Catch you up

I haven’t spoken to you folks since right before my target race in September.

So let me catch you up.

I DNF’ed at around 16 miles in that Beantown marathon.

I thought I had trained well and I was disappointed.  But, my legs went early in the race.  Really early, like 10 miles in.  By the half I was struggling and on a shitty day with a loop course I didn’t want to limp through another 2 hours of fruitless, nay, thankless, labor.

(See?  I snuck in a Thanksgiving reference there.)

As to why my legs went, I have some thoughts.

First, I had forgotten that this course has a short, steep lump of a hill in it.  Nothing terrible and not what we would call ‘hilly’ up here, but I think it was a problem for my legs.  I had done the entirety of my training on the flat rail trail to protect my knee and was not prepared for any hill work.  Especially the short, steep downhill section.  And, since it was a loop course, I got this little hill every couple miles.

Let this be a lesson for us all.  Rail trails are awesome for training but leave you at risk for any kind of elevation change in a race.

Also to protect my knee, I haven’t done any leg work in the gym.  Which, it seems gives me really weak quads.  And that has been what has going first in these last couple of races.  Once the quads go I can’t hold pace.

Which, in the old days, I could just do a whole bunch of hard hill work and Bulgarian split squats – problem solved.  But, I haven’t.  Because being able to run is better than being injured.

The other big mistake I made was to wear an old pair of Hoka-X carbon shoes.  Ironically, the last time I wore those shoes in a marathon was this very same marathon 7 years ago.  I won’t bore you with how stupid a choice this was, but my internal logic said, ‘I’m well trained, any neutral cushion shoe will work, I might as well wear something with an extra kick to it.”

Idiot.

I don’t put much stock in weather as a deciding factor.  Unless it’s really hot.  This race had pouring rain.  Temperature-wise it was fine.  But the rain did mean running in very wet, squishy shoes and needing to navigate some muddy sections.  It wasn’t the deciding factor but did contribute to my decision to leave the course.

Other than that, I think I just haven’t been able to get to enough volume in my training to make 26 miles feel ‘normal’.

But, more than that, this is a new season, and I’m collecting data points on what my body and mind are capable of now.  I don’t know.  There is a ‘new normal’ and I’m searching for what that is.

We overthink these things and the risk of overthinking is that it prevents us from harvesting the inherent joy of it.

Is this a ‘keep training and keep showing up and good things will happen’ moment?  Or is this a ‘your expectations are out of line with your abilities’ moment?

Which leads us to the question: What did we learn and what do we do now?

After much ping-ponging around in my brain I think it’s just a data point.  There’s really no corrective action, besides being an idiot on race day.

So I keep training.  3-4 days a week.  25 -30 miles a week.  Some longer stuff.  Tempo.  Speed.

On the off days I do strength work and yoga.  And I am starting to work in some careful leg strengthening weight work and some careful hill work.  Basically maintaining my fitness and scratching around to see where that edge is now.

Today is Thanksgiving and I’m grateful for my friends, my family and my ability to run up the stairs to my office every day.

I ran the traditional 5K with my running club buddies this morning.

I got up around 6, got dressed and met my friend Tim for a couple warm up miles on the rail trail.  It was good to talk to him.  To catch up.  Like we’re doing right now.

After that warm-up we walked to the race start, and I noticed my left knee felt a bit wonky.  Like I pulled something in there this week doing some light speed work.

That’s another attribute of this new season I am in.  I get injuries popping up from everywhere, and especially if I do anything different.

I yawn too aggressively and strain a pectoral.

I turn to look over my shoulder and pull a latissimus.

It’s a carnival of fun it is.

Now it was contemplation time as I a limped over to the start with Tim.

Three choices really, and a rainbow of grades within those.

One end of the spectrum – Don’t run the 5K.  Yeah, that’s not really a choice.

Other end of the spectrum – go race and ignore the knee.  Yeah, more in line with my sense of self.

And third choice go out with a little control, ease into it and see what happens.  I like the third choice.

I lined up well back in the pack and took the first mile at what I thought was an easy pace, the whole time reminding myself that what I think is an easy pace at the start of a 5K is probably still too fast.

There was a lot of weaving and dodging as the fun-run people got sorted out from the racers.  I stayed in my pace and was surprised by a 7:30-ish first mile.  Not gassed.  Legs fine.  Just cruising along.

Mile two, I slowed down a bit to catch my breath.  Not feeling like a warrior but not suffering either.  When you can’t give 100%, 80-85% is sufficient.

Heck 80-85% is the new black.

Mile three with its persnickety little hills.  Slowed down a bit.  Didn’t fight too hard.  Stayed at that reasonable effort level.

Final downhill to the finish.  There’s a guy beside me, maybe in his 50’s, he says “Thanks for keeping such great pace, it was good to have someone to follow.”  I review the thousands of semi-comic snarky replies in my repertoire and go with “You’re welcome.” Motioning now to the approaching finish line in an ‘After you’ gesture, I finish our conversation with ‘Have at it.’

And trundle my old bones through the end.

Knee felt fine the whole way.  Now it seems achy again as I stop to cool down.  I’m not winded.  I’m not laying on the ground or gasping like a fish.  80-85% is the new normal.

Cheer the mid-packers.  Meet my friends.  Take some photos.  Thank the race staff and off home to see my wife.

That’s the stuff of life.  For me anyhow.

Routine.

Show up.

Run.

Go home.

Try not to overthink everything.

Try to be grateful every step of the way.

Later, when I upload my data Garmin tells me I have a new 5K PR.  About 30 seconds faster than last year’s effort.  Another data point.  Another vote for ‘keep showing up and good things will happen’.

This is my running life.

I signed up for a marathon in January.  The Sun Marathon in Southern Utah.  I’m still looking for that elusive marathon that feels right.

I notice that in 2 years when I’m 65 the qualifying time for Boston goes up to 4:05 for me.  Maybe I’ll have figured this current season out by then.

Until then it’s work with the currents of life, the rhythms of life.

Train.

Race.

Take care of what I can.

And…Oh yeah…Look for the joy.