zebano Oh I'm sometimes motivated to run more. I think working from home just makes it easier and I knew I had a 30 minute drive home and stuff to do then. I'd lost my opportunity for a nice lunch run mostly due to not leaving the office and having a bad attitude. back in the good old days I'd run it out with some friends trying to keep up and me warning them it's going to get worse. Around mile 4 is the best spot to hammer out some aggression on THAT particular run.

Was it a short course 

Nah, it was Kiwi Certified 

More of the same for me, though I cut back on the (more tiring) swimming because I haven’t felt well the last few days.  Increased my jogging distance a little, and increased the distance between walk breaks yesterday because it was cold. Glute still isn’t good, but it’s not getting any worse as I go a little longer.  Lengthened my pool running stints too.  

Sun - 3 miles jogging quarter-mile repeats @8:55 pace, walking rest, glute sore while jogging, not while walking

Mon - 44 minutes swimming, 30 pool running

Tues - 75 minutes pool running

Weds - 4.2 miles jogging quarter-mile repeats, walking rest, glute same

Thurs - 80 minutes pool running

Fri - 4 miles jogging quarter-mile repeats @9:00 pace, walking rest, glute same

Sat - off

Total - 11.2 miles jogging, 44 minutes swimming, 185 minutes pool running

Darkwave -  Thanks for letting me know which poses you find useful for running, that's super helpful. Thanks.

James -  nice job stepping up with more pool running.

Steve - I'm always curious how much people are influenced by Strava. Would you consider going private or abandoning Strava entirely? I know 2 local runners who did that just because they were either constantly fighting for segments or trying to keep up with other runners.

My big race .. got cancelled (F U 2020) last night because one of the trails got closed for chainsaw work and it's one of two trails we must have to circumnavigate the lake.  I got a bit depressed and decided I was going to go to one of the other local lakes that I run often and time trial it.

Spoilers / Strava

Unfortunately I was super antsy and couldn't fall asleep last night but woke up at 7 this morning (super late) not feeling rested. I did some chores, drank some coffee and at 9 finally at a breakfast of milk, cheerios and a banana. I geared up and got to the course at 10. I wasted a bunch of time on my phone, did a 10 minute jog with 2 strides, went to my car and exchanged my long sleeve shirt and hat for gloves, arm warmers,my jersey and Merrel Trail Gloves. It's 36F according to my phone and I'm ready to roll.

I'm going to digress a bit and say that I was really nervous about running 7:00-7:15 for the first 10 miles on the original course but at least that's mostly flat, some concrete and mostly flat well groomed trails. Pleasant Creek ... is hills, hills, more hills and footing that varies from poor to mediocre the whole way. If you're looking for a fast course, this isn't it. That said I did manage 2 loops (a little over 17 miles) at 8:59/mile and the first 14 were solidly easy effort so I knew I'd been gaining fitness even if I had some old memories of doing tempo workouts here at 8:00/mi pace and finding it hard.

I popped my lemon Venom energy drink, had 2 swallows, and walked to the start. I like going clockwise here even though it means the end will be brutal (hint, the parking lot is at the top of a hill, both directions suck at the end if you're going hard). I started out and my legs felt strong and smooth, I glanced at my watch and saw 184 for a cadence so I knew I was moving well and tried to reduce my pace 3 times. The early hills had poor footing, but thankfully they weren't too muddy so I moved well and when I hit the grassy flat at the end of mile 1 my watched beeped 7:19 and I was both super pleased and quite worried. I did a mental check and the legs felt good so I just prepared myself for sand hill. Sand hill was brutal but I just tried to keep my cadence high and find a line that allowed me to run in the sand as little as possible. It's a longish hill and it hurt.

At this point I'm going to digress a little and say that my personal theory of racing says that your first third should be almost automatic, your body is just moving and there's fairly minimal effort. The second third, you focus in and while there's pain you push and hold pace. The final third is when you bare down and find out how bad you want it (in DarkWave parlance, you as yourself a question and find out how you're going to answer). This has worked well for me from the mile up to the HM so I figured it should apply well today.

Anyway, Sand Hill is a long hill and it made me feel my legs so I started questioning my pace but thankfully it was early enough that my legs recovered and I just tried to recover on the downhill. After this I hit a bunch of small hills 2 of which are notable because they're super steep. I always remember them because I did a long tempo in the other direction with my dog leashed to my waist and when I hit them she basically pulled me up with such power that I've always regretted I cannot run uphill like that. I grinned a little as I hit that early going clockwise instead of counter clockwise, then crossed a road and did a few more up and downs with only one serious slip in mud. At some point the watch beeped mile 2 in 7:22 and mile 3 in 7:20 and I started believing I could do this.

Mile 4 saw me enter the long long prairie hill   (called "hell hill" recently by some other runners )... I don't usually mind this as it's just a long grind of switchbacks but the central rut is actually pretty runnable. Today with a little more pace in the legs I began suffering early and soon found the main rut filled with mud so that I had to run on more uneven grassy slants,  the pain in my legs picked up and I don't recall a ton beyond what was in front of my feet, just continuously trying to find non-muddy lines with nice easy footing. Mile 4 7:28

Across a bridge, detouring around the old mud pit, through a field, back to the trail, across another bridge and up a couple of  grindy hills. I start asking myself question and my left shoe comes untied. ugg. Mile 5 7:15 a nice recovery from hell hill but I know I'm on borrowed time and just hope I can power through the rest of this unholy terrain (it's really not that bad, people who run in the Rockies would laugh at me).

