Running journal, Saturday, 2006-03-04

Running journal, Saturday, 2006-03-04
Resting heart rate: 56 bpm (60 second test)
Day: Saturday
Date: 2006-03-04
Weather: Sunny, then overcast
Temp: 16.67 C (62 F)
Time: 09:35-13:01
Terrain: 21.34 meter descent on way out, same climb on way back (~70 feet). A lot of flat spaces, but a number of mild hills
Comments: 16-miler today. Not as interesting as the 14-miler from two weeks ago. I stayed up late last night writing e-mails and overslept, waking at 08:45. My alarm did not go off for some reason. :P Perhaps I am not as excited because my last long run left me feeling sore and exhausted. :) The weather, regardless, was sunny, a bit too chilly for a walk in my singlet and shorts, but perfect for running. Ran the first half in 1:40, the second in 1:46. Average pace of 12.88 min/mi, a 5.62 hour marathon time. I saw the two bubbly girls again as they left the mile 19 wayside park. I heard a wild-turkey gobble in the woods near mile 17. :) At mile 16, I heard two female joggers approaching behind me. A middle-aged male biker approaching me from the front, a big smile on his face, whistled past me at them. I felt shocked at his behavior, because I would like everyone to enjoy exercise without unwanted sexual advances from strangers. I saw a coyote picking meat off of a carcass near mile 15 (a chain-link fence separated us). I stopped and stared, and it got nervous, grabbed a hunk, and trotted away across a field. Across the bridge and 100 meters down the trail from the coyote sighting, someone had parked a red car on the trail shoulder. Back at mile 18.5, I had overheard a patrol car asking a biker about a car on the trail. The biker said he hadn't seen a car -- maybe this was the one the officer was looking for. There I go again on my Veronica Mars kick, solving the mysteries of the world. ;) At any rate, It was gone when I returned. At mile 14, as I passed two women walkers, a jackrabbit sprinted across the trail and road ahead of us. One of the surprised women mentioned it to the other, who replied, "Jackrabbit, I thought it was a horse." Funny. :) Near mile 12, a couple on quad-skates passed me. I wonder if the movie Roll Bounce (2005) has interested people in them as an alternative to inline-skates. Turning around at mile 12, I returned to the mile 13 wayside in Goethe Park. There I saw a bicycle team from the Greater Sacramento/Northern Nevada Leukemia & Lymphoma Society "Team In Training" (TNT, or GSNNLLSTNT ;)) resting on the ground. A woman that I frequently recognize was with them. She sticks in my memory because she wears sky blue (one of my favorite colors), seems wise, seems to enjoy her exercise, and because I think the facial features behind her sunglasses and helmet are cute. :) I chewed two bites of my Peanut Butter-flavored Powerbar during each walk break, and it tasted really good. I realized how hungry I felt, which makes sense considering I burned about 2200 calories today (I weigh about 2.2 kg (4.85 lbs) less than Friday). I also realized how little water I was drinking, and I stopped at every water fountain I could. Next time I will hydrate myself properly the night and morning before the run. x_x I feel disappointed with my preparedness because I really want to have these routines down before the marathon in June, so I might go into it feeling as confident as I can expect to. :P At mile 15, an older runner approached me that I frequently see on the trail. We exchanged greetings, he turned around at mile 15 a few minutes later, then passed me as I took a walk break. At mile 15, in the coyote's place, I saw a great blue heron standing upright. :) My "eagle eyes" noticed it only after I watched a biker pull off the road, dismount, walk her bike over to the chain-link fence, and pull out her camera. ;) Near mile 16 I saw a belted kingfisher for the first time. :) Shortly thereafter, perhaps because of the water and energy bar intake, I felt strong enough to move my hips forward and my chest upward, a more efficient running form (I think). I felt fine until mile 17, when my calf muscles began mildly cramping. I returned to my old form, a mild forward slouch, and this helped, perhaps because I slowed down. By mile 19 my right calf no longer hurt. :) At the mile 19 wayside park, a smiling and gregarious middle-aged woman with a long pigtail (high on endorphins, no doubt ;) passed me for the second time. We exchanged greetings, and after noticing she was running strongly, I encouraged her as she ran away with, "Good job." :) She pumped both arms in the air in thanks. :) Fun. She wore a bottle gripper. Before crossing under the Sunrise overpass, I passed three boys on bikes waiting impatiently for their grandfather to catch up, presumably from a mile-19 wayside bathroom break. As I passed them, I overheard one judge me by remarking matter-of-factly to the other, "He's not really running." :) I was too exhausted to laugh, but this remark made my day. :) The boy was spot-on. I was a shuffling, achy, exhausted mess, my muscles too stiff and inflexible to go any faster. As I reached the pedestrian bridge, three and one-half hours after I had left it, I raised my arms in a tired, triumphant gesture and then slowly began the humbling climb up the steep embankment, carefully nursing my aching calf muscles. :) I walked across the bridge, noting the sky was now overcast, and then walked back across to continue loosening my legs. I noticed an Acorn Woodpecker squawking and attempting to build a nest in the