Do Nothing Stupid

Since my last few posts have included downer weather updates, I feel the need to be positive.  I am feeling so much better than I was last year this time, it almost scares me.  My knee hasn't made a sound with all the miles I have asked it to run, and I am surprising myself with how doable these long runs are.  Even though I was so disappointed that Hashawha had to be canceled this year, the trails in this area are nearly impossible to really run on:

and this isn't even the trail but the road leading to the trail!

Hiking and post holing are possible, but that would probably add way too many hours to the time I am already out there.  And so far, I have been incredibly lucky.  Mid Maryland was run on one of the few weekends we weren't socked in by snow, ice, or sub zero temps, and my 28 mile run yesterday was actually delightful.  I had planned on another long back to back, but Friday morning was just plain creepy.  I dropped my car off for some maintenance and decided to run while it was in the shop.  Starting out wasn't too bad, but gradually, the fog rolled in and I could barely see in front of me.

I was pretty sure the cars would not be happy with a dumbass runner on the side of the road, so I opted for 7 miles instead of the 12 I had planned.
By the time I got home, it was starting to clear, but looked like death rolling in from the Moses movie.

Luckily though, by Saturday a.m. it was gone and the sun was shining brightly.  Funny how much easier it is to run 28 miles when it is nearly 60 and the sun is shining.  I was absolutely loving the day.  While the boat ramps to the reservoir are not open in January and February, I slipped and slid my way down the unplowed, untreated road to get a look at the frozen over Liberty Lake.

And since by now I was over 20 miles into my run, I am glad they had posted this sign, in case I was tempted to do either:

No Swimming OR committing suicide, just so we are clear

It was a great day out there.   While the weather would have been perfect for Hashawha, I feel certain the trail conditions would have not only made the course a slush-fest, but the mud and even remaining ice might have jeopardized how healthy and strong I am feeling.   So as I hit the peak of my training for Umstead, I am concentrating on "doing nothing stupid."  Believe me, that is much easier said than done.

Mental Toughness

The latest edition of UltraRunning  has a great one page article on how to survive your first 100 miler.  It includes sage advice on mental strategies like not using family members as pacers (they might not "understand" the torturous nature of ultra running and not push you hard enough when you might want to quit).  Another wise suggestion is to always pick the hardest option when faced with decisions in planning your route in training.  Never settle on tried and true, since that won't give you the mental fortitude necessary to get it done on race day.

I decided to employ this tactic on Sunday's long run.  I had already run almost 15 miles the day before, so was not quite amped up to go out again, especially since the weather, which started out pretty benign, was going to degrade all day with increasing wind and cold.  Getting 20+ miles in without cutting the run short would take all the will power I could muster, so I had to come up with a plan...
I had my daughter sacrifice 40 miles worth of gas and dump me off in a parking lot some 20 miles from home!

Wait, wait, I may need to rethink this!

Since so many of the back roads are still pretty much single lane from the massive piles of snow, I thought that a main road would be a better option. The good news was that the shoulders were partially plowed - the bad news was that the cars were driving well over the 50-55 mile speed limit.  As my daughter pulled away from the designated "dumping spot", I looked at her wistfully...SIGH.

And then I was on my way.  This was actually one of the same routes I had done in the summer as part of the Elementary School Challenge, except back then it was over 95 degrees when we started and it was less than half the distance I had to cover today.  It is a much different run with slush, black ice and piles and piles of plowed snow.  And it was loud!  I decided to not even bring my music, since I knew it would temp me worse than peanut m&m's or oatmeal cookies with white chocolate chips and craisins.  Just put one foot in front of the other for the 3 hours it took for me to get to the back roads that would lead me home.  I employed every trick I could think of to make the time pass, like counting down the miles until I could catch a very small glimpse of the mountains from the highest point in the road, or imagining where the heck all these people were headed in such a hurry.  I mean come on, we were in Mt. Airy!!  Anyway, I did stop a few times and regroup - once when I realized my water hose from my pack was twisted and stuck in some crazed way that prevented the water from coming out.

camel back fail

To add to the pure joy of this long run, it started snowing the last three miles.  Not the big, wet, pretty flakes, but the teeny, tiny, cold, windy, in your eyes, and face kind of snow.  I was getting so cold, and I knew that running faster would warm me up, so that is what I did (okay, tried to do).  It did work pretty well until the last half mile, when I was just way over this run.  My house was right in front of me...with all the doors locked and no one home.  WHAT!   We do have spare key in a pad lock, but too bad for me, my fingers were frozen and I couldn't turn the numbers to unlock the box.

