Quest for Medoc: Part 1 :: swimbikestumble

October 2011 Owls Roost Trail, Greensboro, NC, Watershed Trails

We find our hero, armed only with a hydration vest, speed-hiking the last few miles of the 2011 Triple Lakes marathon in a desperate bid to beat the eight-hour cutoff.

I’m moving as fast as I can, maybe 20 minute miles. I’m walking a mountain bike trail, the last leg of the race, because I just can’t run any more. My legs feel like concrete. I’ve got about 40 minutes left before the cutoff and have no idea how far I have left to go. If it’s more than two miles, I’m significantly out of luck (SOL). I’m only sure about two things. 1. I’m not lost because ran or rode a portion of the course every few weeks while training for the race. 2. I’ve got to move faster.

Crossing the finish line at the 2011 Triple Lakes Trail Marathon, Greensboro, NC.

The trail goes up and down hill as it winds around the lake. I think I see a clearing ahead before the trail dips again. I top a ridge and I can see the main greenway. The finish line is close, between a quarter and a half mile away. I have 15 minutes remaining: I’m going to make it. I walk up the greenway as fast as I can. I follow the marked path around a pond and can see the finish line further up the hill. About 100 yards out I break into a jog. I hear cheering. I quicken my pace. Somehow I get up to actual running speed and cross the finish line. I feel equal parts relief, disappointment and pain.

So there I was sitting quietly at my computer – minding my own business, innocent, up to nothing. OK I may have been looking at titanium road bikes, particularly the Lynsky Silver Series, trying to decide between the Breakaway and the Peloton. I might have been trying to figure out how I would pay for it. How I would ever justify the expense. Or could have just been trying to estimate how long it would be before I died of food poisoning after my wife divorced me over the purchase. I’ve got to get better about reading expiration dates.

That’s when it happened. The computer made that ka-pingy noise that signifies a new e-mail. It was Frank, running buddy, college roommate and partner-in-crime. We had been debating several fall races: Triple Lakes Trail Races (40, 26.2 or 13.1 miles), Medoc Trail Races (26.2 or 10 mile), Crooked Road 24 Hour Ultra (however far you can go in 24 hours).

Frank, it turns out, had narrowed our options down to one race and one distance: Medoc Trail Races and marathon. He’s the decisive one of the pair. This is probably not news to long-time readers of this blog. Most primates are more decisive than me. Heck some single-celled organisms are more decisive than me. I’m working on it.

That left me with just one problem to solve, really a series of smaller problems. I had to come up with a training plan that would get me to the race with enough stamina to finish but avoid the mistakes I made training for my first trail marathon, the 2011 Triple Lakes Trail Marathon.

The story of the Triple Lakes marathon is probably the biggest story that I haven’t blogged about. Probably because it took me several months to decide whether the race was an epic victory or an epic fail. In truth, I’m not sure I’ve answered that question even today. I arrived at the race way overtrained. My legs were basically fried. The two-week pre-race taper and getting a massage the week before had put some life back into my legs, but just barely.

Training for marathon distance and longer distances for larger and/or older runners like myself can be problematic. Blindly following my training plan and ignoring the distress signals that my body was giving, landed me in bad situation.

I used a plan based on Jeff Galloway’s philosophy. My buddy, Frank used a plan based on Hal Higdon’s school of thought. Both are legendary runners and coaches, who have helped thousands of people realize their marathon dreams. Please note that both coaches have several plans suited to different level athletes and different goals. Check out their websites and books for information whatever distance you plan to tackle next.

I used Galloway’s “To Finish” plan which had three runs per week: two 30-minute runs and one long slow distance run. The long distance run gradually builds in a stair-step fashion. Galloway recommends a walk run strategy for long runs. The longest run was 23 miles. I pretty sure that most of my long runs were 4 min/1 min run walk ratios. I mixed it up a bit throughout my training. My longest run training for Triple Lakes was 20 miles about two weeks before the event.

The warning signs of overtraining were everywhere. I lived in Clemmons, NC at the time and would often drive out to Salem Lake Park to do my weekend long run on the 7-mile trail around Salem Lake. I would run whatever distance was on the training plan. As the weekend run/walks edged over 15 miles, I would notice that during the last two or three miles my running gait would turn into a shuffle and my minutes per mile would get longer and longer. I would continue until I completed the distance written on my training plan oblivious of the larger and larger hole I was digging.

When I drove home it would take me about five minutes to hobble the 50 feet from the driveway to the front door. Hey it was uphill. My shin splints got so bad I had to start run/walk my 30-minute runs during the week. At work during lunch I would ice my shins or quads. My coworkers were nice enough to pretend this was normal or at least not completely textbook, toad-sizzling crazy.

Eastern Tennessee Present Day

So far my longest walk run has been 10.5 miles. I was sore afterward but recovered nicely after a day off. I just finished my first “magic mile” workout of the training plan. I ran the mile in 10:04 and using Galloway’s formulas I should be able to, in theory, run a road marathon at a 13:05 minute/mile pace. I’m hoping for a 15 minute/mile pace and need a 16:30 minute/mile to beat the cutoff at 20 miles. I’m monitoring my resting heart rate, degree of muscle soreness and motivation. I’ll cover my strategy, tactics and techniques to prevent overtraining in a future post. I’ll keep you posted on my training plan as it unwinds. And if I’ve truly learned my lessons you might just run into me or past me at Medoc.