Weight, weight…don’t tell me!

Back in the groove with my mid-week runs completed.  Rang up thirty miles over the last three days, ALL burdened with an extra twenty six pounds of weight.  Whether or not this is preparing me for the uphill struggles on Reunion, there are psychological benefits.  After several weeks of escalating payloads (both in terms of weight carried and distance covered), I can actually feel the effect.  Seems to be building up my calves, quads and even my arms, which is probably a minus since it is more mass to lug up and down Reunion’s mountain trails.


However, as beneficial as running is, I can’t say there is any palpable awareness that one is improving their fitness level.  So even if my weighted runs are misplaced from the perspective of enhancing hill-climbing ability, the invigoration it yields from the sensation of getting stronger contributes valuable motivation to this weary soul.  And after climbing out of bed at 4:30AM the last three mornings to scoot ten miles, positive feedback carries some currency…


Of course motivation has other sources.  Jeff e-mailed another link he found which overviews a lot of the trails on Reunion, and it’s in English à Reunion Trails

My ultra covers several of the trails discussed here, and I find it both inspiring and downright scary.  In the description of Piton des Neiges, the author remarks that the best way to tackle the highest point on Reunion is to break the hike into two days.  While part of his reasoning is to permit a leisurely pace and absorb the scenery, this only represents the first eight miles and 3/4ths mile of elevation gain for the run.  After this initial challenge I’ll still have fifty miles and over two miles of uphill remaining!!!  Have I mentioned it's a good thing you only turn fifty once…  J

Good Night, Irene

Friday was a crazy hectic day of installing hurricane shutters, but there was a reward.  Even though we dodged the worst Irene had to offer, she still tossed some powerful gusts our way and we felt entirely safe in our fortress.  We had several overnight guests from farther up the coast who live on Topsail Island, where evacuation was recommended due to the probability of the bridge being closed.

So it was actually an enjoyed Friday evening, shared with good company.  We could hear Irene’s bluster but felt 100% safe with all the shutters in place.  Only had to venture outside to let the dogs do their business (our company had a dog as well) and it reinforced the value of those shutters, I kid you not --- the trees were bent over double and the cacophony was overwhelming.  Another benefit of the shutters is that it affords some sound insulation.

Wasn’t even sure I would be able to tackle the 22 miles planned for Saturday, but after lunch I launched.  Part of the motivation was an errant belief that traffic would be minor, but the roadways were quite busy.  Irene was a slow moving beast and her swirling winds turned the trot into a see-saw match, alternating between battling head winds that practically brought me to a standstill versus tail winds that had me effortlessly zooming along.  The cooler temps, cloudy skies and occasional splattering of rain however, were a welcome relief from the tropical heat I’ve had to endure recently and better yet, I don’t suit up with any extra weight for these marathon sessions.

Sunday was another busy day, with Kim and I tearing down all the hurricane shutters in the morning and then scrambling to prepare for some overnight guests that evening.  Mark, Samia and their daughter Maya are back in the States and we were excited for their arrival.  Finding time to squeeze a ten mile run was a problem, and I had to settle for six…starting at 3PM in blazing heat with the full twenty six pounds on.  It was a laborious run, but he week’s tally was 53 miles, 31 with the full twenty six pounds.

Everyone Knows it’s Windy

The mid-week regimen is complete, affording time to batten down the hatches for Hurricane Irene, which is threatening our neck of the woods.  Logged six, eleven and eight miles Tuesday through Thursday, ALL with the full twenty six pounds on.  Would love to ramble on about running, but Hurricane Irene is breathing down our neck and Kim and I will be devoting our day to putting up hurricane shutters, stocking up and securing everything.

Boarded up for Irene - there are permanent clear latex panels covering what appears to be exposed windows on the second story...

At the moment we feel blessed because the monster’s trajectory has us in the comfort zone and the northeast looks to be in the danger zone.  But better safe than sorry, so we will be taking every precaution and saying prayers for all…

I hear you knockin', but you can't come in!

