Me dirty tootsies, post Sörmland 50kSo! Long time, no writing from me (Richard) around these parts. I would apologize, but to be entirely honest, I have been insanely busy the last few months focusing on a couple of things that I really love: teaching, and running trails.
I think most folks have heard that as of this year, I am head of the English department at school. This would normally mean a lot more work, but considering this year in Sweden we have a new curriculum and marking scheme, and considering that this year at my school we have a new Principal (with excellent expectations) and that our English department is me and three folks new to the school, two of whom are new to the country as well, well ... it has meant a lot lot to do for everybody.
The weather outside was perfection. Including the five-minute deluge at 40km, which was exactly what I wanted at that point. Cool and refreshing.
I think most folks have heard that as of this year, I am head of the English department at school. This would normally mean a lot more work, but considering this year in Sweden we have a new curriculum and marking scheme, and considering that this year at my school we have a new Principal (with excellent expectations) and that our English department is me and three folks new to the school, two of whom are new to the country as well, well ... it has meant a lot lot to do for everybody.
The weather outside was perfection. Including the five-minute deluge at 40km, which was exactly what I wanted at that point. Cool and refreshing.
my secret weapon was actually a lack thereof ...But enough about work. So, my dear Jennie has long observed that when it comes to me and time management, I seem to do my best when forced to 'rise to the occasion.' I have been busy. But I have also been running a lot - well, for me, at least, a lot lot. When want to read up on some running and get some inspiration, I read the blogs of people who do simply otherworldly things with their running.
http://akrunning.blogspot.com/
http://notallergictoadventure.blogspot.com/
http://www.irunfar.com/
http://www.kristaduchenerunning.blogspot.com/
... some good running reading. Yes, Krista and her husband Jon are friends of ours from university.
I ran 100km weeks back to back in training for my 50k for the first time ever - I'd only ever run a 100km week once before in my life - and it felt amazing. I was very proud. And at the same time, I loved the fact that wouldn't even be a three day week at the office for most/any of those folks. I love seeing multiple perspectives on things like that. Love it. It just gives you so much to think about and consider - and admire.
What I also have been loving for about six months now is that scar on my abdomen. I have felt so much better since the damned appendix came out. I haven't been sick (no colds or anything), I have run strong, and I have recovered so easily afterwards. Jennie has been busy commuting back and forth to Uppsala for her phD, and the topic happened to come up with a surgeon who was taking the same course she was; apparently, the idea of a 'slow burn' case of appendicitis where the cursed thing can ooze a low-grade infection into your body for months before things reach a head has some precedent. Stupid vestigial organs.
welcome to your Richard's eye view of the race - here from 5 and 15 km in, roughly
Suffice to say that appendix-free training has been great. I also decided to adapt my training program to something that better suited my personality. Yes, I said personality. The fact of the matter is: I don't really care about running fast ... convenient, considering I am not that fast a runner, I know. Over the summer I read a really interesting article by one of those runners I linked to above, and he talked about how he didn't feel that speed training was particularly helpful for ultra running. Now, he runs further and over harder stuff than I, but I really like his approach and personality with running, so I figured hey, why not give that idea a shot?
thankfully, the run never looked this way to me - only my phone camera. funky!
So instead of worry about pace I focused on distances - and hills. A 50k run really isn't that much farther than a marathon, but in terms of terrain (despite the path pictures I've shared from my run so far) you are pretty much guaranteed a lot of tricky footing and a whole lot more ups than most marathons will throw at you. There is no way to train for running up hills other than running up hills. So that's what I did. One or two dedicated hill repeat runs at the local ski bump every week ... plus a trip up every 7-10 loop around the local trail network on every other run, including my long ones. There is just no substitute.
Yes, my overall pace still picked up over the course of my training, but not by much. My goal was to limit my leg fatigue and fade over the course of running 50 rolling, and as it turned out, very wet and muddy and tricksy kilometers. And that worked out to perfection. Your body is very good at learning things - you just need to train it to do exactly what you want.
In return, of course, you learn a lot about your body as you train. Here are a couple of things I learned about myself over the eight weeks leading up to Sörmland:
1) High fat foods really do it for me on long runs. A kanelbulle (and a gel) every hour is good; a croissant stuffed with nutella (and a gel) every hour works out muchos better, for my legs and my head. I'm not entirely sure why, though I do have some interest in finding out the particulars of how that works. Certainly I find it delicious, which is always a good deal. Delicious and effective is pretty hard to beat. There weren't nutella-stuffed croissants en route at the race, but there were kanelbullar - and three cups of coke at the 42 km mark got my head back from being slightly foggy on the home stretch. Good stuff.
