End of Week Eleven (1/17/08)

At the conclusion of Week Eleven, I realize that I am slightly more than halfway through the training program in terms of total weeks (21 in the plan). This is also the completion of the fifth of eight weeks in the Endurance Phase. As I look at my running log, I notice that there aren’t any comments on the mid week runs in Week Eleven. The Long Run on Saturday (1/12/08) is the only real story of the week.

The weather on Saturday morning was not remarkable. It was about 40 degrees when I started and the sun was coming through when I finished. I have been fortunate with the weather so far in this phase of my running. I had a real concern that if the winter brought some ice and snow, it would make weekend Long Runs difficult or impossible outside.

This is the weekend of Suzanne’s half marathon in Florida. She has been with me for the first portion of my Long Run for the previous three weeks. As I got ready to do this scheduled 17 miler, I needed to plan my individual pace from beginning to end. In the previous weeks, I knew that I would be going at Suzanne’s pace for more than half of my total distance.

I ran the first 6 miles at a 9:50 pace. I thought this was too fast for this run and tried to hold back a little. I ran the next 6 miles at approximately 10:10 pace. When I looked at my watch after 12 miles, I had mixed feelings. I was pleased that I was at right on target for an overall 10:00 pace. However, my body was telling me that this was too fast for this particular training run, on this particular day.

My feet and my legs were hurting more than they should at this point. I had five miles remaining and the next 2.5 miles would be uphill. I told myself to slow down , but as a runner, I knew that it was too late. The run should not be 70% complete when you realize that you have gone too fast. In the race, I expect pain in the final stages and I even expect that there will be some slowing of my pace. But for these training runs, the last bunch of miles should not be slowest: at least not by much.

I ran the last 5 miles at a 10:40 pace. The uphill portion was brutal. I was cursing the hills and at one point I realized I stopped running. My pace was so slow going up the hill, that this brief 30 second walk didn’t cost me any time at all. Nevertheless, this was not in the plan. I very quickly picked up a mantra, of ‘Push Through It’ and ran the rest of the way. When I got to mile 16, with just one more to go, I had planned to stop for water. I picked up the water without stopping and drank on the run to the finish. I thought that if I stopped briefly to drink (as I planned), I might melt down into a walk-run finish. I repeated ‘Push Through’. I lost the energy to say ‘It’.

The final blended pace for the 17 miler was 10:14. This was actually faster than the previous week’s 15 miler (10:20). But it didn’t feel right and certainly not a well executed training run. Unlike the previous week, I did not feel like I could go any longer.

When I stopped, I felt a little dizzy. I drove to the WaWa to get some Gatorade. I was still a little fuzzy in the store, but felt much better after the Gatorade. Next came the numb finger tips.

About 30 minutes after the run, I noticed one of my fingers was numb at the tip. Then it seemed that one by one, all ten finger tips went numb. I felt stable otherwise and the numbness went away after a shower. I read later some explanation for the feeling in your fingers after running for long periods of time.

Suzanne finished her race in 2:17. This was a faster pace (10:27) than her training pace, which is how it should be. Based on our runs together, I told her that 2:20 was doable and would be a great race for her. She smoked that time easily.

The next day, Peter and I went over to my dad’s to shoot the breeze for a while. Dad was a college cross country runner and continued to run into his seventies and still gets out now for tennis, bike rides, walks and maybe some jogging as well. In any event, he always has interest in this kind of thing so I mentioned that I ran 17 miles at Ridley Creek.

Dad’s first reaction was ‘Are you sure your OK to do that?’. I realized, I probably shouldn’t mention the dizzy part or the numb fingers. He offered to join me on the next one and ride along on his bike to make sure I had water and stuff. I’m not sure if he realized that would be a 3 + hour bike ride. But he later made a comment about the hills at Ridley Creek. I immediately ran with this in my brain.

‘Of course I was not able to do these Long Runs at 10:00 MPM. This was a hilly course. I am basically doing hill work as part of my Long Run. Am I a stud or what?’

The only way to prove this theory would be to find a good flat course for the Long Runs. Ridley Creek is so convenient in terms of location and placing water etc, that I question how seriously I will look.

The rest of the runs for Week Eleven were done in the morning at the Y. They were a group on uneventful 4 and 5 milers. I ended up with 31 miles for the week. This is another milestone in my training: the first 30 mile week of my life (I think).

I am scheduled to do a 19 miler next week, but I need to give the final ten weeks of the plan some further evaluation.