Pt. Defiance 30k: The Time I Got Dead Last

So as you all know, I had to DNS (kind of) the Pt. Defiance 50k on Saturday, but I still planned on doing all I could to help Lindsay accomplish her ultra-marathoning goals.  My plan was to run the 1st loop with her (3 loops for the 50k with each loop being a little over 10 miles), and then depending on how I felt I would jump around the course running with her as much as I could but probably running no more than 14-15 miles total.  After all, my longest recent run was a mere 12 miles last weekend. 

After some delicious carbo-loading at Red Robin and a fun slumber party - we were off to Tacoma on a rainy Saturday morning.  Did I mention that it hasn't rained in the area in 83+ days (probably a record of some sort) but it chose THIS weekend to start raining again??  Seriously.  But we woke up early (6am), ate our breakfasts and drank our coffee, and were off to the race!

We're ready!

It is a very small race (< 350 total participants across the 3 races) so we didn't need to worry much about lines, traffic, or parking.  

What we DID need to worry about though, apparently, was getting lost on the course!  The course was less than naturally intuitive, with tons of turns and intersections of the trails, and it wasn't long into the 1st loop that we all went the wrong way.  Lucky for us, being near the back of the pack, was that we only did about a third of a mile extra and ended up in the lead for a very short while!  :-)  The super fast people did at least an extra mile or two and I'm sure they weren't too pleased. 

Kind of confusing - eh?

Each loop (1 loop for 15k, 2 for 30k, 3 for 50k) is about 10.3 miles, so you can see the 50k is a real distance, but the 15k and 30k are pretty "loose" interpretations of that distance!  There were definitely some hilly sections, at least in comparison to the flat roads I normally run on, with "The Steps" (literally many steps up a steep hill) and "Achilles Hill" being the worst of it.  We did pretty well walking the uphills though, and I attempted to run the really technical downhill portions but Lindsay is waaaayyy more awesome at this than I and she would get way ahead of me in these sections.

Despite the rain, the lovely Becky came out to cheer us on!  How awesome is she?  She got a good pic of us - clearly my heel strike is still in full force.  It's especially obvious in relation to Lindsay's good form!

The loop ends with that bit on the road (only about a third of a mile or so is on the road - the rest is on lovely trail - and that road part wasn't too welcome by the end!) and then the very difficult "Nelly's Gnarly Descent".  This involves basically climbing down a CLIFF using a rope that has been strung there to help you down.  On the first loop this section was very congested which made it even more difficult since everyone hanging on to the rope made it swing wildly and try to decapitate you!

Photo courtesy of Lindsay's sweet boyfriend.
This picture makes it look less steep than it was.

After we finished the first loop in about 2 hours and 7 minutes, Lindsay got geared up for a 2nd loop and I took a break... for over 2 hours!  I made some friends, tried to stay warm, ate some random food (PB&J, pretzels, trail mix... by this time I was HUNGRY!), got to watch the 1st place man and woman come in as well as Tiffany rock the 30k, and finally I saw Lindsay coming in!  She had killed the 2nd loop and was ready to finish this puppy up. 

I still wasn't totally sure what I was going to do, but it was clear from the 1st loop that it would be more difficult than previously thought to jump around the course because it wasn't totally obvious where the course was.  You guys, I know it's stupid to jump up drastically in your mileage.  TRUST ME, I know that.  I was trying to be safe.  But since we were running on pillow-soft trails, and taking tons of walk breaks, it seemed okay to do this.  I also promised myself I would stop if I ever felt any inkling of pain anywhere.  And I didn't.  So I decided I wanted to stick with Lindsay as long as I possibly could.

It was pretty lonely out there in the 3rd loop, and although my stories were incredibly boring (oh, you didn't want to hear about that time people in Singapore wouldn't sell me whole fruit?  Wow, that's a riveting story Ricole...!) at least they were something!  Right?  RIGHT??  So Lindsay tried to get rid of me but I wouldn't let her.  Sorry Lindsay!

And then, just like that, we were finishing!  Lindsay finished STRONG and even sprinted in to the finish, I was so proud of her!  She ran 31+ miles, and I ran 21+ miles!  And it was far from a flat or easy run.  Look at all those hills below.  And see that incredibly steep drop-off in the elevation chart below?  THAT is Nelly's Gnarly Descent!

