 100 miles per month since March, and especially in recent weeks my average has been between 25 and 30 miles. I’ve had days where I just got up and ran 12 miles, or 15 miles, without any struggle to get to the end. And even though there was some pain involved in the Adamant half marathon, that was about pace and not distance. A year ago I wasn’t sure if I could run a full 13 miles. Now I know I can.

This confidence is manifested in my running. Even at the beginning of the summer I was careful in planning the distances for my runs, so as not to overdo it. I am still somewhat mindful of this, but it’s more about listening to my body and making sure to build in a rest day here and there.

Other days, especially if I have time available, I have set more loose goals for my runs and let the distance play out as it will. Take this past weekend. Following the half marathon I had a light mileage week, and on Sunday I decided I wanted to do a 5-8 mile run. But I also wanted to work on my Montpelier Streets project. My target for the day was to run to the other side of Hubbard Park and pick up the Parkside neighborhood and some of the side streets up Terrace Street. I didn’t think that would be anything less than 8 miles, to be honest.

Unlike a couple of previous entries into the streets project, I was aware that there would be lots of hills involved this time around. For one thing, I was going over Hubbard Park. For another thing, I was running up Terrace Street, which I have run down a handful of times. I know it’s steep. And I know the side streets are on the slopes of Hubbard Park, so more uphill.

I ran into the park from the Meadow neighborhood. The run up Parkway is more gentle than Winter Street, so I’ve been running that street recently. It’s also a segment on Strava. So, what the hell, why not start off a long run with lots of vertical with a hill sprint? I have goals for this segment after all. I am just a few seconds off the Age Group record, which is held by a guy named Todd Sears, who happens to be a former co-worker of Lauren’s. He’s also a lot faster than I am, so any time I can catch him is a win, even if he’s not aware I am racing him. Alas, I fell 8 seconds short of the Lower Parkway Climb and remain in second place. But I’m coming for Todd.

The Parkway climb out of the way, I took a moment to not be entirely sure the most direct way to the other gate, but I got there soon enough and was on Hubbard Park Drive and Parkside Drive. Parkside is one of those streets with nebulous ending points. Does the street continue, or is this a driveway? Having been burned previously, I went far enough to ascertain that there was only one house on the one end, and turned around when I felt like I’d gotten to the start of private property. This would not be the only time I did that on this run.

Hubbard Park Drive ends at Clarendon Street, which I had actually run, along with a couple of others on this side, during the New Year’s Eve 5K at the dawn of 2019. But there were other streets off to the side to pick up. As I ran down Clarendon, there were some kids playing in the street, with douchey 30-40-something dads wearing cargo shorts and fleece pullovers standing there with them. I say “douchey” because the kids were spread across the street and nobody could be bothered to say, “move over so we don’t get too close.” This would not be the only time that happened on this run, either.

Off Clarendon there is a spur that looks like it could be a driveway, because there is only one house off it, but it actually has a street sign and a name: Windham Drive. I turned down Windham and ran long enough to decide it was becoming driveway territory. When I was leaving the street, douchey dad and two kids started to turn up it. So I know where they live now. To his credit, other than a douchey glance, the guy didn’t give me any crap for running up his driveway.

After clearing the rest of this neighborhood, and navigating other douchey dads (and only dads), I headed up Terrace Street. As I said, I’ve run Terrace before, but there were a few more side streets to bag. Terrace gets pretty steep here, but despite already being five miles in at this point, I felt good. I never had the urge to stop and walk. There was Ledgewood Terrace and Garland Lane, which had another road/driveway spur. At the high point of Terrace, just before the Middlesex town line, is Pembroke Heights. Running uphill, one can easily see that on the other side of the street, there is a business called Pembroke Landscaping. I deduced that there was a relationship there. (Also, if you’re a landscaping service, maybe have a somewhat more impressive yard? Just a thought.)

Pembroke Heights was indeed the high point, physically and visually, of the run. There are only three or four houses on the street, and definitely room for more if the Pembrokes need more cash at some point. Just as I got to the end of Pembroke Heights, the farthest point from my home, rain started to sprinkle down on me. I had reached the day when the forecast called for a chance of showers, and they arrived right on time.

I had no worries, as the rain was light and gentle and fairly comfortable. I had about three miles back home, downhill for the first part and then flat, familiar territory. A nice chug. My glutes and hips were starting to hurt, which is a good reminder that I need to reinforce with ibuprofen on these longer runs, but my feet felt good and the run home was non-eventful otherwise.

The last couple of months, running has really been feeling good. There have been moments when the knee or the lower leg give hints of pain, but I am adjusting accordingly with compression and focus on form. Instead of race preparation, I’m in the mode of maintaining fitness, and it’s a comforting zone to be in. I still have goals to improve my times, but that seems less important when mostly racing myself. Perhaps we can run for real in 2021 and I’ll have more focus on improving my speed. But improvements have come regardless, and I fully expect to cut another few minutes off my half marathon time over the next two races. The low-key year I think has been good for me to learn how to be a runner and not just someone who shows up for races.

9/5/20: CVR Participation Series Adamant Half Marathon

With weeks of preparation in my pocket, and the CVR Participation Race Series coming to an end, I felt ready to go for the final race, the Adamant Half Marathon. My anticipation and excitement for the race only increased in the days beforehand, as a handful of fellow CVR club members popped up on Strava with their own Adamant runs. It seems I was not the only person saving this one for last.

Race prep included strategically using the resources available to me. Namely, my co-worker/running partner/friend Lauren, who offered to pace me for part of the race, and my girlfriend Katie, who once again offered to bike the course and be a mobile aid station.

With Katie, given the forecast for temperatures in the lower 60s, I decided to have three stops at roughly every 3.3 miles. I would have her carry some fruit and an electrolyte drink to supplement the water and nutrition I would be carrying with me. I planned a shot block at about the four-mile and 8-mile mark, and a protein bite made with quinoa and peanut butter at the halfway stop.

