Running up Mountains

This morning's planned two hour trail run has been on my mind for the past 8 days, since SC uploaded it to my schedule and I took note. I've been patiently waiting, anticipating the day. I tried not to make a big deal of it in my head or talk about it too much, because I didn't wait to jinx myself, but there was no question I had a good feeling about this one from the beginning. This whole week I've felt that my body was ready for an increase and I couldn't wait to immerse myself in the isolated brilliance of the trails.

In planning this adventure, I got my water vest packed up and ready to go the night before, along with the necessary gels/food for during after the run. I spent a solid five minutes counting back from when I would need to be back home and weighing how long it would take to get to Mt. Major and back until I practically passed out when I realized I'd need to leave the house by 5:00am. I nearly bagged the whole idea, but only for a moment. I had myself convinced from the beginning of the week that I'd drive to Major for this run, and once something like that latches on to my brain, there's very little I can do to reverse it.

***Here's a side note example of this: I once waited an hour for AAA to come jump start my battery-dead car at a similar early morning hour last January. I did this when my car was parked right by my house and there was no need to use it that day other than to drive to a destination to do a run. On this occasion, I was wanting to do hill repeats of Mt. Aggie, and was really pushing my luck in 1) getting to work on time 2) getting pulled over for speeding or 3) blasting my car off the road in my frenzy to get there. I was so laser focused on doing that specific workout on that specific day that anything else would have been a grand disappointment; however childish and stubborn that mentality is, it's a real thing for me sometimes. I'm really much more Type B in my daily life, so it's weird to think about how and why that shift happens to me sometimes in my running life.

So yes, I felt like a crazy person waking up at 4:40 in the morning. It was easy to reassure myself though-- I knew it was be the best possible way I could start my day and I was stoked about the adventure. In standard "super early, semi-stressful morning wake up fashion," I instinctually woke up minutes before my alarm went off. And, in a wild shift from our typical routine, I woke up the cat and started my day when she was still pleasantly sleeping beside me. She bounced back quickly though and was owl eye awake well before I had shaken off the cobwebs and even made it to the closet to get changed.

I was off and headed to Mt. Major before 5:00am, and arrived in the parking lot around 5:50. I was surprised to see about 7 other cars already there. It was still pretty dark out-- just barely light enough to run on the trails without even the thought of needing a headlamp, but if I had arrived there 15 minutes earlier it might have been a different story. Everything was gray and muted looking because of the low light, but getting incrementally brighter by the minute. The air had a touch of night time still on it. I figured the cars contained early morning sunrise seekers, which I had ambitions of myself, so I quickly got my things in order and headed off on the trail to the left of the parking lot.

Things ramped up quickly as the trail I chose was the steeper of the two ways to get up to the Major summit. I kept my heart rate below 168 deliberately, not to get too far outside my zone three. For a few moments I found myself fast hiking, and once or twice using my hands to clamor up a larger rock face, but for the most part I was in a running gait going up the mountain. I got to the top in about 22 minutes, which was amazingly fun and rewarding. I know Major isn't anything too impressive elevation-wise, but it was so cool to get up to the summit in such a short amount of time. Plus, I got to see this:

Pretty cool, right? I didn't stick around for long here at the summit, but I had my phone with me (in case I were to get lost or stranded or something-- seemed like a good idea.) Plus, my posts will be soooo much more legit if I carry my phone with me on long trail runs and snap pictures along the way.

I continued along around the summit for a minute and found the other trail down to the parking lot along with another trail that headed off the back end of Major. I checked my watch at the juncture and told myself I'd go 30 minutes in that direction away from the parking lot then turn around and head back. Should add up to two hours. Once I got further away from the summit, things got even more awesome. I started to settle into a nice groove and felt a huge wave of calm as I put some more distance on my legs. Here I was on the top of a mountain, traversing around on trails I've never run on, early in the morning, nobody else around, and I couldn't even believe how happy it made me. The air was cool but I had a satisfying sweat going and sense of purpose about me--I was making real gains here, both mentally and physically, and I knew it as it was happening. It's not often that that happens in this sport. Maybe it's because I've been away from the running game for so many months, or maybe it's the primal-ness of trail running and the sense of freedom it evokes-- whatever it is-- I felt so happy when I was out there today. It's hard to put into words.

Me, in a quasi-euphoric-enough-to-take-a-selfie, state

The trail took lots of turns and ups and downs but I managed to stay on course and head back to the car with plenty of time to spare. So much time, in fact, that I had to putz around for about 20 minutes in the lower elevations to get myself up to 2 full hours.