Wilmaaaa!!!

After about 10 minutes, I finally made it inside.  Yup, I sure made this one hard on myself.  But I got it done, and it only took 4 hours before I finally warmed up enough to  look at the schedule for the next day. 

Better Than Candy

Not sure what twisted trick is being played on me this year, but getting to Umstead is taking dogged determination and an "FU" attitude.  Case in point:

I know I have already griped about the weather numerous times, but really???  24 inches of snow followed by 5 the next day??  Don't get me wrong, I like a nice snowfall, but this is Maryland for heaven's sake, not Milwaukee.  We aren't suppose to spend the entire winter shoveling and slipping and sliding.  But we are. Thinking of last year with its 60 degree February days, and trails that were runnable, does no good I suppose because it won't help me now.  So I have been creative with my training: Thursday I shoveled for 7 hours, and Friday, another 4.  I made sure to lift with my legs and pace myself, and even stopped at the impromptu aid station in the garage for some oatmeal cookies and water.

Believe me when I tell you it was hard.  I even toyed with the idea of getting a snowblower, but since our street didn't get plowed for 24 hours, I would have had to walk to Home Depot and then there was the whole issue of getting it home.  So I shoveled, and shoveled and shoveled,  By Friday night, I was pretty much paralyzed.  It is true that blinking can really hurt when you are that sore.  BUT, luckily for me, while I was out shoveling the driveway, my daughters were preparing a Valentine's Day surprise by shoveling this:

That brown thing on the right is a hot tub!  Hallelujah!

And it must have worked, because I was able to go out and run 14 miles today, with the first 10 being pretty speedy.  And as I left for my run, the county was doing its best to widen and clear the roads.  So at least there is hope for tomorrow's 25 miler!

 

This girl is ready for Spring.

Run, Fall, Repeat

The day before the Mid Maryland 50K, I went out and ran 14.3 miles.  And two days before that, I biked 30 miles.  No tapering for this race.  I have now completed my second week of back-to-back-to-back long runs. My strategy is simple:  if I can get out and run obscenely long on three consecutive days, I will have the confidence that I need to run 100 miles in less than 30 hours.  Because I really have discovered that this ultra running thing is more about having the mindset to do it more so than the talent.

I am also faithfully stretching, icing, massaging, rolling, and anything else I can think of to keep my body from breaking down or rebelling at the mileage.  My favorite is a pillow really meant to massage your neck, but it also works great to get at the piriformus and upper hamstrings.  Sitting on that brings me great joy!

                   

It massages and heats all at the same time...heaven!

As for Mid Maryland, it was a success.  I thought I would be at least a little tired, but I wasn't.  Unlike last year when my legs and feet took the entire first 10K loop to warm up, I ran well from the start.  In fact, I was so in the zone that when one of the many, many, many roots tripped me up, I was down before I realized I had fallen.  And, got right back up and started running again.   That was about mile 3, and it wasn't until mile 18 or so that I could tell my tights were plastered to my knee and looked down to actually see "blood icicles" coming through where I must have hit hard.

Blood stays really red when it is frozen

 I just figured I would deal with it later and carried on.  3 laps, then 4, all the while feeling great and actually thinking that this was kind of sort of "easy" for a 50K.  (Thanks, Coach, for taking me to the Massanuttens).  Each time through the aid pavillion, I would grab a cup of coke and pull a quarter of a turkey sandwich from my pocket to munch on as we made the loop into the woods.  I ate a couple bite size snickers each loop as well, and I really do believe chocolate is the answer to any question one might possible have. 