I went back and forth on which part Lauren should run with me. Hamstring issues had limited her training in recent weeks, and she wasn’t up for 13 miles at race pace, even though my race pace is a lot slower than her own. At one point we were thinking the first 8 miles would be best, as she could keep me from going out too fast and allow me to have energy for the second half. But following my run of this loop the previous weekend, I was feeling good about my own race management. And, more to the point, if I was going to run this thing in my new goal of two hours even, I would need to go out fast and just hope I could keep it up. I decided that the better call for me would be to have her on the final five miles, to help me get through the big climbing section while I was already fatigued. Ultimately we settled on her meeting me at the halfway aid station, so she would be able to warm up prior to that hill on Adamant Road.

My original plan was to hit the course at 8 am, but midweek I texted Lauren and said, if I am being honest with myself, there was almost zero chance I would be in Adamant that early. I would plan to be there by 8:30 and ready to run by 9:00. I locked in the 9:00 start time when we decided to have her join for the second half, to give greater certainty to the meet time. If all was going according to plan, I’d be at the corner of Center and Sibley at 10:00.

Unlike other races this summer, the delayed start time did not come back to bite me this time. The temperature was in the low 60s, and the sun did not have the same intensity of mid summer. Katie brought some tunes up on Pandora, and sent me on my way.

This is where the planning gets complicated. The race itself is a very slight net downhill, as there is a figure eight and the finish line is .2 miles past the start line. But in between there is a lot going on, with several hills and over 1,200 feet of elevation gain during the run. To break 2:00:00 I would need an average pace of just over 9:00 minutes per mile. But how to plan how that breaks out? I figured something like 10:30 on the uphills, 9:00 for the flats and under 8:30 for the downhills. The first three miles are the most straightforward, flat/slightly downhill. I settled on an 8:30 (25:30) as a target, and a further target of getting to the first aid station in 29:00. If I could get to the second aid station in an hour, and the end of the bottom 8-mile loop in no more than 72 minutes – preferably 70 – I would have a shot at this.

I should step back a moment. My ultimate goal for the race was to break two hours, but I also embrace the concept of A-, B- and C-goals. The A goal is the easiest, basically finish the race. In this case, unless I suffered an injury, I had little reason to doubt I would finish the race and set a new PR, which was sitting at 2:05:53 from Phoenix in February. The C goal is the stretch goal, which in this case would be the two hour barrier. So the B goal would be somewhere in the middle. My CVR friend Donna Smyers had run the race in July in 2:02:40. On the one hand, she’s faster than me. On the other hand, If I’m taking a shot at 2:00, then her time is definitely in play. For a “stretch B,” in the back of my mind I wanted to take a shot at my friend Brock’s PR of 2:01:20, which he also set in Phoenix last winter.

So back to the race. I know that I tend to go out too fast, and justify it by saying I am banking time against my target. On the other hand, I would need to bank some time to offset the water stops. Feeling pretty good about things, I took off and was running pretty consistently below 8:30, which I kind of needed to do because this was the fastest part of the course, mostly flat and slightly downhill. I ran the first two miles at an 8:15 pace, and mile three, where the first hints of climbing start, in 8:30. Wahoo! Already 30 seconds in the bank! I was hoping to get to the water stop in under 29:00, and as I approached Katie on the corner of Putnam and Dodge road I was right on schedule. I grabbed some electrolytes and a few slices of nectarine and was on my way over the first real climb of the race.

I’m not a super experienced racer, and have yet to run a distance race without some sort of tactical error. It’s a learning process. Today I learned to not eat nectarines on a run. I had brought some slices on my 15-mile run a few weeks back but in retrospect had eaten them while walking. You can do that. You can’t eat them while running, because they break down into chunks that then want to fly into your trachea and choke you while you are breathing heavily. A smart racer would have spit out and chucked the nectarine and keep running. My choice was to value the liquid and sugar content, so I walked for a bit going uphill so I could eat some slices. This slowed my time, but hopefully would help me keep fresher for the later miles.

Mile 4 was run in 9:42, and mile 5, which took me to the end of Dodge road, was done in 9:36. My instincts told me that this was too slow, but it’s also difficult to figure what pace I needed to run, as there is almost as much downhill as there is uphill. I thought I was a little behind pace to get to the next water stop in 60 minutes, but still with the possibility of making it up on the bigger downhills later. Mile six carried the first real big climb up Center Road, gaining 200 feet in a little over half a mile. I did that in 9:50, though to be honest I wasn’t paying too much attention to my watch at the time. After that peak there is a big downhill before another steep climb up to Sibley Road, where both Katie and Lauren would be waiting for me.

I recalled my run the prior weekend, when I was having a conversation with the cows that were in a field along the side of the road going up to Sibley. I felt really good that day. This time there were no cows, which is just as well because I didn’t feel like talking at that time. As I was ascending I saw Katie and Lauren peeking down at me. I was getting close to the next landmark! As I reached them, I greeted Lauren and Katie offered more nectarine which I declined. I did accept a couple ibuprofen, as a key to maintaining speed is the ability to suppress the pain that I’ve historically felt in my glutes and hips and sometimes knees. This was a good tactical plan. Less good was the protein bite, which I mentioned earlier contained peanut butter. For different reasons, peanut butter also can not be eaten while breathing heavily. This was something else I field tested on the long run a few weeks back, but again I had been walking and eating that time. And I needed to walk and eat this time, too, which was not great as this portion was a downhill, where I needed to get some speed.

Mile 8 is a double drop, with one short climbing portion in the middle, that takes the runner back down to Adamant village. Though 8 miles in, it’s the spiritual midpoint of the race, where the figure eight crosses over. I was hoping to get here in 70 minutes, with 72 being what I figured was the slowest time that might still allow for the C goal, given that Lauren and I had run this loop in 48 and change a few weeks earlier. That wasn’t race pace, but it also didn’t start 8 miles into a run. I ran mile 8 in 8:41, which was not below 8:30, and my time was a little over 1:13 – 73 minutes. The two hour barrier was not out of reach, but it was going to take some work.

