Friday, August 20, 2010

8 days to Lean Horse

It's getting really close.  2 days ago, this was titled 10 days to Lean Horse, then I didn't finish it, then I ran some more, now it's 8 days to Lean Horse, I'm starting to get really fidgety.  Last Wednesday, I had it in my mind that under no circumstances did I want to run the route home from work again, so with no real plan in mind other than to try and meet up with friends for part of it I ran aimlessly all over Salem.  I ended up with 18 miles instead of 20 and felt really worthless for the effort.  Saturday and Sunday, I put clear plans together, followed the route, the food plan etc. and had very good 20 and 16 miles runs in very hot conditions, there is something to that whole positive thinking crap.  This Wednesday I just sucked it up and ran home from work, with no drama.  I had a good planning ahead moment and a bad one this past week.  The good one involved shoes.  There is a movie called Spirit of the Marathon, it's an ok documentary following several runners as they prepare for the Chicago Marathon a few years ago.  One of the runners the film follows is Deena Kastor the American Women's marathon record holder.  There is a scene in the movie where Denna receives her shoes from her sponsor company, Asics.  She receives a huge case of them!  Probably 20 pairs of shoes.  Not 20 different kinds for her to try out, 20 of the exact same shoe because at 120 to 140 miles a week, you go through a lot of shoes!  Well I ordered 2 pairs at a time for the first time and it reminded me of that scene, I even said "Look, I'm Deena Kastor light".

Shoes for Lean Horse arrived in plenty of time.

LH1 and LH2
Each shoe will have about 50 miles of "break in" miles.  I'm not planning on changing shoes during the race, but will have a second pair ready just in case.  The bad decision, was with my Infinit Nutrition Drink.  I can't believe after my miscalculation on my run to Sisters, that I almost let it happen again, but I would not have had enough for Lean Horse.  So I had to make an emergency purchase, pay for 2nd day shipping etc.  That's gonna be some expensive koolaid.

Last full week, 68 miles total with a long of 20.  I have a 20 miler this Saturday and 12 slow on Monday, other than that just easy 3 to 5 mile runs each day to keep loose......crazy close now!!!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

3 weeks to Lean Horse

The highlight of last weeks running was my 6 hour night time run in The Basket Slough.  This is my favorite local place to run.  It is the scene of my embarrassing Virgin in the Dark night time running episode.  I chose it for this run to force myself to use a headlamp for a long run, but I may also have chosen it to exorcise some “things that go bump in the night” demons.  Sure enough, first pass through, all I see are glowing eyes everywhere I look, and I have this overwhelming sensation of being watched and it is seriously creepy.  Second pass through, I force myself to stop and look into the trees and brush and confirm that yep, there are dozens of deer everywhere.  Once I convinced myself they were deer, I learned to take some comfort in their presence, figuring that if they were there, nothing higher on the food chain was.  The run was very successful, I ran through the transition from dusk to dark, and ran until 2:30 AM so I experienced running sleepy.  Many people complain about motion sickness from running with a headlamp.  I don’t ever get motion sickness from anything, so I didn’t expect any problems, but it’s nice to know that I can go that long with a headlamp with no issues. I had some uncomfortable chafing issues chronicled in a separate post if you’re morbidly curious.  I added grilled chicken to my approved foods list, I meant to try chicken broth too, but forgot all about it.  That 30 miles was my last “long” run before Lean Horse.  I’ve got a few more 16 and 20 milers, but I get to start slowly decreasing my overall miles.  The only downside is I’ve been eating like crazy, and have grown especially fond of chocolate milkshakes, at all times of day.  I’ll need to start cranking the calories back as I taper the miles, which is too bad.


For the week.  64 miles with a long of 30.  I’m feeling pretty good about where I am right now.  I just need to take care of the little things, like lists and supplies and chafing recovery!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fear and Chafing

Warning, this blog contains subject matter that may be considered mature in nature.  Seriously, a warning.....if you keep reading, you can’t TMI or WTF me later......stop now.

Ok.

I have long contended that Runners World was not intended for runners that actually run a lot.  Because if it was written for runners that run a lot of miles, every other article would be about chafing or diarrhea or urine color or frostbite on seemingly valuable appendages.  There’s an old runners quote, “Run long enough and something is bound to happen”.  This is true, and that something frequently involves losing skin from someplace painful.