Headed back out again chomping a candy bar

One thing I really liked was the  pretty cool result site  with runner tracking.  Since it is a 5 loop course, chips were used for tracking runners.  (and these could be velcro'd anywhere, so that was a plus too)

When you put the runners' bib numbers in the website, you actually could see a simulation as they ran through the loops.  Kind of gimmicky but kind of cool as well.  My husband was able to get a fairly accurate estimation of where I was and was right there at the end of loop 4 to grab my trash and cheer me on to my final loop!

Stepping it up towards the finish

 I was fortunate to run most of the first three laps with another gal who was also training for her first 100.  Funny how we all have the same worries.  I got ahead of her the last two laps, but watched her finish not too long after I came in.  After sharing trail miles with total strangers, it feels funny to just say goodbye and know you may never talk with them again, or hear how their goal race turned out. (But I have a feeling she will do just fine.)  At the end, I got a finisher's medal to go with the pretty cool Maryland flag shirt we were given as a premium.  Not a bad day in the woods at all!  And in case you are wondering, yes, we got more snow on Sunday so my shoveling shake out streak continues!

 

What Else Ya Got, Mother Nature?

So far, despite experiencing everything in Mother Nature's winter arsenal, my training is spot on.  I have made it to my multi-day-back-to-back long runs and so far so good.

My take on an ice bath recovery after 24 miles

Interestingly enough, I am becoming unphased by the single digit temperatures, and simply add another layer.   Its good to be training in the coldest winter in decades while also going through hot flashes.  Enough said.

Here's what we woke up to yesterday:

 

Dangerous and slick, but the roads seemed okay.  And since we also had no power, the idea of going for a run seemed pretty smart...until the first humungous chunk of ice fell from the trees and shattered into a million pieces of jagged glass like pieces in front of me. 

Um, I think I will go back inside.  And with no power, the treadmill wasn't helpful.  So I scathingly looked at my bike trainer.  I could do that in the dark, with no heat and if I timed it right, I could even listen to "no commercial radio" on my clip on.  (note to self: you might want to charge your devices when an ice storm is predicted).  Anyway, I climbed on my bike, struggled to find the pedals in the pitch black of my basement, turned on the music and rode away.

They make it look so fun

I was on that bike for 90 minutes, just peddling and sweating and having a great time. (Apparently, just like the guys in the ad).  With the house at a comfortable 50 degrees, it was one of the best indoor rides I have ever had.  And since I was suppose to run for 10 miles, I made sure to hit 30 miles on the bike to make it "even".  When I figured I had gone long enough, I got off, made my way upstairs, and thought "Holy S*%*, I'm cold.  (No shower after - the one flaw in my plan)  But I changed into dry clothes and checked another work out off the training calendar.  I know, it  is not the same as running, but it had to count for something.  A short run today and then a double with 16 on Friday and 31 on Saturday at the Mid Maryland 50K.  At least the massive storm predicted for the weekend never materialized.  But even if it had, I have no doubt that Mother Nature would not have beaten me.  (She may be cruel, but she sure is pretty to look at.)

New York, New York

I had a feeling that after two years of mild temps and minimal snow, we were in for a wicked one this year...I guess I just hadn't predicted how wicked.

I can't say "wicked" without remembering this show

It has been brutal - and we haven't even had the worst of it.  I sure hope no one in Chicago or Minnesota is trying to train for Umstead!  I frontloaded my workouts last week to get in as much mileage as possible before the weekend since I knew I would be in New York Friday through Monday.  Of course my plan was to also run there, but I was skeptical I could drag myself out on the streets of Brooklyn when it was 3 degrees.  There was a gym with a treadmill, but, well, whatever, it just didn't happen.  Instead, I kept running up to the roof to take pictures like this:

 and this...

Plus, there was a lot of subway hopping and walking involved that maybe made up for the Junior's Cheesecake and other goodies.