That work started with the Adamant hill climb. This is steady for a mile, during which the elevation increases 225 feet. This I knew would not be a fast mile, and in my planning I thought 10:30 would be a good pace up that hill. I didn’t quite make that, it was 10:44, but I also thought that was a good sign, given how I was feeling at the time. I had never run with a pacer before, so I didn’t know what to expect. Lauren, who generally likes to talk during runs in a way that I don’t, was equal parts coaching, cheering and distracting.

Distracting as in, while running up the most miserable part of the run, she decided I might like to start singing a Covid-19 version of the song Come On Eileen, and help her work out the lyrics. I did not really want to do that, but I was kind of committed. Or maybe stuck. On the other hand, after we peaked out on that climb and had been running downhill a bit, her watch buzzed and she reported, “8:44! That was a good mile!” And it had been a good mile. But also, “as we are going downhill and you’re starting to feel pretty comfortable with the pace, just remember: this is a race. You’re supposed to feel pain!”

After the downhill portion, there’s the longest sustained climb of the whole run, in which we gain another 200 feet up to County Road. This is where my will was noticeably starting to grow weak. We met Katie at the final aid station, but shortly thereafter I needed to walk for a piece to calm my heart and lungs. Lauren was still coaching, asking about my quads. The last nearly two miles would be all downhill, and she advised to let my quads do the work if they are feeling okay. I’ll admit that I felt more accountable to Lauren than I might have to myself at this point, and pushed on. Katie, who no longer had aid station responsibilities, also rode along to provide encouragement.

So we got to mile 11, at the corner of Bliss Pond Road and County Road, at 1:43 and some change. I might still be able to break 2:00, if I could run the rest of the way in a sub-8:00 pace. And I might be able to do that if it were all truly downhill, but there was another half mile of climbing, not overly steep, starting with the next quarter mile on Country Road, with another piece on Martin Road shortly before the end. It was a tall order.

But you don’t reach the goals you don’t try for, so when we peaked out on County Road, which is the highest point of the whole race, I let it go as much as I could. My tired legs didn’t have as much juice as I wanted, and I also needed to be mindful that, though it was almost all downhill, it was still another two miles to the finish, which is an awful long way for me to keep up a sprint, even if I remembered it was supposed to hurt.

The race course description said it ends where Martin Road meets Haggett Road, but that was still a tenth of a mile too short, so we turned left to head back into the village, coincidentally past Donna Smyers’ house. The 13 mile mark clicked in at almost exactly two hours, so I didn’t break that barrier, but Brock’s time was in play. I was able to find another gear for the kick, it actually felt really good for the first time in several miles. The finish line was at the Adamant Pond dam. The final time: 2:00:52. I had lowered my PR by a full five minutes on what is not supposed to be a PR course, and had exceeded all of my goals except for the biggest stretch goal. None of it had felt as good physically as I wanted it to, but all in all it was an excellent result for me.

Afterward Lauren pointed out that it was probably good to miss by almost a minute. “If it was eight seconds off, you would have found 100 ways where you could have saved that much time. But there’s no way you could have made 52 seconds.” Which, probably. But I did stop for a bit at the halfway point when Lauren met me to check in. And I did walk a couple times due to poor food choices. And, and, and…and these moments probably helped rejuvenate me enough to run a little faster at the end.

So she’s probably right. And I’m not disappointed at all, considering my goal for the race just a few weeks ago was 2:10, which I kept lowering when I realized I was capable of much faster. And that psychological component to toggling the hour digit from a 2 to a 1 is something that I hope can be satisfied with the Half Marathon Unplugged in Burlington, which they plan to run live at the end of October. That’s a very flat course that probably translates to a 1:55:00 equivalent (or faster) given my Adamant result. It’s a goal that I definitely want to train for, which would be a full 20 minutes faster than my first half marathon a year ago.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: Half Marathon
Time: 2:00:52
Pace: 9:13

9/1/20 Training Update: Adamant About Preparation

I’ve been writing pretty much all summer about the CVR Participation Race series: ten races were cancelled this summer due to Covid-19, and so the club, Central Vermont Runners, said “run the courses anyway and you’ll be entered into a prize raffle.”

By the end of July, I had pretty much all of them checked off. I did the Barre Heritage Days Trail Run at Millstone Hill last week, leaving just one race remaining, the Adamant Half Marathon.

In all my (two) years as a “competitive” runner, the Adamant Half Marathon has never been hugely appealing. It’s 13 miles on the roads of Calais and East Montpelier, which means 13 hilly miles – over 1,300 feet of total elevation gain. It’s a couple weeks after the Paul Mailman 10 miler, which seemed too soon for me to make a stretch like that at the time. It’s also two weeks before the Vermont City Marathon, and – with the Genny Tenny firmly in my memory – I was thinking it was too close and too taxing to consider this year, before everything got shut down anyway.

Even at the start of the participation series I was thinking I might pass on this one. But then my compulsion to do everything on the list kicked in, and I decided that I should make every effort to run this race before the September 6 deadline.

So it was with completionism in mind that I began training for the Adamant Half Marathon. Things really started when I ran the top loop at the end of July. (The course is basically a figure 8, with a bottom 8 mile loop in East Montpelier and a top 5 miles in Calais, all starting and finishing in the village of Adamant.) Then just a few days later, I up and ran 15 miles one Saturday morning.

Throughout August I just started upping my running distances. What had been 4-5 mile days now became 6-7 mile days, resulting in 25-30 mile weeks. All the while I’ve been able to mix in a couple of races and my quarantine project to keep things interesting.

My friend Lauren offered to pace me for some or all of the race, and in coordinating schedules it made most sense to plan for the final weekend, September 5 or 6. With that in mind I wanted to do a longer run of 8-10 miles two weeks beforehand. I developed a loose plan to run up Horn of the Moon Road, then down Jacobs and Gould Hill, before ducking back on to the North Branch Park trails for the final bit. It would be about the same as a long run I did up this way in May, which was 10 miles. I wanted to finish off a couple of roads I shorted myself on in my streets project. To be honest, this was the first run of this kind of length that I didn’t have a real good idea how long it would be.