Look at all those hills!  Total elevation gain for me = a whopping 2,753 feet!

And over 4 hours of running and 21 miles of trails later and my very first trail race is in the books!  It was also my very first time eating all kinds of random stuff while running (chips tasted AMAZING! plus I ate some mini snickers and pretzels on the run, and that PB&J on the break).  Overall, I really liked this race.  The trails were gorgeous and I'm in love with the Brooks running vest we got.  The biggest drawback was that there were not medals, but there were mugs, BUT they ran out of them (they were only for 50k-ers and I saw some 15k and 30k people with them) and I felt bad Lindsay didn't get one.

I'm pretty much never taking this off.

Did I mention that since I ran the 1st and 3rd loops (and not the 2nd) that I got DEAD LAST??!!  My very first time for that too!  So there you have it - the time I got DEAD LAST in a race for the very first time!  And loved every second of it...!  :-)

Running 21 miles completely undertrained would not be complete without a post-race ice bath:

 JMan looking on at my ice bath disapprovingly as he hears I ran 21 miles (bad Ricole!); 

Cooper not caring - he just wants an ice cube!

I Need More Running Friends Who Live By Me & Run After Work. Any Takers?

Last week I was proud of my week.  This week I am proud of one workout.  You take what you can get?

Cooper agrees.  

Monday - 6 miles around the neighborhood in 58 minutes.  Why does this feel SO long ago?  I seriously can't remember it - good thing DailyMile remembers for me.

Tuesday - 3 miles with the lovely Lisa.  My hamstring was acting up a bit so I called it good at 3.  We did some planks / push-ups / squats too.  Good job Lisa!

Wednesday - Super busy, but JMan wanted to go to the gym so I tagged along even though it was 9pm at night.  Did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes of lifting weights.  Except then I had a TERRIBLE time going to sleep so I don't think I'm going to work out this late again. 

Thursday - A big fat REST day.  Not scheduled either.  I am already so depressed about how early it is getting dark.  I meant to run but by the time I could it was already 7pm and pitch black and scary.  Ugh.  I need to a) make friends with that horrid treadmill thing, b) find good places that are well-lit to run, and / or c) get more running friends who live near me and like to run when I do.  Any takers?

Instead of working out I had a crazy laminating / paper-cutting party.  Ah, the wild life of a teacher.

Friday - REST!  Carbo loading!  Slumber party with Lindsay!

Saturday - The Pt. Defiance race!  The now Ms. Ultra Marathoner Lindsay was doing the 50k and I planned to do the 15k but ended up doing the 30k, but it was actually 21.4 miles instead of 18.6.  Yeah yeah yeah, I'm not smart.  If you told me you ran 12 miles and then 21 miles I would definitely scold you, so give it to me. 

 Ready to ROCK!  Race recap tomorrow (hopefully).

Sunday - 21 minutes on the bike at the gym.  15 minutes of easy yoga.  I am SORE, especially in the hips and calves. 

Running miles this week = 30.4!  That's a lot for this old gal and her bum hamstring!  You can bet with that impromptu 21 miler (though it wasn't all at once) I've got marathons and 50k's on the brain, and that's pretty much what I've been searching the internet for today.  Oops!  Sorry JMan!

How was your weekend?  Did you race?  I was pretty jealous of the folks doing the Nike Women's Marathon race.  Maybe next year?  What's your next race?

An "Adventure" Run

So yesterday I told you all about the awesome Adventure Run I went to last week with Lauren and Lindsay.  Well, on Saturday, I had a whole different kind of "Adventure Run" with Lindsay.

Lindsay and I are kind of training for a freaking 50k in October, so we thought maybe we should actually run some trails one of these days.  Since it was supposed to hit 90 degrees on Saturday we decided to start as early as we could handle (which it turns out, is 7:30am) at the Wilderness Creek Trailhead of Cougar Mountain (I'd never run there before but Lindsay had).

Look how glorious the trail was!

I had wanted to do 12-13 miles since I've been majorly slacking on my weekend long runs since the marathon, Lindsay was thinking more like 8, and then we decided on 2 hours instead of a distance goal.  This time goal became especially apparent after we started and the very first mile took us 20 freaking minutes.  Cougar Mountain is a MOUNTAIN people, and we climbed it.  I feel hard core.

