Chapter 10 – October 2023, 90 Days Until RunDisney Marathon Week

Dopey Training is Getting Real 

Wow!  It’s October 1, 2023.  We leave for Orlando in just 13 weeks.  Can this old body hold out for another 13 weeks?  I feel like I am walking on very thin ice some days, just one wrong step from a debilitating injury.  Other days I feel invincible.  I remind myself to stick to the plan, just cover the distance without doing any more damage, and not get any delusions that I am suddenly going to be able run a 4-hour marathon.

 

Week 4 of 18 ended with a 6-miler on Friday and a 16-miler on Saturday.  I took it easy on for the 6-miler, but still felt a little fatigued and sore afterwards.  That was concerning.  Saturday was going to get warm late morning, so I awoke early to get out early, just after sunrise.  I felt okay as I set out for what would be a 3-hour adventure.  The plan was to run/walk at a 4/1-minute cadence. I had everything I needed either in my water bottle or in my FlipBelt, I just needed to find water along the way, which turned out to be relatively easy. I modified my route slightly to run through a county park with restrooms and water fountains.  The logistics of the run worked out without a hitch.

 

But this was the first long run that I had done alone since late July.  I had run with the Badgerland Striders almost every weekend since the beginning of August.  The miles went by slowly with no one to distract me with conversation.  On the other hand, I could stick to my walk/run strategy without interrupting someone else’s pace.  Regardless, the last 3 miles were tough, my heart rate became elevated, my right hip flexors were screaming.  After I stopped, I felt out of breath and exhausted, much more than I did after running 16 miles with the Badgerland Striders.  My average pace was 11:45 per mile.  Just 3 weeks ago I ran 16 miles with the Badgerland Striders at a 10:34 per mile average and felt much better afterwards.  Did the 6 miles the day before really make that much difference?  Or was it the comradery that made the run 3 weeks earlier that much easier?  

 

Regardless, now I need to rest and recover and get ready for the 8 and 18 miles at the end of Week 6. 

Week 6 Complete!  One-Third of the Way There!

Week 6 was challenging.  It was the first real test with back-to-back runs of 8 and 18 miles.  At the start of the week, I was looking forward to the challenge, to see how well I could manage pacing and soldier through the long slow adventure. I also needed to manage the logistics of being out alone for more than 3 hours with no aid stations or companionship like I had with the Badgerland Striders Buildup runs.

The week started out good.  On Monday, I ran 10K and through caution to the wind with my heart rate.  I let my heart rate go into zone 3 (greater than 130 BPM) but kept it in the low end of zone 3.  I ended up averaging 9:40 miles with a couple of miles around 9:30.  That was one of my faster runs as of late.  Then on Wednesday I ran 4 miles at a similar pace.  No issues with irregular heart rate, I was feeling good.

 

Then the rains arrived from the West.  The forecast was that rain, heavy at times, would start Thursday afternoon and continue through mid-morning Saturday.  And it did.  I don’t mind doing a short run (5 miles or less) in the rain, but 8 miles at a slow pace seemed like it would be miserable.  I considered running on a treadmill, I considered going to an indoor track.  Then I decided to just postpone the 8/18 milers from Friday/Saturday to Saturday/Sunday.  With Sundays always being rest days, my training plan gives me some leeway to shift things a day.

 

On Thursday, however, I started having cold symptoms.  By Friday morning, I felt ill, not terribly ill, but bad enough that the thought of 8 and 18 miles made me feel worse. On Saturday, I woke feeling a little better and knew I had to get through 8 miles.  The rains tapered off at 10:00am and I headed out to meet up with a running friend.  It helped running with someone, I forgot that I was not feeling 100% and focused on the conversation.  I perhaps ran a little faster than I should have, though.  I kept to my 4/1 run/walk ratio, but the running segments were faster than I would have run if I was alone. I was a bit sore and achy the rest of Saturday, not a good sign for the 18-miler to come on Sunday.

 

Sunday, I woke with a positive attitude and thought to myself, let’s just get this done!  I  got up and jumped right into my morning routine and started pulling things together for my forthcoming adventure.  I packed my FlipBelt with a couple of gels, a nutrition bar, electrolyte tablets, and some extra electrolyte drink mix.  The plan was to run a similar route as my previous 16-miler, passing through a county park with water and restrooms.

 

Cat ran the first mile and a half with me, which was great because her pace is what I need to run for my long runs.  I set the timer on my watch to trigger every 5 minutes to manage a 4/1 cadence (when the timer goes off, I walk for a minute).   First mile and a half with Cat was great. My Apple Watch was not reporting heart rate yet, but that was okay because I knew that, at Cat’s pace, I would be fine.  After Cat turned around, however, my watch was still not reporting HR consistently.  It would show a value that was clearly out of range, drop to within a valid range, then go blank again.   

About a mile after Cat left me, I was on autopilot and deep in thought when BAM!.  I was running on a gravel strip next to the paved bike trail and I failed to see the hole. My foot went into the hole, and I was on the ground before I knew it. My right knee and hands took the brunt of the impact.  I got up quickly, started walking and took inventory of myself.  Other than the road rash on my right knee, it seemed I had escaped serious injury.  I started jogging and everything seemed fine except for the tingling my right knee and the disruption to my rhythm.  The whole process from falling to running again probably took about a minute, though it felt much longer.  