 
 Anyway, it was a fun weekend and a great break from training.  I was slightly uncomfortable with our show choice, but I am sure glad I saw it before we took our 16 year old daughter!  Now that would have been awkward - and as a side note, I won't be watching South Park with her either.

I know I was suppose to get in yet another long run, but I am saving that for Thursday, when it might even get to 30 outside.  Honestly, I have no problem running when it is cold, but it sure seems that is all I ever do anymore.  I don't think I had tights on but maybe two or three times in the last two years, and this year, my shorts are so far down in my workout drawer that I couldn't even tell you what they look like.   I certainly should be prepared for any crazy weather that Umstead throws at me, that is for sure.  So long as it doesn't end up being the hottest April in history, I think I am okay.  Next up, Mid Maryland 50K.  I am stocking up on Hot Hands now.

Running Up Mountains and Shoveling Snow

Its true.  The sun makes everything better. Actually, being outside makes everything better, and the sun makes it spectacular!  It seems my new MO for long runs of 26 miles or more is to follow them with marathon snow shoveling sessions.   I cleared the drive of ~6 inches the day following Rehoboth, and here again yesterday, made several trips outside to keep up with the 10+ inches we were gifted with on Tuesday.  Too bad "Daily Mile" doesn't have a category for that - although I guess cross/or aerobic training would fit.

Anyway, I was particularly proud of my strategy yesterday, going out 3 times to shovel so I wouldn't have to tackle it all at once.  Yeah, good plan.  Thanks to the drifting and blowing last night, one half of my driveway had about a foot and a half of snow on it this morning, while the other half had less than an inch. The college where I work was opening late, so that gave me time to bundle up and hit it.  An hour and a half later, I stood leaning on my shoveling admiring my work when the plow decided it would be a good time to get to my little street of three houses.  It must have been the stink eye I gave him that made him jerk the plow blade away from the end of the drive so as not to create "the wall" that plows leave when they try and get in as close to the curb as they can.

Just what you want to see after finishing your hot chocolate!

As it was, I had to reshovel a little, but not like other times when I would haul the wheel barrow down and just throw the ice chunks in by hand.  Its okay through, I like shoveling, and even though neighbors come out and use their snowblowers in a quarter of the time it takes me to shovel, it is a task I enjoy.  Today was particularly pretty with a clear blue sky and everything sparkling and fresh.  And I guess the airport was back in business to boot!

When did E'burg become a flight path?

And this wasn't even my only experience with pure beauty this week!  That long run before the shoveling came in the Massanutten Mountains on Sunday where I tackled the "GaptoGap" run with the VHTRC.   When Coach suggested the run, I figured I would go, and could bail whenever it started to feel like too much - these are mountains after all.  A lot of folks were going to run just part of it, including Pam, so I planned on hanging with her.  But Coach went to all the trouble to print out a "turn sheet for dummies" that was so intricate and detailed, I couldn't possibly get lost.  So I hung with him and surprisingly, was able to keep up.  Man, it was fun to charge down the rocky hills -mostly because with the 3 inches of snow, most of the rocks were covered and that made the course so much friendlier to my not so coordinated legs and feet.  I only tripped once and was able to catch myself before I landed face first in the snow.  There were three huge climbs, and I kept up just fine.  The view from the top was indescribable (so here is a picture!)

Seriously, that is what I get to see when I run on these trails.  So. Very. Lucky.  And that wasn't the only one - there was still another climb that took us to another breathtaking view:

It just kept getting better and better, all day long.  There were icicles as tall as we were just inches from where we ran.

Photo credit: Pam Gowen

Before we knew it, we were running running down, breathless and fast, missing all the rocks due to the great footing from the snow.  I kept thinking I would have to stop, but we just kept running and before we knew it, we were once again in the woods, leaves covering the forest floor, with hardly a trace of snow to be found.  And then we were done.  26 miles of exquisite beauty.  If all long runs were like this, I might be training for a 100 miler every year!