Mile 6 is blissfully primarily rolling downhill just watching my footing, wondering why I feel each step in my low back and trying to figure out when I pissed off my quads. 7:23

Mile 7 starts and my left shoe almost comes off, I power up the hill I'm on, retie it and allow myself a quick 3 breaths unencumbered before I force myself to start rolling again. Thankfully that 20 second break seems to release a tension in my left hamstring that I didn't know I was feeling and I'm able to start pushing. At this point I'm just watching for landmarks. There's the campsite so 2.5 miles to go!! each steep downhill no matter how short hurts my quads and low back, each uphill spikes my breathing, there seems to be more mud than there was early in the course. I pass the end of the campsite, 7:40 this mile and I vow to get back on pace. I push up past the graveyard and to the most awful downhill on the course, it's steep and longer than most but mostly bad because it's super rutted, there is no clean line to run and it curves... combine that with some mud and I'm almost in the weeds on off the left side of the path praying my footing holds. From there I cross a road, a parking lot, vault a little bit of standing water and I'm on the flattest portion of the course. Relax the shoulders, pass the water sanitation pond. Relax the jaw, keep pumping, there's a road and a bathroom up a bluff to my right. The mile end in 7:16 and I know I have about one tenth of a mile into the woods before I get the worst climb of the day. I marshal my resolve and go.

The first climb is actually 3 small climbs rolled together with the flats being a matter of 3 paces, they're manageable but the course veers right and hidden from view is a minute long climb and my cadence falters. I put my head down and focus on high knees and despite that my breathing is out of control. I crest the climb and the course veers left and I know I have 2 final climbs. My legs are done but knowing the end is neigh I push on, my stomach finally starting to revolt as my breathing is out of control. 1 climb left, a flat, push push push, a climb, cross the road, stop the watch and collapse on to the grass! A car pulls up and rolls down it's window, I pump my fist and start scream "Whooo-hoo". They speed away and I grin.

Strava says I managed 7:25 / mi, 7:04 GAP (not sure how much I trust that) and 4th overall on this route (disclaimer, it changed after the derecho this year to avoid a mud pit that had some many trees in it the rangers decided it was unsalvageable). :58 being 3rd place and about :90 second behind 2nd! I have goals for next year. I'm super happy with this. Other than tying my shoe and allowing myself a few extra seconds to catch my breath, I gave my all. If you trust GAP I should reduce my effort in the climbs in mile 2 & 4 but I gave a super steady effort outside of that.

Jmac - Yeah, we do purchase a lot of stuff on Amazon, I do tend to try to help the local business if they carry Altra shoes though.

Mark - Ditto to what Darkwave said, at least in my short experience Yoga was more of a core and single leg strength training session than stretching.

Nice outfit for the Yoga, though I’m guessing you will replace the shoes with Pink shoes of course.

Zeb - thanks for the “race” report. It sounds like it was fun.

My week is below. Nice tempo on Thursday, felt strong the whole way though I suppose the temps at 1c helped a lot.

I felt quite tired after Saturday's run though, I'm guessing it was because I chose to run with pants and the accumulated drag tired my hips. Or perhaps it was that plus DOMS from Friday. Next week I have planned to run a bit further and closer to 80km 50 miles before coming back down.

Weekly for period: From: 30/11/2020 To 06/12/2020

Total distance: 74.21km and 6h10

Zebano thanks for the well written race/time trial report.

Its always hard to workout a trail race in terms of what is a good time etc compared to road races.

Flavio I just googled that Valencia half. Crazy fast and I've never heard of the guy !

Very nice job, Zebano - I enjoyed the write up.

James - I hope you feel better soon - you've had a tough time of it.

Steve/Flavio - nice weeks.

My week:

55 miles, 1000 yards swimming, and 2:00 hours of pool-running
M: upper body weights/core, 11 miles easy (9:18), plus drills and 4 hill strides. Later did 35 minutes pool-running
T: 10 miles, including a short track workout of 3x800, 4x200 in 3:09, 3:08, 3:06, 43, 43, 42, 41. 2:3x recovery after 800s; full recovery for 200s. Followed with leg injury prevention work and streaming yoga. 500 yards recovery swimming in afternoon.
W: 7 miles very easy (9:09) and then another mile on the track to confirm calibration of footpod. Followed with streaming yoga. Later did 35 minutes pool-running.
Th: 50 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
F: DIY yoga and 7 miles, including a bit over a mile at half-marathon effort in 6:38 (so about 6:31 pace).
Sa: DIY yoga and 2 miles very easy (9:36)
Su: 3 mile warm-up, and then Blue and Gray half marathon in 1:31:08, followed with half mile cooldown. 500 yards recovery swimming in afternoon.

Race report for the half is here.  Unquestionably by far the slowest and hardest half marathon course I've ever run (which isn't saying that much, since I usually go for decently fast ones).  It had one absolutely awful hill - climbing 200 feet in 1KM for a 6% grade for that section.  The rest of the course was gently rolling hills, which would have been fine except that the course was also schizophrenic - jumping back and forth between sidewalks and bike trails and roads.

I was warned, so I knew what I was getting into, but it was still tougher than I expected.  Good times.