Last Hill Training Run Before McDonald Forest 15k

And did it go smoothly? No, no it did not.

It started out well enough. I stuck to my favorite hill this week while taking my last big hill training run before the McDonald Forest 15k. So I headed out the front door and ran to Bald Hill, which is only about 1.5 miles away from my home. My plan was to run up the front side of Bald Hill, down the back side, take a quick loop on the bike path, then take the same route but backwards on the way home.



And it was all good through the first half. I went up the hill, back down the back side and headed onto the paved bike path. Little tired going up the hill, but I was happy that my left knee, which had been hurting going downhill lately, was feeling good.

I headed back onto the dirt and gravel path past the old barn and toward the backside of Bald Hill. Even though I had sunglasses on, the late afternoon sun was right in my face and I was having trouble seeing in certain spots. Yeah, that's my excuse...

I never saw the tree root, but my foot found it easily enough. This was not a bumbling, stumbling, comedy fall. I went down like I got shot in the back. Unfortunately, my hands and knees barely got scratched up. Unfortunate because my chest and ribs took the brunt of the fall instead. Wow, that hurt.

But hey, it didn't hurt as bad then as it does today, the day after!

So I shuffled home, holding my side most of the way. And started to hit the Advil hard.

Today, I'm hurting. Deep breathing is not fun. Sudden movements are not fun. Today's planned run has been scratched. I'm just hoping I start feeling better soon. The Mac Forest 15k was going to be the first run Jen and I ran together for years! I don't want to be on the sidelines!

Updates soon.

Run for the Hills 30k Trail Run Race Review and Results

Little late on this one, but better late than blah, blah...

Just looking for results? Here you go.

So anyhoo...last week was the Run for the Hills trail run, usually just an 8k in the Bald Hill area, but a new 30k was added this year.



As I've mentioned before, I signed up for the 30k way back when before I realized I was going to be well into training for my fall marathon, and in fact, in my fourth week of the Hansons plan. My scheduled workout for the Sunday of the Run for the Hills was to be an easy 8 miles. Instead, I was staring at 18.5 miles with about 3000 feet of climbing. Ouch.



So the whole plan for this one was to go slow and not get injured. I still have nightmares of rolling my ankle at last year's Condor Trail Run, which scuttled my training for the California International Marathon. Plus, I didn't want to go full out and be so sore and tired that I'd have to skip my scheduled marathon workouts. So, as you can see here, I started conservatively...that's me, fifth from the very back as we head out from the start line.



The first hill we tackled was Bald Hill, which was fine as I run it all the time, but then we quickly moved on toward Fitton Green, which I don't run all the time, and it was steep going.

I moved past a few people and settled into my pace. It was an interesting course as there were a good number of out and back spokes. So you ended up seeing the same people over and over and could gauge if you were gaining or losing ground. I didn't much care, but for someone up front, I could see that it would be a good course to know exactly where you're at relative to the other runners.

There are a few "ankle-breaker" sections that aren't really "trail." They're more "beaten down weeds over mole hills." You've got to slow down a bit on those.



We finally made it way out on the trail through Fitton Green where it runs along Marys River. Although I walked plenty on the steeper uphills, I never felt too bad. My pace looked OK as long as I wasn't heading up the really steep stuff.



The race director had told us at the beginning of the run that they had decided against placing a water stop at the top of Bald Hill, which turned out to be a tough decision, for me, in retrospect. As we neared the end of the race, maybe a mile and a half to go, we came up the back side of Bald Hill and hit the summit. There was a race marker sign that read "straight." Unfortunately, it was placed about 15 feet in front of a "Y" on the trail. There was no "straight," there was only left or right. I figured maybe they meant to stay on the main, bigger, trail. Another guy at the top agreed with me and we started down the horse trail. About halfway down, I realized we had taken the wrong trail. That's a steep downhill - there was no way I was turning around and going back up. I knew where it came out, down on the bike path, and I knew we'd have to run a little extra to get back on track, but it seemed like the better option. As I came to the bottom of the trail, I came up on another runner who had taken the wrong trail as well. After the obligatory "wrong trail?" and "yep, wrong trail," we headed back on the bike path toward the Fairgrounds parking lot.



I definitely lost a couple places - I saw some people had already finished that were behind me pretty much the whole race - but what are you going to do?

Amazingly enough, even though I was pretty sore and tired, I managed through my Hansons workouts the entire week after the race. Didn't miss a one.

The shirt is clean and sharp-looking. Sort of a different feel for a tech shirt - definitely has more of a cotton feel. I'm not a huge fan of white race shirts, but it's pretty nice all the same.



Good race. With luck, I won't have to worry about marathon training next year and can really race it.

Thanks to Jim MacDonald for the photos.

Running and Hay Fever

Damn, that Tom Selleck had a nice-looking hairy chest, am I right?

Yeah, that's foreshadowing.

So anyhoo, when you've got a bad case of hay fever, every single year, from about April to July, you can't really just put running on hold. I mean, that's the meat of the running year right there. In the Northwest, that's damn near the entire running year. Outdoors anyway.

So basically, you just pop your favorite pill every morning and hope for the best.

So after a little Fexofenadine fix, I hit the trails this morning for a nice ten-miler in the Corvallis sunshine. And apart from a little wind (which hay fever sufferers never want to see), the weather was just about perfect.

So off I went. A nice little loop by campus then back to Bald Hill Park via the Midge Cramer Path.

And even though my pace slowed down considerably going up Bald Hill, I was pretty happy with my overall pace, especially the few miles after the hill. I felt good.

My splits for the ten+ were:
8:17
8:32
8:34
8:54
8:58
8:31
10:21
10:07
8:13
8:03
7:58
Can you tell where I was going up?!?

And while my hay fever didn't cause my throat to close up, like it sometimes does when I run through Avery Park, it was clear when I went to take my shower that the pollen was going through my lungs pretty good.

No, I don't have chicken pox. Those are hives from breathing in too much pollen during the run. Makes you wonder what my actual lungs look like. I don't really want to know. And no, I don't have quite the hairy goodness of Magnum, P.I., but I'm getting there.

And you wonder why Galen Rupp wears that dorky mask? Well, that's why.

Galen Rupp photo from Thomas Boyd and the Oregonian.

Habitat Half Marathon Coming Fast!

Yeah, we've got quite a gap here between races in the EPIC 2011 series: almost six weeks between the Out to the Ballgame 5k and the Habit for Humanity Health Heart Home Half Marathon Trail Run (yeah...let's just call that one the 6H Half). But this is no time to slack off on the training! The 6H Half (or 10k or 5k if you wish), is a beast of a trail run. It's basically just about half of the Mac 50 course, so yeah, it's tough!

With that in mind, the R's hit the Bald Hill trails today for a little hill work. It was a good hard 11 miler, two trips up Bald Hill, with about 1000 feet of climbing. Good for what ails ya!

You've got about four weeks of training left before the 6H Half - get on those hills!

Run Faster in One Easy Step!

If you're looking to run faster, I recommend the Pacific Gopher Snake (helpfully pictured above).

I was coming down the back side of Bald Hill on Sunday and started to jump over what I thought was a rubber water diverter, of which many are placed along the trails in Bald Hill to keep the rain from washing out the trail. Well, I thought it was a rubber diverter until it started to move across the trail. That was when my foot was about two inches above it and, almost against the laws of physics, it turns out you can actually jump straight up in the air even when running down a hill at a 7:00 pace. Who knew, right?

So if you're looking for something to move you right along on your next long weekend run, I'm going to say "four foot long Pacific Gopher Snake."

Yep, that'll do it.