42.2

What to say about running 42k? (marathon distance, 26.2 miles)

I guess the big thing is that I achieved the goal I’ve had in mind for the last few years. I was going to say “working towards” but that’s not really true. I’ve just been running. Just enjoying being able to get out there and do it.

Considering I was aiming for 40 secs/km faster than the last time I ran 40km, it was definitely not a sure thing. If I had a good run I'd think it was possible, and if I had a bad run I'd think it was out of reach.

I managed to finish two minutes under my goal. Secretly I had hoped to do slightly better but considering it’s my first marathon, and at the age of 61, I’m happy with it.

I was quite nervous before I started. I'm not sure why. There certainly wasn’t any pressure. No one even knew I was going out to do it. Of course, once I got started the nerves went away. 

It wasn’t perfect conditions, but it wasn’t too bad. These warm fall days get quite cool at night and then heat up fast. At 7c it was a little cold when I started, and at 19c it was a little warm when I finished. Thankfully it was sunny with almost no wind when it was cold, and breezy and overcast when it was warm.

I probably should have tapered a bit more before this effort. I reduced my mileage for the week but it was only last Sunday that I ran my fastest half marathon. Two major efforts within a week probably isn't ideal.

I went twice around a roughly 21 km loop. I deliberately chose familiar ground that I’d run countless times before. I thought about running one of the loops in reverse for variety but I decided for this I wanted familiarity and comfort more than variety. I think it was the right choice.

I wore my running vest with two 500ml bottles. That wasn’t enough fluids so I stashed a refill bottle in the bushes at the start/end of the loop. To speed up the process refilled the soft bottles without taking them out of the vest. It worked, but I spilled sugary water on myself which made for a somewhat sticky second lap. In the end I drank about 1.5 liters. As expected, I drank more in the warmer second lap.

I used Tailwinds in my water and got about 400 calories from that. To ensure I get a consistent intake, I make a point of drinking a small amount every kilometer when my watch beeps with my pace. In addition I ate three Huma gels (at roughly 10km, 20km, and 30km) for another 300 calories. (I prefer the Huma fruit puree rather than the usual honey/syrup texture.) That’s about as much calories as I could stomach. As it was, I wasn’t too excited about that last gel. But it was a caffeinated one so I had some motivation to choke it down. I had practiced on long runs with Tailwinds and Huma gels so I was pretty sure it would go down ok. I didn’t bonk or “hit the wall” so I’d say it did its job. By the end, puking seemed like a possibility, but I think that was just the effort. The feeling went away as soon as I finished.

My pacing went pretty well. Almost all my kilometers were within a few seconds of my target pace, mostly under. I had a slight negative split (second half slightly faster) which is what I was aiming for. At about 35 km things were going pretty well and I remember thinking I might have something left for a kick at the end. That was overly optimistic. By the end it was less a question of whether I could physically go faster, and more a matter of convincing myself that I really did want to keep running.

I read recently that if at any time in the first 30 km you think you went out too fast, you probably did. I forced myself to stick close to my goal pace for the first 30 km. If I wanted to go faster I would do that in the last 10 km. Of course, by the last 10 km I didn't feel much like going faster.

By the time I finished it was getting busy, as you’d expect on one of the last nice days of fall. But by that time I didn’t really care. I was in a world of my own. Other people were simply obstacles I had to go around to finish what I was doing. I made a point of trying to smile since that’s supposed to improve performance (and it was a beautiful fall day), but I’m afraid that went by the wayside for the last few kilometers.

I did gaze longingly at my usual coffee stop. It seemed unfair that I get to stop for coffee on my training runs, but not now, when I really needed it.

I ended up with a black toenail but that wasn’t a surprise, that toe is often an issue. Otherwise, I got through it relatively unscathed. As usual after really long runs my neck and shoulders were a bit sore. I can feel my quads slightly. During the run I had a slight ache in the outside of one knee, probably a remnant of my old IT band issues. But it never got painful and disappeared after I finished. I think I was in adequate shape. Not in shape to go any faster, but enough to do what I wanted without any damage.

Could I go faster? I think so, if I could keep up my mileage. Not a lot faster, but I could probably cut a few minutes. I think I’m pretty close to the Boston qualifying time for my age group. Not that I have the slightest desire to run with umpteen thousand other people, but it would be a number to aim for.

Post Run Fueling

It's a good idea to eat within a short time after exercise (so the research says). I usually need to re-hydrate as well, so a smoothie is a good option. It's also easier to eat than solid food, and easier to get the desired balance of protein, carbs, and fat. ("Rewarding" yourself with junk food after a run is somewhat counterproductive.) There's also research that shows it's a good idea to take in more protein as you age, so my post run smoothie is a good chance to do that as well.