I've been riding the high from this run all day. I really want to map out some 15+ mile loops for when my runs build beyond the 3 hour mark. If anyone knows of some relatively simple loops for me, being inexperienced in the finer details of the trail network of the Whites, I'd love to hear about them. I'd be looking for anything between 10-20 miles. Loops or out and backs.

Physically (injury-wise) I'm holding strong. Runs like this are an inspiration for me to work through any groin/hip pains I might have in the future with the strength work and stretching I've been doing. It's gotten me this far, hopefully it's good enough to get me to the Trials in one piece.

AH

12 miles with 20 tempo minutes

Another encouraging one today. I was slated to do an 80 minute run with 20 minutes in the middle at HR zone 3, which comes out to 159-167 bpm. Otherwise known as tempo pace, ideally I'm looking for a uncomfortably maintainable speed where I'm breathing hard but feel like I could keep it up for a long time. It's a speed and effort level I've always enjoyed implementing into my workouts. Pushing that threshold has always been fun and more exciting than long, slow distance runs. For reference, in case you were curious, my marathon heart rate average at Grandma's was 167 over the whole thing.

So I headed off along 1A, mostly because I wanted to hit the paces and be consistent with my heart rate. I warmed up for five miles (about 34-35 minutes) and got right into it. I sped up and kicked it to 5:50-6:10 pace, keeping my HR typically between 163-167, depending on the terrain, which had just a few little bumps once I turned back inland about 2 miles into it. Physically, I was really happy with how my right hip felt. It was the best I've felt on that side in months-- the first time in a long while where I wasn't obsessing about it the whole time. Well, I did feel good on the trails a couple weeks ago, but this was definitely the first time on road run where I've felt this confident. I covered almost 12 miles total on this run, so it averaged out to 6:44 pace.

In an interesting shift, my main focus for pain was right in the middle of my groin, seemingly near the top of, ahem, my pubic bone. It was an interesting pain, mostly an ache sort of thing. Nothing sharp or alarming the way my sides have felt in the past. The fact that my right side didn't bother me was enough to make me feel amazing. Like I've said in previous mini breakthroughs over the last 3 months, any shift or change in the location of the pain is encouraging and something to celebrate.

The week ahead is looking nice and heavy, at least compared to my last couple weeks. I've got a 2 hour run in the trails on Saturday with some moderate distance trail/road runs in the meantime. I still have plenty of drills and core work sprinkled in there as well. I'm feeling great at the moment though. I hope things stay the course!

AH

Miles

Finally feeling like I'm getting some miles in. SC has been very (and with good reason) conservative with me over the past couple months, so for the first time ever in our athlete/coaching roles I actually asked for more mileage. He obliged, of course, and gave me an hour long run on Monday with 20 minutes in HR zone 3, which is 159-164. I went out and my right groin was bothering me slightly, although it was pretty manageable pain wise and didn't get worse as the run went on, even when I picked up the pace about three miles in. Reason for some concern, but I pressed on. I managed to average 5:40 pace for those 20 minutes, which I was totally thrilled about. No question it was very hard. I probably overcooked it, to be honest. I touched a HR of 180 at one point going up a hill towards the end, which was definitely overdoing it. I didn't care though, my body and mind were reveling in the elevated intensity and challenge of it. It was a definite test, whether or not it should have been in the eyes of my coach.

Afterwards I had very mixed feelings about the run. I couldn't have been more happy with the speed I was able to hold, not to mention I covered almost 9 miles-- one of the longest road runs I've done (maybe the longest?) since my surgery. No question I'm getting stronger. I still had some pain on my right groin though, which was really hard for me to get past over the next few hours. I was reminded by the lovely Ali Sylvester of the progress that I have made and not to dwell on it. It was just what I needed to hear. I have a lot to be happy about.

AH

Goods and bads

On Tuesday I had the day off and a four mile run on the docket. It was raining very heavily outside when I was wanting to run, and though this is probably the first time I've ever decided to run indoors during rain, it seemed like the right decision. It didn't seem worth it to get soaked and cold for the sake of a measly four miler. Once I got to the gym, I hopped on the treadmill and settled in comfortably at 7:00 pace. I felt pretty good and my heart rate stayed low. By about three miles, however, my right hip started to light up on me, and though I got through the last few minutes with some pain, you can probably imagine I didn't leave there feeling particularly good about myself. It felt like I had just back tracked to the middle of winter when I'd go on the treadmill for 10 minutes just hoping I'd see some improvement, but inevitably leave feeling worse. I was at a loss. I had no idea what to make of it. Was it just the treadmill surface? Was I running "tighter" than I typically would on the roads or trails? I still have no idea, but my opinions on treadmill running couldn't be any lower at the moment.