2,748 feet of elevation gain: Boo-yah.

Anyway, so off we go, pretty freaking slowly, but it was definitely a workout, and definitely a hill workout at that.  We decide on our route early on, but continuously got "lost".  Not really lost mind you, just missing turns and basically adding mileage on to our route.  And then 2 hours ticks by and we are nowhere near our cars but we think we are close - we take a shortcut instead of the original route we designed and figure we will get back to our cars around 2.5 hours - no big deal, right?

And then suddenly we're in the middle of a random subdivision in the middle of nowhere in front of a few lovely humongous houses.  Going from the middle of the forest (and we also parked in the middle of a forest) to suburbia was a SHOCK, and not a good one, because we immediately knew we had missed a turn AGAIN.  And then the nicest lady IN THE WORLD suddenly appeared, offering to help us figure out the map, letting Lindsay fill up her water (WITH ICE!) in her house, use her restroom, and you guys, SHE EVEN OFFERED TO DRIVE US TO OUR CARS!!  Seriously - nicest lady of the year award.

But we refused, because we thought it was probably only another mile or two.  When we realized it was more like 4 miles we were majorly regretting our refusal.  But we made it. 

But certainly not without complaining.  Oh yes, complaining.  We were both like two 8-year-olds on a road trip to Grandma's house.  "I'm hungry", "I'm thirsty" (I didn't fill up my pack because I didn't realize it was nearly empty), "Are we there yet?", "I'm tired", "My glute hurts", "My legs hurt", etc. etc. ETC.  Can you guess who said each of these???

And then finally, FINALLY, we saw the most beautiful sight in the world: our cars.  And 12.8 miles and THREE AND A HALF HOURS later we were headed home to huge hamburgers, ice baths, and couches.  That's right, three and a half HOURS, and we only covered a half marathon (or less).  That's okay, I still feel hard core.

Do you trail run?  What's your favorite trail?  Ever gotten lost while on a run before???!!  Ever seen a snake while running and screamed?  Yeah... me neither.

Training for a 50k Week 1?

This week I actually made progress towards running the Pt. Defiance 50k, so am I training for it?  Hopefully so.

Last week although I dominated many workouts, I sucked by resting on a billion different days.  So my goals for this week involved a longer run, more days of workouts, and more than 24 miles.  And I beat all those goals!  Hooray for me.  

Monday - 8.1 glorious miles that actually felt GOOD for once.  Not just good, AWESOME.  Runner's high central. 

On an unrelated note - Cooper got a new toy - he's pretty excited about it. 

Tuesday - My only complete rest day of the week. 

Wednesday - Brick workouts.  20 miles of biking in 1:20 (15 mph) followed by the WORST RUN OF ALL TIME.  3 miles with about 6 different walk breaks.  Seriously people, running after biking is H-A-R-D.  How do you triathletes do it?  I really am doubting my future in the triathlon.  Danskin may be my one and only.  

Thursday - 5 miles at the Road Runner Adventure Run!  Come back tomorrow to hear more about that.

Friday - 1 mile of swimming (1,800 yards) in about 40 minutes.  The water was disgusting and hazy.  I guess that means it was good practice for open water swimming, which I still haven't done yet!  See comment above about already sucking at the triathlon.

Saturday - Another "Adventure Run" of sorts with Lindsay - 13 miles of trail running at Cougar Mountain.  This also deserves a post in and of itself, it was an adventure to be sure.

Sunday - Although I didn't plan on running again one of our houseguests Molly wanted to do a little run so I was more than happy to oblige.  We did about 1.88 miles in 20 minutes at 10am when it was already HOT HOT HOT.  Good practice for Hood to Coast.

Guess what guys?  I ran, trail ran, biked, AND swam this week.  I ran 5 days (though 2 days were very short, but that's what I need to do when I used to only run 3 days a week) for a total of 30.7 miles!  Wowsers!  I'm proud. 

Is the weekend really over already?  How was YOUR weekend?  How was your week of workouts?  What's your next race? 