Loaded

Concluded this week’s training with my first back-to-back run bearing the full twenty six pounds of weight.  Just to insure complete stress I kicked off around 10AM so the sun was already blazing and it was an exhausting trot.  From the start I could feel my legs hadn’t rebounded from yesterday’s challenge and I had to compel myself to outpace the lethargic feeling.


I run circles around the apartments next to our house because there’s a reasonable hill (one of the bigger ones around) and made three spins at the beginning of the run.  So I was drenched in sweat by the first of eight miles.  The extra weight alone would have done it in the heat, but throw in a few uphill scrambles with the extra weight and sweat city is guaranteed.


Steered towards other hills in the neighborhood and by mile six my exhaustion compelled breaking into a short walk.  No big deal, but it was the first time in a week.  The refreshing development during the walk was that I got caught in a downpour.  The clouds alone, blocking the sun, were welcome visitors and the cooling showers were not offensive in the least.


Of course the rain only lasted five short minutes, quickly replaced by the sun.  Things quickly steamed up (mostly my glasses), but I was in the home stretch and the finish line motivation had me stretching the legs out to complete the week’s mileage at 45 (this was my “rest” week).  Between the sun and weight (accumulated a total of 760 pound-miles this week) I was a whipped puppy and took a short nap this afternoon…which I hardly ever do.  And you know what?  I’m ready to hit the sack right now!

And the Winner is…

In Dayton for work this week so another gap in posting, but a good week for road work.  The Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday tours were seven, ten and nine miles, respectively, all toting ten pounds of hand weights (thanks to the loaner from Dave – I keep them in my desk at the office).  Better yet, I paced them all at sub-nine minutes and averaged a whopping 35 feet of elevation gain per mile.  An embarrassment compared to Reunion, but double what I usually achieve here at home.


The return home was problematic.  My second flight was seriously delayed and I didn’t get back home until just before 1AM.  Woke up around 7AM and despite feeling groggy, I strapped on the full twenty-six pound load and headed out for a ten mile run.  Feels like I am starting to shake the ennui from the past few weeks because even without setting a blistering pace, I surprised myself by running the whole time and stretched it out to eleven miles.


This crushed the previous pound-miles record and set the bar at 286.  Not only can you feel it during the run, the stress of toting this extra weight around lingers well afterwards and I still feel the impact in my calves and quadriceps.  I really hope this enhances my hill-climbing capacity because the big run is only seven weeks away now.


My brother-in-law Jeff continues to be a research engine and sends occasional e-mails with fun updates.  The last one this week shared that I am the only American entered in the Bourbon Run (there are, however, three Americans signed up for Le Grand Raid).  This awesome news means that just by finishing I will be the top American, lol!  I can read the headlines now, bemoaning the sorry state of American athletics when a fifty-year old diabetic leads the country…


Hmmm, perhaps there won’t be too much coverage around this race in domestic media sources, but it is a hilarious thought nonetheless.

Pitfalls

Guess I am in the twilight of my running career – the main event is only two months away now!  Of course this implies I am back in the teeth of a rigorous running program again, capped by long sessions each Saturday.  Trotted nineteen miles this morning, mixing the course up a little.




Still ventured down to Carolina Beach, but headed south on River Road (only other choice is Carolina Beach Road) this morning.  A fun choice, despite encountering a lot more traffic on River Road than expected at 7AM on a weekend.  That’s a relative statement, because this path is relatively barren when compared to the volume of vehicles cruising Carolina Beach Road.  Add the absence of any intersections to cross over and a sweet route indeed.




Ran about the town of Carolina Beach for a bit and then turned back north towards home.  The run had gone quite well, but things started falling apart at mile thirteen when it was time for a snack on the run.  I try to choke down a Clif Bar (or the calorie equivalent thereof) about every six miles to fend off low blood sugar, but when your mouth is dry and you are running this is no easy feat.  I was hopeful this would be a treat today, because I had packed along one of the Hammer Energy Bars Kim gifted me on our anniversary.  She presented me with a wonderful mix of different snacks to spice things up and today’s bar was chocolate flavored (obviously not a genuine chocolate bar, but close enough to provide a wonderful taste sensation for this diabetic!).




