Starting to Plan

For the last couple years, I've done the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics.  This year I raised pledges that totaled $1075.  The jump was this Saturday, February 21.

Now that the plunge is done, it's time to look forward to the summer and race season.

After I did the Turkey Trot 5K in November, I took almost seven weeks off from running.  In the time off, I stared doing some hip and leg strength training.  I think it helped.  When I came back to running, I started out on short slow runs.  I also did some biking before and after running to loosen up my legs.  It was slow going, but adding a little bit at a time seemed to work out fine.  I put on about 20 miles in January and I'll probably hit about 30 miles in February.

In October, before my knee fell apart, I signed up for a marathon in May.  The Lake Wobegon Trail marathon had an early bird special, and I got in for $55.  I was thinking I was going to have to scrap that race as well.  But, at this point I'm thinking I can make a run at it.

Here's my plan.  I'm going to run once every three days, and I'm going to do a longer run every weekend; every third week I'm going to skip my long run.  My plan for long runs is 4, 6, off, 7, 9, off, 11, 13, off, 13, 18, easy week and then race day. I know it's unlikely that this is a good plan, but I'll give it a shot until my knee starts to hurt.  It would be fun to run the marathon, but I won't be very disappointed if I have to cut it.

For the triathlon season, I'm going to go for the Olympic distances.  In June I'm going to do the Liberty Triathlon in Rockford. In August, I'm going to do the Lake Marion Olympic race.  July is still up in the air.  If I can get my run miles up, I may try the July Toughman MN 70.3 in Chisago.  Otherhows, I may do a sprint with my sister.  My bike is a brick (30 lbs), so I'm a little hesitant to try a 70.3.  I'm going to budget in a new bike for next year, but right now I can't justify buying two bikes in two years.

A lot of this is contingent on how my running goes over the next month. Hopefully there aren't any setbacks, but if there is I'll just have to reevaluate.

Turkey Trot 5K Recap

Turkey Trot 5K/10K

Fergus Falls 11/15/14

In late August, I signed up for the 5K Turkey Trot with my sister.  She had won the 6 race series in her area, and the award was going to be presented after the Fergus Falls Turkey Trot in November.  My sis is pretty awesome, and naturally she is my hero.

I was in rough shape.  In the two weeks after Surf the Murph, I had tried three runs, and I had not been able to get to two miles on any of them.  I took the week before the race completely off.  

It snowed the week before the race.  The streets/sidewalks had a lot of hard pack snow and some ice on them.  It was going to be a slow cautious race for a couple reasons.

My nephew also wanted to run, so we all also signed up for the one mile run before the 5K race.

My knee didn't feel too bad on the one mile run. Maybe taking it easy for a couple weeks was going to do the trick.  We ran together for the first half mile. After that, my nephew took off in a quest for the podium.  He passed third place with about 4 blocks to go, and he held on to take the bronze position.  I ran about a nine minute mile; I felt pretty good and optimistic.

My nephew wasn't going to run the 5K.  He found a warm spot to wait it out in the school, and my sis and I went to line up for the 5K.  It was in the teens but there was nearly no wind.  It was reasonable weather for a run, but the footing made it a pretty silly idea.

At the go signal, my first step tweaked my knee.  I started off slow and tried to loosen it up.  It didn't help; it was the same pain on the side of my knee, and it felt like I had a bruise behind my kneecap. A mile into the run, I knew this was going to be the last run of the year.

I stuck it out with a time of 29:00.  My knee felt a little better in the third mile, but I was doing more harm than good.  Around the last corner, I decided to catch the lady in front of me.  She was about a block ahead of me, so I sprinted as best I could (idiot) and caught up.  It seemed like a dick move to pass right at the line, so I pulled up and finished one second behind her.

So that's it; I'm probably done running for the year.  I'm definitely out for the half marathon in a couple weeks.  It's been a good year.  I did a few 5K races, one 10K, two sprint triathlons and one long trail run.

Below are my totals since I signed up for the Lake Marion Sprint Triathlon in February.

Running
Total:                   340 miles
Average length:  3.3 miles
Average Pace:     9:39

Biking
Total Road:          182 miles
Average Length:  11.3 miles
Average Speed:    16 mph    
Total Stationary:  13:27 hours
Avg. Stationary:   33 minutes

Swimming
Total:         14.6 miles
Average:    0.54 miles

Workouts
Total:        11:15 hours
Average:   29 minutes

Me with my sis and nephew
before the 1 mile run.

Surf the Murph Recap (a.k.a. I'm an idiot.)

Surf the Murph

25K/50K/50 mile

Savage, MN 8/25/2014

Oy, I'm an idiot.  Everything was telling me to skip this run, but I really had my heart set on it.

Since the Burnsville 10K, I had been slowly  adding distance to my runs.  By mid October,  I was over 20 miles a week, and my longest run was just over 11 miles.  I remember commenting to my wife that my left knee felt hollow after one of long runs.  That probably should have been a hint to pull back, but I thought it was just a quirk of a long run.  About two weeks before the Murph, I jazzed my left knee after a 6 mile run.  It didn't happen during the run. I felt fine that night, but the next day I could barely walk.  I tried one more 6 mile a few days later, but I was in trouble.  The side of my knee was killing me, and it felt like I had a bruises behind knee cap.  I took the whole week off before the Murph run.

The Friday before Surf the Murph (Saturday run), I concussed myself.  I hit my head on a cabinet.  I was dizzy and couldn't stand up with my eyes closed.  I took the day off work and slept.  I didn't see the doc because I didn't want her to tell me to skip the race. Like I said, I'm an idiot.

In September and October, I was averaging runs of 6 miles with an average pace of 9:11.  My long run was 11.2 miles in about 1:43:00.  I did not do a single trail run practice before Surf the Murph.  I had hoped to break three hours, but mostly I wasn't concerned about time. The temp was in the 40°s, no rain in sight, not much wind. It was a beautiful day for a long run.

Pre-Race
By the morning of the race I felt pretty good. I wasn't dizzy anymore, and the vertigo was gone.  My knee didn't even hurt.  I thought it was going to be a good day.

The run takes place about two miles from my house.  So, I figured I could just run to the site in the morning and walk back when I was done.  Idiot.

The run there actually went pretty well.  I was testing out my knee and things were going pretty well.  I got there about 10 minutes before the start.  I picked up my bib, stashed my shirt and was ready to go.

Trail Run
Goal:      Have fun, don't get hurt.
Actual:  Got it half right.
The three races each start an hour apart with the 50 mile group going off at 6:00am.  At 8:00am, at least we didn't need the head lamps for the 25K.

My Garmin had the elevation change on the course as 900ft.  The website for the race says it's 2000 ft of uphill. Hard to say which is correct, but it's definitely a hilly course. The first third of the course is in the trees and all hills.  The second third is in the open and much flatter.  The last third is back in the trees and hilly, but not as many hills as the beginning.

The first 5 miles didn't hurt.  Over the next 7 miles my knee started hurting pretty bad. I walked the majority of the last three miles with periodic stops to stretch out my legs.

It's a beautiful course, and I loved running through the trees. But, I should have walked off the course at the aid station around mile 12.  I felt terrible after the race, and then I still had a two mile walk home. It was brutal.

I finished at 3:43:25. Many people finished after me, so not a total failure.  Hard to say how much damage I did.  I can still barely walk, and I can't even lay on my left side at night because of knee pain.

I'm Doing a 5K with my sis on 11/15/14. We'll see how that goes, but I'm thinking the half marathon on 11/29/14 is probably out.