Training for Random Events Week X

Since I seem to be training for a variety of different events (i.e., the Danskin Triathlon in 3 weeks and Hood to Coast in 4 weeks) plus several "possible events" (i.e., Pt. Defiance 50k and California International Marathon, better known as CIM), we'll just call this "Training for Random Events".  And whew, that was a long and tedious sentence.

Look, I'm getting "Nuun-tattooed"!  Thanks Holly!

So, last week.  It happened.  I completed a lot of workouts.  But I also rested a lot of days.  Resulting in a weird combination of many "double-days" and also many "do nothing" days.  I don't call that a win.

Monday - One of the "do nothing" days

Tuesday - 8 miles (my longest run since the marathon, if you can believe it!) of trail running.  It was lovely, but I was a sweaty mess by the end.

 1,268 feet of elevation gain in 8 miles - not too shabby!

Wednesday - A "triathlon" day!  That's right, I ended up not only doing a double but a triple workout.  Jordanne and I were supposed to practice "open water" swimming, but instead we went to the pool.  FAIL.  We suck.  After a mile of swimming (40 minutes), JMan and I had a lovely dinner at 5 Guys.  But then I decided to take to the bike for 15+ miles and an hour.  THEN I decided why not do a little "legs feel like bricks" post-cycling running and did 2 miles of running.  WHEW.

On Wednesday I had these gorgeous flowers waiting to surprise me.  Isn't JMan the best?!

Thursday - Whoops, another "do nothing" day

Friday - 5 miles of running in the morning, 1 mile of swimming in the evening

Saturday - 9 miles of running (NOW this is my longest run since the marathon!).  I wanted it to be 10-12 but my glute was not having it.  It has been displeased since Ragnar.

Sunday - All I did besides "do nothing" was pick about 10 pounds of blackberries

Yum.

And there you have it folks. 

Total running miles = 24.

This week: less "do nothing" days.  A run longer than 9 miles.  More than 24 total miles.  Get 'er done. 

How was your week?  Do you pick blackberries?  It seems early for them, but I can't wait to make some freezer jam!  What's your favorite berry?  How was your weekend? 

Making Headway on 2 Summer Goals

This week I made some progress on two of my summer goals.

Monday - 6 miles of running in 52 minutes

Tuesday - 1,900 yards (38 laps) of swimming in about 40 minutes.  First 800 was done in 12-13 minutes!  I felt better at swimming, and was going to do more until I got kicked out of the pool for water aerobics. 
 
Wednesday - I went trail running!  Remember how I wanted to trail run this summer, and I revealed my next big race of the Pt. Defiance Trail Run (distance to be determined)?!   The trail running was HOT, but still lovely.  And 6 miles were pumped out in just a little over an hour. 

It seriously doesn't get much better than this.

Thursday - I did a BRICK workout!  Remember how my 2nd summer goal was to do a TRIATHLON?!  Well whoa, look at me, using triathlon terminology and all that.  That's right, a BRICK workout, my friends, is a bike workout followed by running.  But really, I would imagine it's doing any two activities back-to-back.  Like when I eat ice cream and then I eat some sour patch kids.  I'd imagine it's exactly like that.  I biked 15.4 miles in an hour and then ran 3.5 miles. 

Did you know it's kind of hard to run after you've been biking?  I bet you did.  But if you didn't, uh, it is.  Your legs feel all weird and heavy like you're running through 4 feet of water.  You're running in slow motion despite your best efforts.  It's unexpected. 

Friday - TGIF so hangin' (walkin' 3 miles) with Mr. Cooper

Saturday - 8 miles of hiking Mt. Si!  About 3 of these miles were running downhill.  I meant to run more on Saturday but the hike was much more difficult than expected and my legs were THRASHED by the end.  

Sunday - About 5 miles of running around (1 mile probably actually running) cheering at the Lake Stevens Half Ironman!  Again, I intended to do a long run but my quads (especially my right one) are so incredibly sore from the hike.  Came home and walked with Cooper another 1+ miles. 

And that was my week!  I feel much better about this week than last week.  I swam, biked, hiked, and ran.  I ran trails and I did a brick workout.  I sat on the couch much less than last week!  SUCCESS!  Although I still haven't done a long run since the marathon, and that's bad.  Especially with RAGNAR coming up next weekend!  So exciting! 

Total running miles = 20. 

How was your week?  What did you do this weekend? 

Is An "Ultra" In My Future?