And then a little ways in, the plan changed. I remembered that there was a little side street, Gidney Road, that was off North Street right on the East Montpelier border. The only practical way to check that one off is on a long loop like this. I decided to change the plan and run back down North Street, which would add some distance. I just felt like I would be able to keep running until I got to the end.

Mind you, unlike the Middlesex run, this isn’t at all flat. There’s a big, 800-foot climb that basically encompasses miles 4, 5, 6, and 7. Total vertical for the run is over 1,300 feet, like Adamant. And by the time I got to Gidney, I realized I was going to go 12-miles plus. This was practically the same as running the Adamant half marathon! I finished this run in 2:02, which really put me in the mindset that I could shoot for 2:05 for Adamant, which is much faster than I had originally thought possible.

Being in full prep mode for this run, I decided to run the lower loop last weekend so I could become familiar with it in advance of the race. This is eight miles, that is basically flat for the first 3, then five miles of rolling hills. In my mind, I should be able to run this in 75 minutes and the top loop in 50 minutes – Lauren and I ran it in 48:00 in non-race mode – to get my 2:05 half marathon time. I found myself running the first three in 9:00 splits without straining at all, and the hills weren’t as taxing as I expected – no real sustained climbs, and fast down slopes. I found myself back in Adamant Village in 75 minutes with only a few moments of intentionally pushing the pace, just to see what it would feel like. And I felt so good – mid-60s temperatures helped – that I was tempted to keep running and finish the top loop, too. But I am committed to running the thing with Lauren, and I didn’t want to overdo it a week in advance, so I ran back to the car the short way.

This run has me rethinking my target for this run. Combining the two loops, which I know you can’t really do as fatigue will take its toll in the full race, I did 13.4 miles in 2:05 without running race pace at all. I certainly should be able to do that again, right? So I texted Lauren and told her I wanted to aim for a 2:00 pace next week. It feels like a stretch, and things are going to need to go right, but why settle for what seems like an easy 2:05 when I should be able to do a lot better with some extra effort?

8/25/20: CVR Participation Series Barre Heritage Trail Run 5K

After a big flurry of CVR Participation Series races in June and especially July, I sat here in the later part of August with two of ten races still to go before the September 6 deadline: The Adamant Half Marathon, which I am running at the very end, and the Barre Heritage Festival 5K Trail Run at Millstone Hill, which I was planning to run…sometime before Adamant.

Being a 5K race, I figured I could fit it in on some weeknight like I did with most of the others, but I didn’t have any real plan beyond that. Katie had expressed interest awhile back in running this one with me, so I wanted to schedule around her as well. But nothing got set in stone until last week when we ran with the Runderachievers in Northfield. One of the group members, Tara, is playing catch up with the race series and said the Barre trail race is one she wanted to do. With that a match was made, and we made a plan to run the following (this) week.

The weather was looking iffy for Tuesday, but I assured Tara that the forecast showed things clearing up later in the afternoon. Which, lo and behold, they did. By the time we got to Millstone the sun was out and it was a breezy upper-60’s temperature-wise.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this race. Looking at the race “standings” on the CVR web site, I saw that Matt and Kim, other friends from Runders, had finished in just under 34:00 minutes. Nobody else was under 39:00. Now, I’ve never run a trail race before, but I’ve spent lots of time on hillier trail courses this summer, and I figured 34 minutes, about an 11-minute mile pace, should be easily achievable. But I also know Matt and Kim should be even faster than that.

There were reports that people were getting confused on the run, because naturally there are no volunteers on the course for a virtual race. But I had biked half of the course already, and I downloaded maps to carry. Due to the times I saw posted by others, I modified my expectations to 35:00 for the race, but I thought higher than that would be silly. How hard can this be?

As it turns out, plenty hard. For one thing, there isn’t signage at every juncture. For another thing, not all of the trails are on the map, and those that are might have a different name on sections. And it turns out there are a lot of criss-crossing paths. The disc golf course that runs along portions doesn’t help, because that also creates false trail sections.

When we started, both Tara and Katie said, “Joe, you’re faster, you should go first.” This was already odd, with me being the “faster” runner. I immediately took a wrong turn. I was supposed to run the entry trail called Froot Loops that Katie and I have biked a couple of times before, and turn right on to the #6 Trail. I instead started down the VAST trail, which would have connected up, but Katie and Tara yelled at me to straighten up.

We turned down #6, which was familiar, and then connected with VAST, where I proceeded to turn right instead of left, which was correct. Katie was a bit behind, but again she straightened out me and poor Tara, who already must have been regretting following me. Course corrected, we were on VAST, headed for Westside. This is all flat snowmobile trail that once carried rail cars through the quarries. The course goes to the right onto a trail called Railroad and then left on to Westside. Only Westside showed up before Railroad. So we took it.

Next up was Locomotion. Or was it Serenity? Depends on which map you look at. The printed map showed Locomotion, and the Strava trail map said it would be Serenity at first and then Locomotion. Trail Forks didn’t have Serenity at all. Katie mentioned that we would get to a road and have to turn left back onto Locomotion. I knew that we would pass the VAST trail again, and I didn’t want that, so I kept running and came to the road, where Tara and I turned left. In a bit we heard Katie calling from the woods, “Serenity is up here!” So there WAS a brief turn onto VAST first. Good to know.

Katie, it should be noted, was playing a pretty good strategy here. She’s not been running as much as Tara or I have, so she was pushing to stay reasonably close. But she caught up every time we got lost, so she was sticking with us without forcing herself past her current limitations. I don’t think this was intentional, but it worked well for her.

We regrouped and headed forward on to what the Strava map would lead you to believe would be called Serenity, but the trail marker said Locomotion. So right where we needed to be! The rest of this was going to be easy, because we just needed to follow Locomotion to Capital Trail, and back to Froot Loops at the end.

We were already over a mile into this race. Regular readers will recognize that I am usually pretty mindful of the pace I am running, but this time it was really more about just finding the route. To be honest, I didn’t even look at my watch when the first mile beeped. The terrain was pretty flat, stealthily slightly uphill, and I felt like we were running fast when we were heading into the right direction. We did finish the first mile in 9:37, which was a pretty strong pace.

