Spokane Physical Therapist Blog

It looks like the weather is going to be a bit chilly for the Turkey Trot this year.  Who knows though, there might be a bit of a warming to the point that most of the snow melts off.  This is one of my favorite events because it just seems to be this organic unorganized fun run in the truest sense.  You can run 1 or 5 or 10 or I suppose as many miles as you like.  There are folks who dress up in costumes and most people bring a few cans of food for the food bank.  It all starts at 9AM at the duck pond, but don't plan on parking anywhere near the park because it will be totally jam packed.  The last couple of years, the crowd was in the ballpark of 300-400 people.  Hope to see you there!

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Mountain biking is one of my favorite exercise options in the summer months.  Spokane is blessed with numerous trails for all levels.  Some friends and I rode Mt. Spokane today, and I would say that it has the best trails in the area.  We started on Trail 110, just above the Bear Creek Lodge.  The trail is quite steep, and made for a difficult climb with quite a bit of hike a bike.  We ended up at what someone we met called the CCC camp and took the road to the summit.  There was still snow on top, so we ended up taking the road down for a couple of switch backs until we hit the trail.  There were quite a few logs across the trail, and quite a bit of mud on the fairly technical downhill.  We tapped into road 100 around the level of the saddle between Kit Carson and Mt. Spokane for one of the best flowing downhill rides ever.  There are some tight switchbacks and large roots, but for the mostpart it is a really fast and winding trail.  We ended up taking a bit of a side trip to 115, which had some interesting jumps and some technical sections.  All in all, this was quite literally one of the best rides ever, and I highly encourage you to check it out.  Hat tip to Chad Bailey for being the tour guide, and yes, you were right to go left instead of right.  I know, I owe you a Fat Tire.

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It has been a little wet this spring, but I have been able to get back on the mountain and road bikes.  During the marathon training, almost all of my exercise was running, so it has been nice to get back in the saddle.  Adventure race season will be a little bit short for me this year, but I am gearing up for the NIC Challenge.  This race is a five hour rogaine style adventure race with kayak/canoeing, mountain biking, and trekking.  Basically, you are given a map with checkpoints of various point values labeled.  Your mission as a solo or group is to find as many points as possible.  A rogaine style event means that there is no set order that the points need to be found in, and thus no set course.  Typically, you are required to start on one discipline and then move to the next two.  After you transition, you are not allowed to go back to that discipline.  Obviously, there is some major tactical and strategic benefits to finding the most points in the alotted timeframe.  If you get back late, there are some really harsh penalties.  I really like adventure racing more than triathlons because there is so much of a mental component and orienteering requirement.  I am not the fastest guy in the pack for any discipline, but we manage to do fairly well by making good choices during the race.  Chad and I did the MerGeo rogaine, which was just trekking, out in Sprague, WA.  Because we were 15 minutes late, we dropped from 9th to 16th place.  It was a good reminder that the last point you get is not going to be worth it if you are late.  This is the first year that we are doing the NIC Challenge, but I understand that it is a great race for beginners who want a taste of adventure racing. 

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What a great day at the Windermere Marathon, from Post Falls to Spokane.  The weather report was a bit daunting, with some rain and even thunder showers, none of which materialized.  At the start of the race, it was about 50 degrees with a gusting tailwind.  I felt like we were running down hill and being pushed at the same time.  My first three miles were run at about 8:20 pace, which is quite a bit faster than expected, but I wasn't pushing at all, just letting gravity and the wind push me along.  I did the first half in about 1:57, and got to the 20 mile mark at just over 3 hours.  In my mind, it is all about miles 21-25.  Your body is telling you to walk.  I walked through the water stations, but ran the rest, albeit very slowly.  I made an effort at the end to finish at 4 hours.  Several of the people I ran into with GPS were saying that the course was actually 26.4 miles, which is a bit irritating, as the Windermere Marathon has a history of poor milage markings and other significant errors.  All in all, everything went as planned, and I am very happy with how I felt.  There is no doubt in my mind that I left it all out there, and could not have done anything differently.  I suppose if I had lost 20 pounds during my training, I could have gone faster, but I do likes me some ribs.  You can check out a couple of pictures at our facebook page. 

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It felt great to finish my longest run of the training program this weekend.  I am very tired, and a little sore, but overall things are going well.  So, now I am at the point where I need to work on some speed and replenish what the long runs have taken out of me and work towards my 4 hour goal.  I felt that to attain this goal I would have to be able to run 20 miles in 3 hours, and I was able to do that today.  I had to push my speed on the last 7 miles to a point where I would not have been able to sustain it for another 6.2. 

It occured to me while I was running today that there really is a lot that goes into the logistics of marathon training.  There is this little ritual of making sure that toe nails are clipped to wearing the right socks/underware/dry fit shirt to getting all of my water together to figuring out what I am going to eat prior to the run.  Then, when I get home, being able to rally for a couple of toddlers who are eager for my attention and love.  I am grateful for the support of my wife, who is part of the Marathon Mamas group.  She has been very supportive of my goals, and I can't imagine training for a marathon without a supportive partner. 

