[mountainmilers] September Progress Report
- From: Terri Rashid <terri@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 21:10:10 +0000
September was a decent month of running for me, but not great. It's a bit of a
mixed bag, with the better running earlier in the month and weaker running
later. I managed to rack up 200.4 miles for the month, making this the 3rd
month this year with mileage over 200. My year to date mileage is at 1453.
Amusingly, that total is higher than the SUM of my previous two years of
running 497 (in 2012) and 942 (in 2011) which is only 1439 miles. :)
I ran two events this month, both on trails. The first was The Rut 12K, which
along with the 50K was the first nationally promoted trail running race in Big
Sky (that I am aware of). The weather was looking very iffy going into the
race, especially for the 50K runners that summit Lone Mountain (elevation
11,166'), as they were predicting thunderstorms for the day. Fortunately the
bad weather mostly held off for the actual race morning. I ran the 12K with
only a brief, slight misting of rain while I was out there. The trail was
unfortunately soaked from rain the night before, and slick in spots (some
clay), but I was running with several friends from Big Sky for much of the
first half, which is the uphill climb, and we were all in pretty good spirits.
The views were very limited though with clouds all around us. I was happy with
my time (1:46:18) even though my pace was only 14:15 per mile. But with the
slick trail that was also very steep in spots, and ~1650' of ascent, I'll take
it!
The second event was the following weekend, the Flagstaff Half Marathon. Rick
joined me for this one, and in contrast to the weekend before, the weather was
wonderful. It started cool (elevation at the start is around 8000') but sunny,
and even though it warmed up because of the sun, we were mostly in pine forests
so shaded and comfortable for pretty much the whole course. I started a little
bit fast, not in terms of running pace, but just in terms of not taking walk
breaks. But we were on single track by that point and I didn't want to lose my
spot with runners whose running pace matched mine. Eventually it widened back
to two track and I took my first walk break there.
There's a really long climb on the second loop (at about mile 9), and I kind of
lost focus and motivation there for a bit. I had also been tripping a fair bit
- always with my left toe catching a rock. Even though nothing hurt, I think
my left hamstring might have been starting to have some issues and that's why I
wasn't getting that foot up high enough. Eventually we crested the top of the
climb and from there it was a pretty steady downhill to the finish. I managed
to get into a good downhill running pattern and passed several people on that
last stretch, including the only person who had passed me while I was hiking
the climb. I grabbed my camera from the car and got back to the finish just in
time to take some photos of Rick as he finished up as well.
I didn't feel like there was any problem that day, but unfortunately the next
day when I went to run, my left hamstring/glute/hip area was all kinds of stiff
and injured feeling. I thought it might loosen up over the next couple of
days, but no such luck. I finally took a day off and 48 hours of ibuprofen
(800mg, 3 xs a day). That helped some, but it's still not quite right. :(
I am in full taper mode now for St. George this coming weekend, so that area is
getting lots of rest, with a little bit of running just to try to keep things
loose. I am doing gentle stretches and massage and hope springs eternal that
everything will just work itself out miraculously in time for race morning. ;)
A few days ago it was looking to be pretty hot in St. George for the Saturday
marathon, but the current forecast shows a low of 48 and a high of 73, which is
not bad for St. George. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it actually will
be on that cooler side. (For comparison, today their high/low is 85/57F.)
Re September goals:
1. Staying healthy and injury free: Well I have been healthy, but as I
mentioned, I flared up my old left hamstring/glute issues at the Flagstaff Half
Marathon about a week ago and I haven't been able to get it to really settle
back down. Prior to that I had tweaked my left knee doing Crossfit, so perhaps
that set the stage for the other problems.
2. Sensible weekend events: I *thought* I was doing the half marathon
reasonably, but I guess I was wrong. I am not sure that the overall effort
level was a problem, but that many miles on complicated footing might have been
the issue. The Rut 12K went fine, and my running after that was just fine, so
I guess I am 1 for 2.
3. Mileage: I am happy with September's mileage. It's lower than
August, but then again I am tapering for St. George, and made that an even
"steeper" taper because of my hamstring issues. But 200 miles overall for the
month is great.
4. Continue Crossfit workouts: I have done this, although we've had to
work around my injuries. The knee (early in the month) was my own fault - just
not being careful with a new exercise. We've mostly switched to upper body
work for now until I get past my target events this month.
5. Run every day: Nope. I ran 28 out of 30 days though. I took one day
off for travel when Rick and I were coming back from Montana - the flight left
super early (connect through Salt Lake, then on to Phoenix) and when we got
home to Prescott in the afternoon it was really hot and I didn't feel like
running on the treadmill. The other day was an injury day off as I tried to
get my left hamstring/glute/hip to settle down.
This was probably my worst month in terms of "missing" on various goals, but I
don't actually feel too badly about it. I had some great running in the first
part of the month, and I think I'll have some more great running once I get my
injuries under control again. I think my overall fitness level is really good
right now, so I am content with that.
Looking forward into October:
We leave on Friday morning to drive to St. George (boys are coming along too),
and then have the marathon on Saturday. That's also Kylan's birthday (we
already had his party this past weekend) so we'll do something fun afterwards
for him. Sunday we will all fly to Big Sky to spend most of the boys' Fall
break week there setting up our new house. (For those of you not on Facebook,
we bought a ski-in, ski-out house and are planning to sell our old Big Sky
ranch property.) We fly back on Friday in order to give me a "rest" day on
Saturday before my *first ever* Grand Canyon crossing run/hike!
I am really excited about doing that! One of our local trail runners
(Christina), who is very familiar with the Grand Canyon trails, agreed many
months ago to accompany me on my first hike into/out of the canyon. She said
she's willing to go at whatever pace I can manage. :) (Reminds me a bit of
Cheri!) Because of Rick's willingness to drive a car shuttle, we are going to
be able to do it as a one-way (for me) crossing going south to north. From
what I've read that will be about 5760' net elevation gain when climbing out on
the North Kaibab trail. I don't know how much actual ascent, but obviously it
will be at least that much. Rick is picking me up from the north rim, and
dropping Christina's husband off there. They have rented a cabin and after
playing around on the north rim for a day, he is going to cross the canyon back
with her to the south side. So I have an experienced trail guide - whoo hooo!
I just hope the weather cooperates for us. :}
I had been originally planning to do a 50K in Phoenix the weekend after that,
but I decided that I am going to take some rest time instead. The Canyon
run/hike is a big deal to me, and St. George will be Rick's first marathon, so
I want to do both of those, but beyond that I think I will take some time to
just run easily, based on how I feel, and get everything back in good working
order. Then I will start to increase mileage again towards my goal of running
a 50 miler in January 2014.
October goals:
1. Do what I can at St. George, without compromising my ability to do the
Canyon crossing the next weekend. Enjoy Rick's first marathon with him.
2. Cross the Grand Canyon, on foot, have fun and take LOTS of pictures!
3. Try to resolve or improve my hamstring/glute issues. If so, gradually
increase weekly mileage again.
4. Have fun.
Hopefully I will be able to do a better job of meeting these goals! :)
Hope you all had a great month of running...
.Terri
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- » [mountainmilers] September Progress Report - Terri Rashid