Locomotion, however, was more challenging. It’s winding single-track, with lots of roots and rocks, more frequent elevation changes, and occasional tricky footing. I took yet another wrong turn, this time onto a trail that apparently isn’t even a trail yet, just a piece that is under construction. Katie took the lead at that point, astutely pointing out that there were actually some blue blazes on the trees that were guiding our way. I had seen those blazes, but it didn’t for a moment occur to me that they were there for me!

After a bit Katie pulled over and let Tara and I move ahead, as we were running faster. We came upon the turn onto Capital Trail, which I actually navigated correctly. But shortly thereafter I lost the route again and ran down a disc golf hole. Katie called to us and we doubled back, and then proceeded down the trail to a spot I was heading toward if I stayed on the golf hole! From there on out there was no more trouble, and Katie was close enough behind that she was able to holler directions at the one final slightly confusing spot.

Tara’s GPS had her having run about a quarter mile more than mine showed, but I was confident that mine was accurate, so she agreed she should run until mine said we were done. We headed down Froot Loops toward the parking lot, and got pretty much to the car before my watch said 3.1 miles. This was a confident sprint at the end with the knowledge that we had gotten to the finish line.

My watch had us at 34:10, which was well below my modified expectations, and just a few seconds behind Matt and Kim’s times. According to Strava, our moving time was 33:17, meaning there was almost a minute dedicated to figuring out where the heck we were. My instinct that we should be able to run this in 11:00 minute miles was pretty good.

Other than the continual missed turns, this was a fun course to run. It would be fun to give it more of a race effort that would be afforded if there were more guides and signs on the course. On the other hand, the collective effort of figuring it out was kind of fun, bringing this an element of a group run that I wasn’t expecting. But I do now have the appetite for a trail race in a way that I would not have expected even four months ago. Turns out that running in the woods is not at all a bad thing.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5K Trail
Time: 34:10
Pace: 11:01

8/18/20 Training Update: The Streets Project Part 1

A while ago a guy who is in the CVR group on Strava posted a run, which he labeled as the last road to fill in the map. He had made it his project to run every road in the town of Middlesex. There aren’t actually a ton of roads in Middlesex, but most of them go up big hills. It’s impressive, all the more so because apparently he did a lot of them pushing his baby in a stroller.

This got me thinking that I might want to try the same in Montpelier. Montpelier doesn’t reach the same kind of elevation as Middlesex, but there are a lot of hills, and the city more than makes up for it with a lot more streets in the much-more-dense downtown area.

I don’t actually know how many streets there are in Montpelier, but I figure I was less than a third of the way there when I first started thinking about this project. Most of my running has been on the same basic loops downtown, with only a little deviation done mostly for mileage and not for variety. My first foray into filling in the map was a few weeks ago, when I was exiting Hubbard Park and needed to add a bit more distance to get over three miles. Rather than just keep going down Elm Street at the end, I ran to the cul-de-sac at the end of North Park Drive and back. “Now I won’t have to do this if I decide to do the streets project,” I told myself.

In doing so, I was already basically committing to the streets project. And if not at that moment, definitely a couple of weeks later when I went up Meadowbrook Drive, also coming out of the park, even though I didn’t need the extra couple tenths of a mile to meet my mileage for the day.

At that point I started looking at my Strava Heatmap to see what I had done and what it will realistically take to fill in the map. I figure most of them can be done in chunks with a few 5-6 mile runs in town or from my house. There are a few that are on the outskirts that will require a bit more planning. And I noticed a couple where the street doesn’t actually start in Montpelier, but it does make its way across the city borders. I have to run those, too.

The other rules I have established are that I have to run the road to the discernible end – sometimes they kind of turn into driveways – and that it has to be part of a “real” run. In other words, no driving to the end of a street or neighborhood for the sole purpose of running there and then driving away.

My first real “streets” run was after I did the Capital City Stampede a month ago, when I decided to bag a few downtown streets on the way home. Maybe this wasn’t the best time to start because I had already run 7 miles, but it only added a mile or so to do so. It was slow, but also pretty flat, so not horrible.

My focus on Participation Series Races, combined with hot, humid weather that kept me in the woods, meant that it would be another two weeks before I dipped into the streets project again. The plan this time was to do a couple of streets that go into Hubbard Park, before dropping down and running the side streets near the Capital. It was that late July day that I really realized that most of the side streets in Montpelier are actually on hills. (Why it took me this long to figure out when they are literally on the side of Hubbard Park, which is on top of a big hill, is a mystery for another day.) There was a lot of up and down, a lot of it pretty steep. It was basically a hill repeat workout, only on a bunch of different hills. After finishing the bits by the Capital, I ran back over to the other side of Main Street and took in a few more side streets, including a couple more hills. It was a pretty hot evening, and after 6.5 miles and nearly 900 feet of climbing, I was tired and sore.

A week and a half after that, I had to go into town to meet Donna Smyers and pick up sashes for the Suffrage Scramble. She was parked at the Dept of Labor lot, right on the bike path. I saw this as an opportunity to pick up an outlying neighborhood off Route 2, near the highway and the Middlesex town line, but not near anything else in Montpelier. I figured this to be a 5+ mile loop out Route 2, up the side streets, then back Three Mile Bridge Road, to Junction Road, to the bike path. Other than the side streets, which again go up and up, it’s a flat and pretty boring run. Actually the side streets were pretty boring as well, even the one called Overlook Drive, which seemed to only overlook I-89, which it abuts, and nothing interesting. But, you know, at least there is a 100-foot climb!

Today, almost another two weeks later, I did another “streets” run. With temperatures now in the 70s, and following some rain, it seemed less important to run in the parks. My plan was to run out Elm Street to the Middlesex town line in that direction, and pick up a handful of side streets. (There are a few close to my house that I skipped because I can easily fit them into another run at a later date.) Elm Street is pretty busy, and the speed limit goes up to 50 mph not far down the road from my house, but it was an enjoyable run. I got to climb up some class 4 road to a solar farm on Log Road. I got to run about 40 feet and turn around at Veo “Road.” (Come on, folks, it’s a driveway.) I also recognized that, from the end of Mill Road I could climb up the side of Wrightsville Dam and get the small segment of Horn of the Moon Road that is inside the city limits, but I decided there was a better way to do that part.