 

After the fall, my Apple Watch never found an accurate heart rate. It would come and go, sometimes reporting values that were clearly out of range, sometimes reporting values that were unlikely.  Normally I would stop and walk when my watch reported a high value.  But I could feel that my heart rate was in my normal running zone.  About 6 miles into the run, I decided to just run by feel, by intuition, the old fashion way, with no technology to throttle me.  I focused on my breathing, knowing that if I could keep my respiration rate low then my heart rate was probably in a good zone.

 

I continued through 10 miles with a 4/1 run/walk ratio.  After 10 miles I started lengthening my walk intervals to almost 2 minutes.  This was per plan, after 10 miles I had planned to switch to a 3/2 run/walk ratio.  It was necessary.  By 10 miles my legs were already fatigued, and I could feel my heart rate elevating.  I continued the 3/2 ratio through 18 miles.  Done!  I did it.   That was more difficult than I expected, especially at that slow pace (12:00 per mile).

 

Fighting a cold, changing plans to avoid the rains, a traumatic fall on the trail, not having a reliable heart rate monitor.  Perhaps all these nuisances combined to make my 18-mile run harder than it should have been.  Or perhaps I need to hold back more on the first of the consecutive runs to conserve for the long run. I need to figure out something in the next two weeks before I attempt consecutive days of 10 and 20 miles. This week, though, I’m going to enjoy a recovery week.

 

It is amazing, nevertheless, to look back to last January and consider how far I have come. I am less than 12 weeks from Dopey, I have logged some long miles, and I am on track per my training plan. I have my head down in the details of running, strength training, stretching, massaging and diet.  There is still a lot of work to do before Dopey.  So, I do not spend a lot of time reflecting on the progress I have made.  That will have to wait until after Dopey. For now, I continue focusing on the progress I still need to make.

Week 8 Complete!  Time For Some Recovery

 

Week 8 was another buildup week which included back-to-back runs of 10 and 20 miles.  Back in week 2, I thought back-to-back runs of 4 and 14 miles were more difficult than expected. Then In week 4, I thought 6/16 miles was also more difficult than it should have been.  But then 8/18 was even harder, and 10/20 took a lot of fortitude.  In retrospect, 4/14 was easy.

 

I ran the 10-miler on Friday with a friend, using a 3:30/1:30 run/walk cadence.  I expected that increasing the walk period from 60 to 90 seconds would leave me feeling great after 10 miles.  It did not go that way.  I still felt sore and fatigued late Friday, wondering how I was going to feel the next morning.  I had run my two weekday runs (7 and 3 miles) a bit faster than normal, and my 10 miler the previous weekend was also faster than normal.  Perhaps cumulative fatigue from running faster than I needed to was taking its toll.  

 

Saturday, October 29, was the first cold morning of the late fall season.  It was 65°F for Friday’s run and 35°F Saturday when I set foot outside.  That added a new complexities to the logistics of long runs, having to carefully choose the layers of clothing to wear, knowing that whatever I set out with I would be carrying for 4 hours.  Fortunately, I chose wisely and was temperature-comfortable for the duration of the run.  

 

I set out to run/walk at a 3/2-minute ratio.  In the early going, I shortened the walk segments if my heart rate went below 100 bpm during the walk segment.  That strategy lasted about 10 miles, after that my HR never went below 100 bpm.  My average pace during the first 10 miles was about 12:00 min/mile, surprisingly slower than I expected.  But I was okay with that if that would allow me to complete 20 miles without too much trouble.  

 

With my heart rate staying above 100 BPM, I switched to timed walking segments of 90-120 seconds.  That got me through the next 4 miles at about the same average pace.  After 14 miles I started to exceed my maximum HR, at which point I stopped and walked regardless of time.  After 17 miles I switched to a 1/1-minute run/walk ratio.  My legs and hips were sore and tight by this time, so the 1/1 ration was as much a discomfort-management strategy as much as a means to manage my HR.  That got me to the finish line.

 

Shortly after getting home from my run, I realized that my heart rate was irregular.  I do not know for sure when it started being irregular.  I waited until I completed my post run routine before checking my ECG to confirm, but I started feeling “odd” soon after I got home.  That was a big disappointment.  I hadn’t had any irregular heart rate issues in over a month.  The rest of the day I spent questioning whether I could complete the Dopey Challenge, and if I should even try.  

 

By evening I was back in normal sinus rhythm and ready to take on the world again.  But that question still lingered.  Week 8 was a milestone week with 40 miles total.  I intentionally planned for two recovery weeks before I set out for another buildup week.  So, I tried to put week 8 behind me and focus on letting my body recover and prepare for the next challenge three weeks later.  In addition to heart rate issues, I still need to manage my hip pain and knee pain, both of which flared up after the 20-miler.   But not worse than I had experienced throughout the past 6 months, so I am confident I can manage by sticking to my strength and stretching routines.