Well, it's been somewhere around a year that I've been running.
I know my first race was the Chili Challenge right about the first week of November. Won't be doing that one this year since we'll be in Wisconsin for my cousin's wedding.
The Wineglass marathon was pretty much the end to a year full of a running. Well... The first year. At the moment, I think I'm still planning on the Turkey Trot and Christmas 5K's and there's a half in January I'm eyeing...
So, now that I've experienced most races below Ultras, what do I think? Am I ready for an Ultra? NO. (: At least not at speed. The Wineglass was the first/only race where I was trying to keep up some speed and found out where my physical limits were at least with barefoot form. Never before have I tried to keep running while in agony.
And yet... I think I'm going to sign up again for next year.
Was it my favorite? Definitely not. I mean the Wineglass was a great race, I'd say the best road race I've done, but 26 miles is about twice as far as what sounds nice. Yes, as far as road races go, I think I like the half.
But road races are pretty much my least favorite. Not that I don't like them, but I like trail races better. And better than that are obstacle races.
Definitely what sits foremost in my race desire for 2015 is another Spartan Trifecta.
THOUGH....
MOST FUN? I really have to say that was the Color Run with MaKenzie. I didn't really run at all for that one, but seeing my 2 year old running a 5K and playing in the colors was definitely the most fun I've had at any of my races.
But after that one, the Spartan Beast World Championships in VT was my favorite. Yeah, it was 9 hours, almost twice as long as the marathon with only 16 miles, but about 9000 feet of climbing up... And yeah, heading down to the last 5K of obstacles at dusk was really dang tiring and I was more of a floundering fish trying to do any of them than I was an obstacle racer, but dang it I MADE IT THROUGH! And while I was tired and sore, I was not in NEAR the pain I experienced for the last 6-10 miles of the marathon trying to run.
So what now? I'm still working on that... I'm gonna give blood again and see how that goes with trying to run. I recall being more tired when I tried once last year, and looked it up to see that I am essentially reverse blood doping so yeah, it's probably going to have an effect, we'll see how much. I'm also re-focusing on taking off the 10lbs I put back on this year and the other 30 that still need to come off. I'm logging those intake calories again. Tried that a few weeks ago and the morning runs were rough. So we'll see just what this brings and maybe I'll ease up on some runs. Oh, and more barefoot runs. The barefoot group tells me that's my problem with the marathon. It was always on my list, it just didn't seem to get done. Though my feet and hands are the weak points when it comes to cold, so it may be Spring before I get any more barefoot runs in.
I'd like to get more runs in with Kenzie and/or Bella, but we'll have to see how that works out.
I think I'll keep up my Active account and hopefully score some more free races.
I want another Spartan Trifecta so I'll have to see about trying to volunteer for those or something, cause they ain't cheap.
I'll probably do Tough Mudder again since it's just down the road.
I kinda feel obligated to do the local races, though it seemed like last spring was pretty bogged down with races every week, so I may have to re-evaluate that. Most of those are just 5K's as well.
I might go do the Humdinger again, that was my first over a 5K and before the snow was gone and a trail/minor obstacle race...
Probably some trail races, though at the moment I'm not feeling as much pull for them... I think I need to find some closer and/or winter ones...
Dunno, we'll see!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Wineglass Marathon
Ahh, my first full.
I left there glad I'd done it but kinda unhappy at it. And then by midnight I was already re-contemplating trying it again...
So... It went about like this:
Woke up to a nice 32F. Decided to try on my Injinji compression socks and confirm that they just barely fit in my See-Ya LS'. K, they'll keep me warmer and the compression should only help maybe.
And I guess I'll wear my Spahten arm sleeves for some warmth as well. I was of course already planning on wearing gloves since it might not be over 50F by the time we were done.
Left the house around 6:30. Thought maybe I'd be late as I hadn't accounted for time to de-ice the car!
Got to Bath around 7.
Headed for the buses, but thankfully, the area was full of helpful, happy staffers who directed me towards the FULL buses(I was headed towards the HALF buses) before I even got there. Really, this was the most well staffed race I've done. Everyone seemed quite happy and wished me a great run and directed me where I needed to go before I even asked. This carried through the race as well, there were people lined up at each town and at the finish, all cheering happily on. More so than any other race I've done.
Anyway, got to the starting area maybe 7:20. It was freezing. Waited in line for the portapotties.
More freezing.
Dropped off my post-race bag at the UPS truck. A towel, sweatshirt and pants for when I figured I'd be cold. Turns out I didn't need any of it.
More freezing, another turn at the portapotties.
Were I to do it again, I would have found an old sweatshirt somewhere that I didn't mind parting with and worn that prior to the start and tossed it to the side. I gave it a passing thought before I left, but didn't go further.
And then they said they were starting about 10 minutes late for more people coming, so more time standing out in the freezing(Ok, it was up to 36. It was damn cold!)
But then it was time to line up, new to this whole pacing thing. It was nice though, they had official pacers and I lined up at the 9:44 min/mile 4:15 hr/min finish, as theoretically according to the calculator it should be possible.
And we were off!
Took a couple miles before the feet started finally getting into it and not so numbish.
Largely though the miles just ticked away quicker than I would have expected.
Kept right on with the 9:44 pace.
Nutrition was a bit unknown as I suspected given the difficulty of trying to time out when I'd be at which water stops, but basically they were every 2 miles until around mile 20 at which point they were like 1-1.5 miles apart. I stopped and had Gatorade at almost every one and got Gu's at those 3 stops. I think I used one of my Gu's and I also had a snack Sized Payday for some protein once an hour.