Sadly, however, I didn’t fully remember the map of Haggett Road and Grout Road, and I turned around when I figured the road was ending at someone’s driveway. In both cases, I left significant-enough distance not covered that I am going to have to go back for them to count in my mind. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if they weren’t a mile and a half from my house. Maybe I will tag them on when I do a long run up Horn of the Moon in a few weeks, because why not?

I’ve started filling in significant parts of the map, but there is much left to go. There are a lot of streets left in the East State Street/College Street area. I have to go up Main Street to Towne Hill Road and hit several side streets. Then there is the Hill Street/Berlin Street section of town, that would be best run from the office. Same with all the streets off Northfield Street and near National Life. Finally, there are all the side streets off Terrace Street, which I have realized are pretty accessible from home if I run through Hubbard Park. But I also realize that they are pretty steep because they are on the edge of Hubbard Park.

I am calling this my Quarantine project, as I probably wouldn’t have considered doing this in the normal times. I’ve still got a ways to go, but it seems like the quarantine has a ways to go as well. Hopefully both will be done by the end of 2020.

8/12/20: Suffrage Scramble/NSB 5K

It seems like an unreasonably short amount of time, but this year marks 100 years since women were granted the right to vote in this country. (Meaning for the first 144 years they could not – we aren’t even all that to the 50% mark of US history yet!). To mark the occasion, the Central Vermont Runners planned a celebratory 5K to be held in Waterbury – the Suffrage Scramble.

Who taught this guy how to put on a sash?

2020 being what it is, of course, the race was cancelled. In its place, CVR set up a virtual race, any 5K course you want, with the only caveat being that you complete between August 8 – 15. I had hoped to combine with the Northfield Savings Bank 5K for the Participation Series, but the Runderachievers had other plans for that race a few weeks ago. Still, since at least one Runder (Tara) wasn’t able to make that race, I suggested we do it again this week. A few others readily agreed.

I also talked Katie into participating. She’s been dealing with leg problems for a long time, but wanted to take part anyway. Since I had already done this race for CVR, I said I would do a walk/run with her, but she wanted me to run my race. “You can come back and run in with me after you finish.” That sounded like a reasonable plan. I could take another shot at my PR, which I just missed last time around with a 25:46 finish. (To refresh, I consider my PR to be 25:35, but that was part of a “long” 5K course and total time was over 26:00. My fastest full race time for a 5K is 25:44.)

I wasn’t sure how much of a “race” this would be. Last time, Runders Matt and Kim set a fast pace, and this guy Devin was also running who I could hang with. Matt and Kim showed up again, but they had been in a 14-mile race over the weekend and were going to do more of a classic Runders run instead of the race. (Kim, in fact, mostly walked.) This time around we had Katie, who was going to run/walk, along with Darrel (injured, also run/walking) and Cheryl (a slow runner). Tara was also able to attend this time, and I thought I would be faster than her, too, if only because she has only been back to running for a few weeks after taking more than a year off.

When we started I immediately had to re-evaluate the competition. The course starts with a hill, and Tara bolted up that much faster than I expected. I thought, “shit! I’m going to have to run to keep up with her.” I looked at my watch at one point and my pace was under 8:00. That was far faster than I expected. There was a little reprieve when fellow Runders Colin and Lydia were at the top of the hill cheering and taking photos. They did not participate as they were quarantining for a trip.

I had to dial it back a little and hope – because suddenly this was a real race – that my likely superior fitness would pay off over the course of the run. And sure enough, after about half a mile and when the course flattened out, I started to close the gap, and I passed her about 3/4 of a mile into the race. And then I was in kind of uncharted territory, leading everybody else in the race. Luckily, my months of virtual races have me trained to compete against the watch instead of other people.

I’m still trying to get my 5K time under 25:30, which is an 8:10 pace. I didn’t think that 8:10 was possible for the first mile, given the hill, so I was thinking 8:15, then try to keep it under 8:10 the rest of the way. But I also wasn’t really spending a lot of time looking at my watch. Most of the time when I did I was seeing 8:15, which wouldn’t break 25:30 but was a little faster than last time around. The weather wasn’t overly humid, but the temperature was in the mid-80’s, so it was a bit draining. Luckily a big chunk of this race is run on Water Street, which in the early evening is mostly in shade.

So mile one was done in 8:18, which was pretty good. As I approached the turnaround I came upon Kim, who was walking. And shortly thereafter came Matt running in the opposite direction. He said “I can be your pace car!” That was a pretty good offer, I thought. I made the turn and crossed paths with Tara, who I figured was now a half a minute behind. But I was paranoid that she would have a strong finish, so I tried to push myself, with Matt as a helpful rabbit.

Mile 2 is just after the turnaround, and that came in at 8:17. The last mile is generally downhill, but getting the whole thing down to an 8:10 pace was going to be a stretch. Still I felt pretty strong and focused on keeping the cadence up. In a short time I came across Katie, who seemed to be making good time, then a bit later Darrel and Cheryl. I didn’t know how far back Tara was, but I wasn’t hearing footsteps.

In my mind I had a big finishing push ahead of me, but in my body I did not. I don’t know if it was the heat once I got back into the sun, or the accumulated miles (not a lot in recent days), but when I tried to step on the gas there wasn’t any more to be found. For sure I was going a little faster, but there was no sprint to the finish. And yet when I got to the monument and clicked my watch, my time was 25:37, which was both a PR and two seconds short of a PR. A great race!

Tara came in about a minute after me. I grabbed my water and my phone from the car and trotted out to run in with Katie, and was surprised to see her just a tenth of a mile down the road. I stopped to snap a couple of pics, then ran in with her. Actually behind her, because she was kicking and I wasn’t. She finished in about 30 minutes, which was a sub-10:00 pace. Which a) is great for a walk/run and b) tells me I am in trouble for future races against her!