I use Body Glide to prevent chafing.  Like many things running related, there may be better products available, I experimented until I found something that worked, then I stopped trying other things.  I need it more in the winter when my skin is either cold and/or wet, and usually use it on runs 20 miles or longer regardless of the weather.  It used to go on (from top to bottom), the inside of my arms, my nipples, the small of my back at my shorts line, pretty much everywhere inside my shorts/between my legs and all over my feet.  At my current weight, 148 thanks for asking, I don’t need it on my arms and small of my back.

I ran out of Body Glide a week or so ago.  It’s not a big emergency in the Summer, I run without a shirt most of the time, and I needed to go to Portland to get more shoes and figured I’d get more Glide when I was there.  Then, the trip to Portland kept getting delayed, and before I knew it it was Saturday Night and I was getting ready for a 30+ mile run in the middle of the night and knew that I needed Glide.  I get these little sample bottles of different anti chafing stuff in race bags all the time and usually just throw them in a box full of stuff I don’t know why I save.  I retrieved one and applied it everywhere Glide goes.

I am here to report that not all anti chafing lubricants are created equal.  It was cold and pretty windy in the Basket Slough Saturday night.  It’s 3 miles from one entrance to the other, so I was basically running the same three miles back and forth, into the wind one way, with the wind the other. By my third trip into the wind, my nipples were rubbed raw.  As I came up to the car at the Hwy 22 entrance I asked Jeanne to grab me a new shirt, thinking that might help, it didn’t.  For a while I was running with one hand in my shirt to hold it away from my chest, then decided to tie the shirt around my waist and be cold.  At some point I glanced at my watch, which I wear on the underside of my wrist (in running mode) and noticed red spots all over the palm of my hand.  It took a minute for me to realize what it was from but when I turned the beam of my head lamp onto my chest I looked like a nursing mother for a vampire baby!

I arrived at the Hwy 99 side and found Lynn waiting with Jeanne and taking pictures.  He also offered band aid advice, which turned out to be a great suggestion and meant I got a picture with P n J sammich in my mouth and bandaids on my tits!  They did work.  I was able to wear a shirt over them and had no further issues......well, until the hot water of the shower hit them at 3:00 AM!
 





Jeanne waiting for me at 11:00 PM

18 miles raw

 Sammiches and Bandaids


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

4 weeks to Lean Horse

If I didn’t keep a running log it might be difficult to go back and piece together the week of running before the wedding.  Jewelia and Tyler are married and somewhere on the California Coast I presume.  There was surreal light on the Oregon Coast for the wedding, William Bragg, an amazing Salem Photographer has posted one shot from the wedding, we all can’t wait for more.  I set out to run an easy 8 miles last Monday and let myself get sucked into 8 hill repeats at Bush Park in the middle.  Wednesday was one of my toughest 20 miles home from work runs in quite a while.  Hectic day at work, not enough to eat that day, hot, grouchy, no energy from step one.  At mile 5 I said to myself, “self, what’s the worse that happens, you get home at 8:00?”  Things didn’t get any better from there, but they didn’t get any worse.  I’ve got 7 long runs left between now and Lean Horse, they aren’t all gonna be perfect.  I had a very good chiro visit and very painful massage on Thursday and ran 9 miles in Lincoln City Saturday morning, pretty fast.  I’m not running fast very often these days and it felt really good.  I said when I got back, “I could have raced today”.  Then I found out good friends Bill and Steve had finished first and second at the Liberty House 10k in Salem that morning!

I’m continuing to experiment with foods.  Everything I ate on Wednesday I didn’t like, but that might just have been me, I didn’t like anything Wednesday.  A 6 hour night run, back to back 20’s and then 4 other 20 milers and then I better be ready.  As I have no real idea what’s ahead of me, I feel ignorant saying this, but I feel ready.  My weight is dropping but strength is staying.  I was 148 this morning and I’ve never been this low, this far away from a big race.  I’ve also never felt this strong at this weight before.  I’m pretty confidant in the training I’ve done so far, and what’s left as far as training goes doesn’t scare me.....well the 6 hours at night does a little.

For the week.  43 miles with a long of 20.  My legs feel really good after an easy week and the stress of the wedding behind me.  I’m looking forward to a week where running is the challenge!