I took yesterday off-- a combination of feeling badly for myself and not having a functioning bike-- and stayed in a fog most of the day. I woke up this morning and looked at my schedule, which had a bunch of continuous fartlek type drills during a normal easy run. I reluctantly went out there and started jogging along and was actually surprised to feel more in control of my right side than on Tuesday. I felt no pain over there during the course of the run, which was about 40 minutes (watch died towards the end) and included 1) strides 2) high knees 3)butt kicks 4)high skips and 5) karaoke. That's the running kind of karaoke, mind you. D Street isn't open this early.

So at the moment I'm back to feeling pretty happy. I won't be going on a treadmill again unless it's absolutely necessary, and even then I probably won't. Just not worth it.

Meeting with SC tomorrow to discuss the week ahead. As long as I push aside that treadmill run as a fluke, I'm feeling good about my prospects.

AH

 

Trail running

I have lots of things to talk about today. I've seen several improvements over the last couple weeks with a lot to be excited about. So that's what I'm going to focus on here. I'm most pumped about the trail running I've been able to do lately, sometimes with no noticeable pain on either side of my hips.

I used to love running on trails, mostly in high school where we had really easy access to a pretty extensive network right on the GDA campus. We also would take trips out to parks in the area for long runs during cross country season. I have some really fond memories of running with my high school team, and many of those memories took place out on runs in the woods. In college we still trained on trails, but not nearly as much as I did in high school. I think this might have been because we just had way more options in terms of road runs around Bucknell. The trails around there you either needed to drive to, or they weren't very good. We were also running a lot more miles, so it just ended up being easier to hop on the roads around the school than drive to a park somewhere. That being said, we did subject ourselves to running on the fields on campus a lot, now that I think about it. That was a 1.5-ish mile loop around the practice fields and golf course that we did all the time. Not true trails obviously-- just a softer surface.

Anyway, I digress.

Since I started working with SC I've done a ton more road running. This has been mostly my decision making, and I've chosen to stick to the roads because I can just run so much faster on that surface. Why run on some trail somewhere at 8:00 pace when you can (seemingly) get much better (read:faster) results on the road? Whenever I did run on the trails I was frustrated at the softness and non-responsiveness of it. I just loved the speed of the roads, and I got some really amazing training runs in on that surface that wouldn't have looked so impressive if they were on undulating single track.

The game has officially changed with the reality of this injury. Obviously, I've needed to work on more core strengthening and even change my gait a little bit by engaging my glutes more. The ever evolving plan to keep myself strong in the core is to do some really long, slow runs on hilly trails. I started by doing 45 minutes at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth about a month ago, and have basically been building from there. The most recent breakthrough I had was 1:45min run on the trails surrounding Mt. Aggie in Maine yesterday where I covered over 11 miles. Yes, it was a lot slower than my normal road pace, but the key was the time. That's what I'm latching my brain on right now. I have no consideration for pace, only heart rate and time, and it's a pretty amazing reality. It had to have been the most satisfying run since my marathon last June. Had to be.

Trails are so much less stressful than road running, for so many reasons-- I know you probably don't need me to tell you that, but it's just so fun when you take away all the speed expectations you might be used to focusing on. You're just out there plopping along at a relaxed pace, and yet your feet are stepping quickly from rock to root and your mind is so engaged on where to plant them next. The hills are steep and challenging and the downhills are sometimes a suicidal rush of speed, but ultimately it's a really cool combination of sensations, and something I'm not entirely used to. I love it though, and had forgotten how satisfying a couple hours in the woods by yourself can be.

I'm stoked to keep building up my base and hopefully keep the pain on my right side at bay, or even maybe work through it entirely in the coming months. Eventually I'll be hoping to go up to the white mountains and do some traverses, 5+ hour adventures with just me and my little water vest.

Speaking of which, I have been using this new vest for these long trail runs. It's amazing and doesn't bounce on me at all. It has tons of useful storage (which I haven't really needed yet) and a 2L water bladder. I love it. I feel awesome out there with everything I need on my back-- food, water, whatever else-- to run super far. Yeah. It's a lot of fun.

More to come soon!

AH