Think I put my gloves in my pocket before we hit Kanona.
I think I hung my sleeves around my spibelt around Coopers Plains.
Spibelt worked well except I attached the extra pocket for some mustard and Paydays and apparently that swung around a bit too much a fair amount of the time. I'd do that differently as well.
But basically it all went quite well through mile 15. I was starting to get a bit tired, but not too bad. Then at mile 16 things started going downhill. Not entirely sure of the order, but I was definitely getting more tired and aches were starting to show up. Mainly the ball of my left foot and my left thigh/hip area. It gathered a lot of pain. Not exactly sure when, but by mile 20 for sure, it was MAJOR pain with every step. It was all I could do to find some periods of 12:30 minute paced running throughout the end. Well, I guess I found a bit more speed in the last half mile to the finish, but things were NOT feeling good at all. I was afraid I was going to cramp my thighs right up. I took the mustard somewhere around the last few miles as well, hoping that would ease something up but I didn't notice anything there.
So... It would seem I either need to work more on Barefoot/pavement and/or switch to something with some more padding to go those distances on pavement.
But I am now thinking I am going to try it again... I've also put about 10lbs back on this year and am sitting right about at 200, so I've got a good 40lbs to lose that would help a lot as well. That's going to be my focus now.
The Wineglass had great food afterwards. Greeted with chocolate milk and water, then a bag to put your food in, Wegmans had bagels and cookies and soup and bananas and... I think more... Then Rico's had pizza... It really was the best race as far as the structure around it. It was just the pain for the last 10 miles that was something I was not used to and was really killing me. But now I think we'll have to try again!
I left there glad I'd done it but kinda unhappy at it. And then by midnight I was already re-contemplating trying it again...
So... It went about like this:
Woke up to a nice 32F. Decided to try on my Injinji compression socks and confirm that they just barely fit in my See-Ya LS'. K, they'll keep me warmer and the compression should only help maybe.
And I guess I'll wear my Spahten arm sleeves for some warmth as well. I was of course already planning on wearing gloves since it might not be over 50F by the time we were done.
Left the house around 6:30. Thought maybe I'd be late as I hadn't accounted for time to de-ice the car!
Got to Bath around 7.
Headed for the buses, but thankfully, the area was full of helpful, happy staffers who directed me towards the FULL buses(I was headed towards the HALF buses) before I even got there. Really, this was the most well staffed race I've done. Everyone seemed quite happy and wished me a great run and directed me where I needed to go before I even asked. This carried through the race as well, there were people lined up at each town and at the finish, all cheering happily on. More so than any other race I've done.
Anyway, got to the starting area maybe 7:20. It was freezing. Waited in line for the portapotties.
More freezing.
Dropped off my post-race bag at the UPS truck. A towel, sweatshirt and pants for when I figured I'd be cold. Turns out I didn't need any of it.
More freezing, another turn at the portapotties.
Were I to do it again, I would have found an old sweatshirt somewhere that I didn't mind parting with and worn that prior to the start and tossed it to the side. I gave it a passing thought before I left, but didn't go further.
And then they said they were starting about 10 minutes late for more people coming, so more time standing out in the freezing(Ok, it was up to 36. It was damn cold!)
But then it was time to line up, new to this whole pacing thing. It was nice though, they had official pacers and I lined up at the 9:44 min/mile 4:15 hr/min finish, as theoretically according to the calculator it should be possible.
And we were off!
Took a couple miles before the feet started finally getting into it and not so numbish.
Largely though the miles just ticked away quicker than I would have expected.
Kept right on with the 9:44 pace.
Nutrition was a bit unknown as I suspected given the difficulty of trying to time out when I'd be at which water stops, but basically they were every 2 miles until around mile 20 at which point they were like 1-1.5 miles apart. I stopped and had Gatorade at almost every one and got Gu's at those 3 stops. I think I used one of my Gu's and I also had a snack Sized Payday for some protein once an hour.
Think I put my gloves in my pocket before we hit Kanona.
I think I hung my sleeves around my spibelt around Coopers Plains.
Spibelt worked well except I attached the extra pocket for some mustard and Paydays and apparently that swung around a bit too much a fair amount of the time. I'd do that differently as well.
But basically it all went quite well through mile 15. I was starting to get a bit tired, but not too bad. Then at mile 16 things started going downhill. Not entirely sure of the order, but I was definitely getting more tired and aches were starting to show up. Mainly the ball of my left foot and my left thigh/hip area. It gathered a lot of pain. Not exactly sure when, but by mile 20 for sure, it was MAJOR pain with every step. It was all I could do to find some periods of 12:30 minute paced running throughout the end. Well, I guess I found a bit more speed in the last half mile to the finish, but things were NOT feeling good at all. I was afraid I was going to cramp my thighs right up. I took the mustard somewhere around the last few miles as well, hoping that would ease something up but I didn't notice anything there.
So... It would seem I either need to work more on Barefoot/pavement and/or switch to something with some more padding to go those distances on pavement.
But I am now thinking I am going to try it again... I've also put about 10lbs back on this year and am sitting right about at 200, so I've got a good 40lbs to lose that would help a lot as well. That's going to be my focus now.
The Wineglass had great food afterwards. Greeted with chocolate milk and water, then a bag to put your food in, Wegmans had bagels and cookies and soup and bananas and... I think more... Then Rico's had pizza... It really was the best race as far as the structure around it. It was just the pain for the last 10 miles that was something I was not used to and was really killing me. But now I think we'll have to try again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)