Darrel and Cheryl came in a few minutes later, then we all hung around for a bit drinking beer in public and telling stories about recent and upcoming races. And again, it felt like the normal world for a little while. Some races have already reopened with modified safety protocols, and one I signed up for (the Half Marathon Unplugged) is planning an in-person race at the end of October. With multiple heats and distancing protocols. I could defer to next year, but I am still considering running it this year. It’s a confusing time. But it’s also one thing that’s keeping me focused in this otherwise really strange year.

One heartening note is that this event drew over 360 entrants, who showed their support for voting rights by wearing bright yellow sashes during their runs. This was actually the second Scramble for Darrel, who also ran a 5K on Sunday. The event page has a photo gallery of finishers who posted photos, many of them having run as groups to celebrate the event. In a polarized time in this country, it is great to see so many people who are celebrating the value of having everybody be able to vote.

RACE SUMMARY:
Distance: 5K
Time: 25:37
Pace: 8:15

8/3/20 Training Update: That 15-mile Run

When last we spoke, I mentioned doing a training run for the Adamant Half Marathon. It was a 5-mile loop that could either be the start or the finish of the race. It was a nice run to familiarize myself with the course and the terrain, but not the kind of miles that will help me really prep for the long race.

Now I don’t think you need to run 13+ miles to prepare for a half marathon. I’ve mostly done 10-miles as my longest run for previous races. But I’ve been thinking for awhile about going longer. I read an article a couple of months back about preparing for a full marathon – not that I am planning on running one of those, but also not that I’m not – which said you don’t need to run 20+ mile training runs, you just need to run 3 hour training runs. Anything longer than that might offset increased fitness with increased injury risk. So I figured this past weekend would be a good time to do a distance run.

After our run last Wednesday Lauren asked what I was planning to do on the weekend.
“I’m going to do a long run.”
”How long?”
”Three hours.”
”Three HOURS!? Are you sure about that?”

I was pretty sure about that.

”How many miles is that?”
”About 17.”
”17 miles!?!’

Her words didn’t ask again if I was sure about that, but her eyes and vocal inflection covered that question.

”Is that a bad idea?”
”Well yeah! Haven’t you heard of the 10% rule? What’s the longest you’ve run recently?”

I had not heard of the 10% rule, but I had a pretty good idea where this was going. The longest run I’ve done since May was the 10-miler a couple of weeks ago. 17 miles would be a 70% increase over that, which is a lot more than the recommended 10%. Never mind for a moment that my half marathon races were 30% increases. This is still a lot more.

With doubt sufficiently planted in my mind, I started mulling this over in my mind. I had originally been thinking of a 2 1/2 to 3 hour run, which somewhere along the line became three hours, which I figured could be about 17 miles at a 10-minute plus pace, which I thought was doable on a fairly flat course. I was also thinking I could run out to Middlesex and back, which would be about 15 miles, then if I was up for more I could keep running on the bike path in town to add some distance.

So on Saturday morning I rose with the goal to do just that. I planned to start around 7:00 a.m. to get a few miles in before the sun got too high in the sky. Of course that didn’t happen. I got out of bed at 6:15, but my morning prep was slow. I had toast with peanut butter, honey and banana for breakfast. I drank a bottle of Emergen-C to get some sugars and vitamins and electrolytes in my system. I popped a couple ibuprofen and packed some more for my run, because one thing that has plagued me on long runs in the past is pain, be it in my knees or my hip flexors. I’d rather deal with the pain after a run, not during.

I wanted to bring plenty of water, and was considering my regular water bottles along with my hiking bottle carrier. This would have afforded me extra space for food as well, but when I put them all on it was just too bulky. I couldn’t imagine running that long with all those bottles. So I dispatched with the additional water, stuffed some nectarine slices in the pocket of my normal carrier, and put some shot blocks and ibuprofen in my sorts pocket. After sufficient stretching I was ready to go. And only 45 minutes later than originally planned!

I knew the idea for long distance training is to go slow. I didn’t have a target in mind, I just listened to my body. I went a comfortable pace that didn’t make my cardiovascular system feel strained. I ran down Elm Street and through the Meadow to State Street. I was carrying a bill to pay along with my absentee ballot for the Vermont gubernatorial primary, and I stopped at the post office to drop those off. Then I was off down State Street. I was going to run out to Middlesex on Route 2, which I didn’t expect to be busy at this hour, and run back along the River Road.

It was comfortably cool and foggy at the start, temperatures in the low 60s, great running weather. Just as I was getting to the first highway overpass on Route 2, about two miles in, the sun burned through the fog. So the first 20 minutes were in really favorable conditions. Had I started on time, I would be six miles in by now! Luckily there are a lot of trees on that stretch of the road, and I was not overly exposed at all. At mile four, which coincided with the first of only two modest hills on this route, I walked while I had some nectarine and a shot block, I think another round of ibuprofen and my first hit of water. This was a good sign for having enough hydration to get through the run.

It was another mile before the roadside became more corn and less trees, and therefore more direct sunlight. Really, up until this point it had been a very pleasant run. And it continued to be pleasant afterwards, with my own memories of recent runs getting hot as the sun rose in the sky being a bigger problem than the actual sun itself. I got to the bridge over the Winooski in Middlesex Center at approximately 7.5 miles, stopped to take a halfway selfie, and had this quinoa/peanut butter protein thingy for a snack. And more water. Then I plodded off to the River Road and the route back.

I’ve run on River Road many many times for CVR fun runs, the Paul Mailman 10 miler, and even my last half marathon. I’ve never run on the Middlesex end before, though I have ridden my bike here many times. But it’s pretty much all the same, a six mile chug along a rural dirt road. This end has three small climbs, the biggest of which is just before the Quonset barn that I know is three miles back to the high school. I just took my time, and had another shot block (and the rest of the ibuprofen) on that last climb, by now about 10 miles in.

There was more psychology involved on the second half of River Road, as my body remembered getting sore and not being able to maintain race pace coming down this stretch. That didn’t happen this time, though perhaps that was because I wasn’t running a race pace. By luck, the 13.1 mile mark was just where the CVR fun runs start, by the high school track, so I stopped in a shady spot to take another selfie and swig some water. After this point, it was officially my longest-ever run.