So, to anyone else out there who is preparing for a race, I hope that things are going well for you.  While I can't say that this training has been without setbacks, I think that I am at a point where I can achieve the goal that I have set. 

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It has been a good week of training.  Had a bit of a scratchy throat, which made for a painful and cold morning 8 on Wednesday.  My long run was 16 miles on the Fish Lake Trail.  My goal is to keep up a 9 minute mile pace up for three hours to get me to the 20 mile mark.  Then, I will be able to take it a little easy on the last 6.2, which is obviously the more difficult part.  The name of the game for the next two weeks needs to be focus and discipline.  From nutrition to hydration to pace and route choice, my training runs are as important as ever.  The next two weeks will be 18 and 20 miles respectively.  There is a part of me that wants to do the 20 next week to get it over with, but then I come back to trusting the marathon plan.  "The System is the Solution."- I saw that on an armored car one time.  A side note of inspiration for me...

The Boston Marathon was run over the weekend, and the guy from Kenya who won ran it in a little over 2:03, which is about 4 min 14 sec per mile.  That ,makes my brain hurt a lot.  I can't do a 100 yard dash at that pace, let alone 26.2 miles. 

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I had a nice week of training this week.  For my short run, I did a treadmill fast pace.  My eight mile middle run was a difficult, hot, boring YMCA run.  Saturday, I woke up to pouring down rain and wind.  By the time I started on the Fish Lake trail, the weather had turned to hail.  The Fish Lake trail is a little deceiving, because it is a little bit up hill on the way out from town.  I ran at my normal 9 minute mile on the way out, but was able to do 8:20 per mile on the way home.  I am a horse to the barn kind of guy, so when you add a tailwind to downhill to almost done with my long run, I tend to stride out a little more.  All in all, it was a great week, and I am feeling good going into the last three long runs of training.  Next week, instead of 16, I am going to do the Rock Creek Ramble orienteering event.  Chad and I are doing the 4 hour version, so I am sure that I will get my 16 miles in.

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I know that this is a marathon blog. And when it comes to marathons, I am winning at two at the moment. Marathon Eating and Marathon Talking. I can never lose at those marathons. However, I decided to back down my half marathon goal to a 10K goal, and I'm feeling okay about it. The logistics of training and where I should be at this point isn't happening. I'm a full time student and a full time single mother and feeling guilty about not working out for many hours was more time wasted, and spent, feeling bad. The pressure that I put on myself then spun me into an anxiety attack. I eat to manage stress (I know, I'm working on it...) so it wasn't a very good scene for the last two weeks or so. That puts me up to speed with where I've been in the last few weeks. Finished up winter quarter at school and excited about starting fresh all over again. I've been running about 5 miles a week and biking close to 20. Although I'm not proud of these two numbers, my pace times have gotten better, so I know that I can do this. This next quarter, I will have more time off from school which is a big sigh of relief for finding time to work out. Instead of giving up and freaking out, I just freaked out and tweaked my goal a bit. I think that I bit off more than I could chew at that time, obviously. But it won't be the last of me, this is just the beginning.

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Things got a little more interesting this week in terms of milage.  My long run was 12 miles, and I ended up doing my medium run the day before due to a stomach bug.  I was prepared for the almost two hour run with water and a goo, but it has been a long time since I have run that far.  There is big difference between 10 and 12 miles, and I know that from here on out it is going to get more interesting.  This is when the test really begins, when I really find out if I can achieve my goals.   

Long runs really bring home the concept of the mental challenge.  I find myself running along, not really breathing that hard, not really straining the much, but my mind is asking me to stop.  I don't stop though because I know that it will just take longer to walk home and I will feel a deep sense of failure.  I can't help but think that fear of failure is a major driving force.

There is a part of me that wishes that I had a stronger desire to run.  Most of the time, I look at the schedule and run what I am supposed to run because it is printed on the page.  I know that if I do what I am supposed to do, then I will have a successful outcome.  I can stand on point A and look at the steps to get to point B as a simple linear process.  How often in your life can you set a goal and follow a path that is defined with such detail?  In some ways it is easy because of the simplicity, but of course it is the following through that is either killing a few brain cells or building character.

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I am in need of a much longer list of great running songs.  I currently have a half marathon playlist on my iPod, but  as you can imagine, two hours of music won’t get me through the Windermere Marathon.  Here is my top five running songs.  I would love some suggestions in the comments section on what you love running to.

1.       Lose Yourself- Eminem

2.       Such Great Heights- Postal Service

3.       Jane Says- Jane's Addiction

4.       Paper Thin Walls- Modest Mouse

5.       The Ocean- Led Zeppelin

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