Well, trying to unwrap these snacks when you are running and all sweaty is problematic, and when I finally succeeded in partially tearing the bar open I was confronted by a melted mess.  My fingers were now slimed with sweat and chocolate, so naturally my attempt to further unwrap the bar resulted in dropping it into the sandy dirt that lines all the roadways around here --- I could have cried.




Stopping to pluck my poor bar from the sand, I decided to take a walking break and gingerly scrubbed as much crud off of my treat as possible.  Fortunately only the top half got tainted, but it was decidedly a bit crunchy…

A runner’s gotta do what a runner’s gotta do!

At least I was in the home stretch after my disappointing snack and this was the first time I ran over the Snow’s Cut Bridge on the Eastern side, affording splendid new views.  Continued another four miles up Carolina Beach Road and crossed over when traffic eased up, but this coincided with a spot where the median was a bit overgrown.  After thrashing through the weeds I felt a bunch of pricks in my ankle, the usual signal that I had picked up a bunch of stickers (see A Sticker Dilemma  for a full discussion of these evil bastards).




Had to endure the pain until safely navigating to the other side of the road, which takes a while on Carolina Beach Road.  Once across I pulled up, discovering that in addition to six stickers embedded in my ankle was a huge chunk of cactus!  It was pretty well buried in there and I had to get a good grip to remove the green menace.




Hardly death-defying, but there are certain pitfalls to running.  I’m still trying to decide which is worse – a sandy energy bar or getting impaled by cacti…

Night Light

Another aspect of the upcoming ultra-marathon will be the prospect of running mountain trails at night…and some pretty rugged trails at that!  So the past few mornings I strapped yet another device onto myself before setting out.  This time it was my trusty Black Diamond head lamp.

Sometimes I try to imagine how I ever survived camping expeditions without a head lamp.  A hands free light source is such a boon, especially when you are trying to set up camp in the dark.  And afterwards there is nothing cozier than reading all nestled in your sleeping bag with the head lamp serving as a convenient night light.

While I’ve never attempted to run with my head lamp on, it really wasn’t too bad.  Tuesday morning the band was a little loose, but after cinching it down a tad there was no bouncing about or discomfort for Wednesday and Thursday sessions.  Well, no physical discomfort.  Mentally it was a bit unnerving, only because I could finally see all the crap I was trampling over in the dark.

This only ‘came to light’ this morning when I did the twelve mile loop down River Road and back up Carolina Beach Road.  The Tuesday and Wednesday runs, seven and six miles, respectively, were confined to the neighborhood as I suited up with the full twenty-six pounds of extra weight strapped on and didn’t want to stray from home because Kim was still in Italy and school had started for my daughter, so I had to get back home by 6:15AM.

In the neighborhood I pretty much run on asphalt with no traffic and ample street lighting.  River Road is another story, featuring zero alternative light sources and early morning commuters regularly exceeding a 55 MPH speed limit, usually forcing me off the bike path and into the weeds.  It’s the turnouts into the weeds where the light pointed out a host of potential ankle busters (hefty rocks and discarded trash), and I breathed a sigh of relief for adding the head lamp to my expanding inventory of strapped on crap.  In addition, the light makes me a lot more visible to the zipping commuters.

The runs have all been good, but trying to keep a strong pace with the extra weight is wearing me down.  Cracked the pound-miles mark again on Tuesday, with seven miles and twenty-six pounds yielding a single run record of 182.  I am such a sweaty mess when I get back from these endeavors, though.  It takes a full ten minutes to stop having the sweat just roll off of me.  For today’s twelve miles I only added six pounds of hand weights, but I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep this since Friday is a rest day...and Kim is back, so I've been emjoying her wonderful tales and pictures of a splendid expedition!!!