2) If I don't go out pushing it, something pretty fantastic 'turns on' at about the three hour mark. No matter how good I've felt to that point, if I moderate it right (and eat the good stuff) I just start to feel incredible, and I can just go ... further, faster, the whole deal. This lead to me conceiving of my race as being a 30km warm up, and then a 20 km race.
thankfully, the run never looked this way to me - only my phone camera. funky! So instead of worry about pace I focused on distances - and hills. A 50k run really isn't that much farther than a marathon, but in terms of terrain (despite the path pictures I've shared from my run so far) you are pretty much guaranteed a lot of tricky footing and a whole lot more ups than most marathons will throw at you. There is no way to train for running up hills other than running up hills. So that's what I did. One or two dedicated hill repeat runs at the local ski bump every week ... plus a trip up every 7-10 loop around the local trail network on every other run, including my long ones. There is just no substitute.
Yes, my overall pace still picked up over the course of my training, but not by much. My goal was to limit my leg fatigue and fade over the course of running 50 rolling, and as it turned out, very wet and muddy and tricksy kilometers. And that worked out to perfection. Your body is very good at learning things - you just need to train it to do exactly what you want.
In return, of course, you learn a lot about your body as you train. Here are a couple of things I learned about myself over the eight weeks leading up to Sörmland:
1) High fat foods really do it for me on long runs. A kanelbulle (and a gel) every hour is good; a croissant stuffed with nutella (and a gel) every hour works out muchos better, for my legs and my head. I'm not entirely sure why, though I do have some interest in finding out the particulars of how that works. Certainly I find it delicious, which is always a good deal. Delicious and effective is pretty hard to beat. There weren't nutella-stuffed croissants en route at the race, but there were kanelbullar - and three cups of coke at the 42 km mark got my head back from being slightly foggy on the home stretch. Good stuff.
2) If I don't go out pushing it, something pretty fantastic 'turns on' at about the three hour mark. No matter how good I've felt to that point, if I moderate it right (and eat the good stuff) I just start to feel incredible, and I can just go ... further, faster, the whole deal. This lead to me conceiving of my race as being a 30km warm up, and then a 20 km race.
Both, as it turned out, went exactly according to plans when it came time (a couple weeks ago now). So good, in fact, that I decided to do something that I've wanted to do since I started trying these kinds of runs back in 2008, in Iceland: I decided to photo-document the run. Well, the warm-up 30km, at least.
good hills up; good hills down ... all the way to the finish.
Why? Because when a long run - be it in event, or not - is going well, it is just an incredible feeling, and a metric tonne of fun, and I want to try and share that ... however inadequate my snapshots may be. Yeah, the stopping for photos put me about five minutes behind where I had predicted to be at the halfway point. And yeah, my negative split on the back half of the run wasn't quite as big as I might have hoped. But again, I'm not complaining, and despite how tired I look here, I can promise you that I wasn't really ever working over the five hours (and one minutes, fifty two seconds I went over that - ah well) I wasn't ever really working:
What's next? Well, I definitely want more. And I still don't care about going faster, so that only leaves farther ... and more often. Both of which I am excited about.
Okej - time to get ready for what is going to be a busy week; two nights of parent-teacher interviews, one three-hour evening Swedish language lesson, one school-wide running event day (imagine!) at my favourite local trails on Friday, before an all-night video game party at the school on Friday night ... one last big frickin' hill before the autumn holiday week - Höstlov - begins on Saturday. Good times. I'll try to check in more often, but in the mean time, life is short - so enjoy your warm-ups:
good hills up; good hills down ... all the way to the finish.Why? Because when a long run - be it in event, or not - is going well, it is just an incredible feeling, and a metric tonne of fun, and I want to try and share that ... however inadequate my snapshots may be. Yeah, the stopping for photos put me about five minutes behind where I had predicted to be at the halfway point. And yeah, my negative split on the back half of the run wasn't quite as big as I might have hoped. But again, I'm not complaining, and despite how tired I look here, I can promise you that I wasn't really ever working over the five hours (and one minutes, fifty two seconds I went over that - ah well) I wasn't ever really working:
What's next? Well, I definitely want more. And I still don't care about going faster, so that only leaves farther ... and more often. Both of which I am excited about.
Okej - time to get ready for what is going to be a busy week; two nights of parent-teacher interviews, one three-hour evening Swedish language lesson, one school-wide running event day (imagine!) at my favourite local trails on Friday, before an all-night video game party at the school on Friday night ... one last big frickin' hill before the autumn holiday week - Höstlov - begins on Saturday. Good times. I'll try to check in more often, but in the mean time, life is short - so enjoy your warm-ups:
2 comments:
Congratulations Richard! High fives. It is so inspiring to hear that your big run was total joy... I will be aiming for that in my training. I have been doing some marathon canoe, and I have a lot to learn about fueling and pacing before I can do the 11 hour races. ;)
Amazing race and amazing photos, thanks for sharing both.
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