Okay okay, I know many of you might barely even consider a 50k race an "ultra", but I certainly do!  And I don't even know WHY I am suddenly finding myself perusing the websites of the likes of the Point Defiance 50k, the Cougar Mountain 50k, the Chuckanut 50k, etc.  You get my drift?  I blame Lindsay. 

Honestly, I don't even know if I LIKE marathon training, but that's a whole post all it's own.  So why am I crazed enough to think I want to run 5 miles above and beyond a marathon (a 50k is about 31 miles, for those of you that don't know).  AND I want to run said race on TRAILS?  I've trail-ran about 4 times in my whole entire life, although I definitely blame the last time, because it was GLORIOUS.  I have no clue what I'm doing out there.  But I LOVED all 4 times I've done it.  So I think that is the appeal. 

Trail running = gloriousness, see? 

I especially don't know why I'm so interested in this, considering my complete lack of motivation for running anything over 6 miles.  During marathon training I felt like crap pretty much since my 20 miler (even though the 20 miler itself went well) and on, with my legs feeling like I have anvils attached to them and side stitches galore. 

 This is how I felt running 26 miles.  Why in the world would I want to run 31?  Good question.

But still... the appeal definitely remains.  And what if I could con others into doing this with me??  I know that is the key, because that's why I don't trail run more often - trail running alone is scary and there's no way my husband will let me do it.  I need some trail running buddies.  So are you in???!!!  GO SIGN UP!

Who's going to sign up for the Defiance 50k (or 15k or 30k!) with me?  Tell me all your tips for trail running!  Have you done an ultra?  How did you train?  Do you think I can half-ass it?  Because that's what I'm leaning towards right now...  That sounds like a horrible idea even just typing it!

I Ran Trails, And It Was Glorious

After a really horrible week of running last week I really wanted to run on Monday and I REALLY wanted it to go well.  I wanted to set myself up for success, so I knew any sort of hard workout was out.  It was going to be the hottest day of the year pretty much, so I wanted to be in the shade (so my neighborhood loop was out).  So, I decided to be brave, and TAKE TO TO THE TRAILS! 

This is Pt. Defiance Park, an extremely lovely and humongous park full of trails in Tacoma.  I've only ran here once before and never ran on the trails, and I didn't know what I was missing.  Pure loveliness. 

I got there, and had no real plan, which turned out to be a shame because I could have made a full loop of the park.  You'll see in the map above that I missed a lot of the West side.  I got turned around and ended up coming back the same way I went up (not on purpose).  It took a while to figure out what the markers meant and most of the time I had absolutely no clue where I was.  What?  I don't see a problem with that...

I started out with a short jaunt along the water!  Beautiful, right?  I saw a bald eagle!  But then later I saw another bald eagle and it turned out to be a seagull.  So the jury's still out on that first one. 

Then I took to the paths.  They were gorgeous.  The main paths were nice and wide and cleared well like this one.  I found a few single track that were much more technical and then a few trails in between the two extremes as well. 

Then you'd come across amazing looks-outs - like this one of Vashon Island. 

And before I knew it, I had ran 10 miles! 

Okay not really before I knew it.  At around 7 miles I was suddenly EXHAUSTED and realized that I was at about the furthest point I could be from my car.  But by then I had FINALLY figured out the map / marker system (I'm not such a smart one - don't ever put me in charge of navigation) and it turned out it was really only about 2 miles away if you took the direct trail.  And it was mostly downhill on the way back.  So I booked it. 

And I finished!  10 miles in 1:39:15 (Average Pace: 9:55).  And I was TIRED.  My legs were beat.

Total elevation gain of 1,183 feet - check out the elevation chart!  No wonder I was tired. 

And running mojo officially back.  Let's just hope all that trail running coming out of nowhere doesn't mess up my legs!  I LOVE trail running.  Why don't I run here all the time?  It really wasn't that far from work (though there aren't many days I can run near work, but after Girls On the Run is over next week I'll have more opportunities), it was LOVELY, and it felt way safer than I feared.  I'll be back, trails.

Some smart people say I need trail running shoes.  What do you think?  I wear Saucony Mirages now - use that information to recommend a trail running shoe!  GO!  :-)  And also tell me everything I need to know about running trails.  Please!