Rather than just reverse course on State Street, I decided to run along the bike path and sidewalk to Main Street, choosing to run along Route 2 at one point to avoid the likely crowded path near the farmer’s market. I was trying to add a little mileage in town, because by now my plan was to end at Birchgrove Bakery for an iced coffee, and I wanted to make sure I got to a full 15. By the time I got to Birchgrove however I was still .4 mile short of 15, so I ran up to Pearl Street and doubled back to Vine through the Meadow. My watch buzzed that last mile just before I got back to Elm. I chugged what was left of my water an masked up for the short wait to get into the store (limit two customers at a time). It’s a 10-minute walk back to my house from there, but that iced coffee didn’t come close to lasting that long. I sucked it down in no time.

I came into this run with some anxiety about the distance, though never really doubted I could complete it. Worst-case scenario would have been more walking, which isn’t a bad case in the grand scheme of things. And I ran with no trouble whatsoever. My heart and lungs were well within their limits, and I didn’t get much pain in my legs. In fact, other than some chafing from my knee wraps, I finished with less pain in my legs than I started with. I feel like the distance loosened up some tight joints and fascia that have been hindering me a bit in recent weeks.

All in all, it was a very positive experience. And so sometime in the coming weeks I will look for the opportunity for a three-hour, 17-mile run to extend myself further.

Yes, Lauren. I am sure.

7/30/21 Training Update: 111 for the month

We are winding down The Month With No Real Plan, and for someone who often meanders when there is no real plan, I actually have something to show for it. I ran six virtual races in July, ranging from 1 to 10 miles. And today I went on a casual run that, assuming I stick to my plan to rest tomorrow, brings me to 111 miles for the month, which is a new high for me. Also in here, a couple of weeks ago I ran 34 miles, which is also my most ever.

I feel like this investment in miles, and in hills (as I’ve said before), is really paying off. Definitely my stamina is improving, and my speed on regular terrain (i.e. not in the woods) has improved. And all this without an actual training “plan.” I’m just kind of going out and running what seems like the right thing to run.

Well, okay, that may be 95% true, but not 100%. For one thing, I do have a goal to run the Adamant Half Marathon in August, so I have started working my way up to that. For another thing, Lauren has started inviting me into her own training plan, basically having me join her for whatever she needs to do on a given Wednesday. I mean, it’s a plan, just not my own. But there can be benefits.

Two weeks ago Lauren’s plan called for hill repeats. I’ve been running plenty of hills, including a Strava segment called “Liberty St. Hill Repeats,” but I’ve never turned around and repeated them until it was part of a plan. Not my own plan, but nonetheless.

Lauren suggested we do the repeats on Gould Hill Road, which does not have a lot of traffic. There’s a nice route through North Branch Park that’s a two mile warmup, albeit one with a fairly decent hill to climb. Lauren said we need to save our energy for the actual hill repeats, so it was pretty slow through the park, which was okay by me. We got to Gould Hill and scoped out a section of appropriate grade and shade – it was a hot day.

Our section started at one mailbox and ran to the second mailbox uphill. The plan, as originally presented, was to do 10 hill repeats. Rather than distance, these would be 1:00 timed sprints. Lauren instructed me to go 90% for the first 45 seconds and then all out for the last 15. That sounds easy enough, until you realize that things get steeper after the first mailbox – even if there is that final “kick,” it’s really no faster than the first part.

One thing I learned in all of this is that Lauren is a lot faster than me, something that doesn’t really present itself when we run together. But sprinting? Yeah, she left me in her dust. The other thing I learned was that I don’t really hate this. Which I don’t say lightly – I’ve never been a big “practice” fan in almost anything I do. I’m either competing or I’m not. But the hill repeats weren’t so bad.

Somewhere along the line the dialog was that we need to do at least 8 hill repeats. I said I thought it was 10, but Lauren said “8-10.” Okay. Well, we were going along, and #6 kind of sucked, but it wasn’t so bad. For Lauren, #5 and #7 weren’t great. I think she was counting on me not wanting to do the full ten, but after #8 I said I could do two more. So much for her plan! We did the last two, and it was fine. Overall probably .1 mile for each sprint for me, so a mile uphill and another mile downhill. The run back home was another 1.5 miles, downhill, very slow, for a 6.5 mile day, part of the unplanned 34 mile week.

The other non-race thing that I will talk about, as part of this big month, is last night’s run in Adamant. I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I plan to run the Adamant Half Marathon, and as it turns out I’ve actually already run a good chunk of the course. However there is a 5-mile loop that goes north of the Adamant Co-op and by Bliss Pond that I have never seen. This week’s run with Lauren was to check out that loop. Luckily it starts out with a big climb. Then it levels out a bit before climbing again in a more stealthy way. There’s about 500 feet overall for the first 3+ miles before it drops back down to the start.

Lauren has offered to pace me for the half marathon, and I have a goal of 9:30 miles for that, with a worst-case scenario of a 10:00 pace. We ran this section in a 9:20 pace, which on the one hand is better than my goal, but on the other hand is probably not sustainable for another 8 miles. Certainly there are mitigating factors at play here. For one thing, this is easily the hilliest part of the course. For another thing, I ran 6 miles each of the two previous days, which I won’t do before the half marathon. But there is also that part where my body can’t sustain the pace for the full race. Right now it’s about the 8 mile mark where things slow down, but that would mean 5 slow miles to get to the end. I am pretty confident that I can compete with 10:00, though I didn’t manage that the last time I ran a half marathon, but much faster might be a stretch.

We also are debating about the course. As described on the CVR website it finishes on this 5-mile portion, but as run last year (determined by Strava stalking) it actually started with the hills. Lauren suggests starting with the relatively flat 8-mile section in the description. (It’s basically a figure 8.) She said, “you’re going to slow down as you go along, but I think the delta would be less on the hills.” Maybe she’s right. My established preference is to start with the hills and end with the flats. But I’ve never really tried it the other way. So maybe now is the time. I’ll be a race setting, but there’s always the opportunity to learn.