hollow of one of the bridge joints. I had noticed a pigeon with a twig in its beak climb inside a joint on the other side as I crossed the bridge on the way out. As I smiled at the bird's industriousness, I heard a woman on the opposite side say, "Excuse me." I turned, and she inquired of me calmly, "Do you know about the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?" She was carrying a plastic grocery bag and had taken her headphones off of her ears. I replied that I knew of him, and after a few exchanges, we began walking to the south end of the bridge. She told me how Jesus had brought her happiness and strength, to the point where she felt "addicted" and needed Him every day. She told me of God's healing power, and how it could raise people from the dead, like Lazarus from the Christian bible. I asked her if she had personally seen someone raised from the dead, and she replied in the affirmative. She related a story to me of how she had been at the scene of an accident, and had seen someone stop breathing. After she returned from calling an ambulance, to her shock the man was walking again. I interacted with her compassionately, trying to understand what needs her belief in God filled for her. She seemed happy to share her thoughts with someone who did not judge or criticize her. When we reached the south end of the bridge, I stopped and thanked her, and she asked me if she could give me the names of churches in the area where I could learn more. I told her I was an atheist, and wasn't actively seeking a spiritual or religious component to my life. She seemed to accept that. I thanked her again for sharing her testimony and wished her well. We parted amicably. She seemed to have an air of loneliness about her and a head-in-the-clouds tone in her voice. An embarrassing moment occurred during the discussion when my Safeway Sport Sunblock (SPF 30) began irritating my left eye, causing a few tears to fall down my cheek. I felt so embarrassed, thinking to myself that she would interpret my tears as an indication of how moved I was by her testimony. My cheap sunglasses do not fit my face well, hugging too close to my eyes, which causes sweat to accumulate and drain into my eye. :P Time to invest in better sunglasses. As I walked back across the bridge, I noted that my right-calf seems to fatigue more because it bears more weight than the left on the bits of the trail where the shoulder slopes downward. Running on the asphalt seems to be the only solution I can think of to this problem. That means a harder running surface and danger from high-speed bikers though. I'll probably just stick with running on the shoulder when I can. Happily, no chafing problems with the RaceReady shorts. :) That alone is worth their price. :) Galloway says that the exhaustion I felt today ("slowing down during the last three to six miles, feeling very tired at the end and all evening long, not being able to maintain the pace at the end of the run without struggling") is because I ran too fast. While this solution comes as a relief, I wonder how I can run any slower. Perhaps improve my form from the beginning and shorten my stride length? I really want to finish in under six hours so I might impress my friends and family, but my expectations might not be consistent with my training schedule. I am on the "To Finish" schedule after all. ;) I definitely do not feel "strong" at the end like Galloway recommends. My right shoulder also hurt. Galloway says this might be because I'm "leaning forward as I run." True enough. He continues, "you'll have a tendency to compensate by holding the head back, which uses the muscles of the shoulder and neck more and produces fatigue more rapidly. When the body is held upright, the head, neck and shoulders are in alignment and require little or no muscle power to keep them in position. Those who hold their arms too far out from the body will also overextend the muscles of the shoulder and neck. The ideal arm position is minimal, with the arms held in a relaxed position next to the body. When the lower arm goes through a small range of motion alongside the shorts and the upper part of the arm hardly moves, there is little fatigue in the arms, shoulder, or neck muscles." So there I go -- straighten up from the beginning and run efficiently. This is what I want to do, but I forgot to this morning until the return, and then my calf muscles hurt, perhaps because I ran too fast. The strange thing is, I want to go running again right now with a fresh body to re-do my run from today and fix my mistakes. ;) I probably violated a major rule today at the beginning by doing something in my long-run that I had not practiced in my recovery runs. Galloway mentioned in his book how the Greek messengers ran, and I spent about two miles trying to find the rhythm before giving up. After giving up, I didn't even think about straightening up my form. I will work on nailing the efficient form this week.
Run Time: 3:26 (1:40 split, 206 minutes, 7.98 min/km, 12.88 min/mi)
Goal Time: 3.33 hours
Distance: 25.8 km (16 mi) http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=48721
Total Distance For Year: 199.9 km (123.9 mi)
Weight (after run): 78.2 kg (172.43 lbs), 22% body fat
Any irregular feelings, aches, pains, heart rate, and so forth?: mild cramping in right calf around mile 12. Muscles felt very tight at the end. My right shoulder hurt.
Foods eaten today: Peanut butter Powerbar (2 @ 240 cal ea), banana, cheese tortellini, green beans, organic baguette