Here are my basic ingredients:

large glass of soy milk
1 banana
1/4 cup of quick oats (slow carbs)
1 tablespoon of hemp protein powder
1 tablespoon of whey protein powder
1 teaspoon of hot chocolate powder
cinammon

If I feel like I sweated a lot, and I didn't drink any electrolyte fluids during the run, I'll add a pinch of salt.

If it was a long run (e.g. over two hours) I might add a tablespoon or two of olive or camelina oil, both for extra slow calories, and because otherwise the only source of fats is the soy milk.

Occasionally I'll add a tablespoon or two of yogurt for some probiotics, although normally I'm not a big yogurt fan.

The oats make the texture a little odd, but I've gotten used to it. If you blend it well it's not bad.

If you're vegan you obviously wouldn't want to use whey protein powder but there are plenty of other options.

Tip: Freeze your overripe bananas (peeled and broken into chunks) so if you're out of fresh ones you can use a frozen one.

Shelley gave me some Athletic Greens as a gift, so I've been adding a tablespoon of those too. It turns the smoothie a rather sickly green color, but doesn't affect the taste too much.

I'm not a big believer in "supplements", or highly processed foods in general, but the protein powder is a convenience compromise. And the Athletic Greens are basically vitamins and minerals. (And they're recommended by Timothy Ferris, how can you go wrong!)

My stomach doesn't usually bother me on long runs and I don't have a problem drinking a smoothie afterwards. But after that I often don't feel much like eating for a few hours so it's good to take in enough calories to last till I get my appetite back.

Note: I'm a little unusual in that I'm generally more concerned with keeping my weight up rather than down like most people. I've never gone much over what I weighed when I left high school. I assume that's partly due to an active lifestyle and partly a matter of lucky genes.

On the other hand, if you are exercising to lose weight, you probably want to be careful not to take in more calories after your exercise than you burned during it.

I'm not fanatical about having to have my post run smoothie. If it's not convenient I might just grab a banana or some fluids.

It's probably not the smoothies, but something is going right - I cut 5 minutes off my best half marathon time on my last long run :-)

Seeds

Autumn is the time for seeds and I thought I'd do a few closeups of these fascinating products of nature. They all survived a ride home in my pocket. I normally like more natural settings, but these kinds of staged photoes can be good to focus on a particular subject. (Like the Photo Ark or Seeing series)

This pinecone was almost dropped on my head by a squirrel busily snipping off the pinecones and letting them drop to the ground, presumably to collect later.

One of a large crop of acorns from the oak trees at Innovation Place.

There are two small trees near the Innovation Place pond that I think are Buckeyes. (related to chestnuts) My father talked about playing with conkers when he was a child. It's such a contrast between the rough spiky outer layer and the smooth shiny seeds inside.

Here's the makeshift backdrop I used for these shots. I found a patch of sun coming in a window so I had plenty of light and could get decent depth of focus and still a fast enough shutter to hand hold. (Olympus EM1m3 with macro lens) I didn't manage a pure white background but close enough.

Photos of the Week

Along with some rain we've had a couple of foggy mornings. The spiders like to build webs on the railings of the pedestrian bridge I walk across to get to work. They stand out when they are covered in dew and reflecting the low early morning sun. They're a little tricky to photograph well.

Normally, there are no spiders visible, so I'm not sure what's making the webs. A few times I have found these Cat-faced Orbweavers on the webs, but I'm not sure if they are the producers.

The leaves are continuing to change color. I think I like photographing the reflections of the color better than the trees themselves.

I was taking photographs of these coneflowers (gray-headed?) when I noticed a tiny crab spider. Usually these are Goldenrod crab spiders, but this one has a little different coloring than usual.

I've only seen a few fishing spiders this year. I spotted this one guarding its young in a nursery web. You can see the empty egg sac at the bottom of the web.

We're past the dragonfly peak but there are still a few around. I photographed this Variable Darner as it was laying eggs in the water. I wonder if it's the eggs or the nymphs that overwinter?

The bees love this late flowering Russian Sage. On cool mornings I can often find them "sleeping" here, waiting to warm up enough to fly. I think most of them, including this one, are Hunt's Bumble Bees.

Usually I see jackrabbits around Innovation Place, but this looks like a Mountain (Nuttal's) Cottontail. They are more commonly found further south. I wonder if they are moving north with the warming climate.

I'm not much of a mushroom person, but there are lots popping up after the recent rain. This one was a little unusual - I think it's a White Saddle.

There are more and more Boxelder/Maple Bugs congregating on the ground and bushes and trees.

The oaks at Innovation Place have had a bumper crop of acorns this year, maybe due to the combination of the warm summer and the regular watering. There aren't a lot of oaks in Saskatoon, but there are a few around. Someone was even collecting them with a rolling nut gatherer. I'm not sure if that was just to get rid of them, or whether they were going to eat them in some form.

And finally, a rare selfie, as a reflection, of course.

Signs of Fall

Congregations of Boxelder (Maple) bugs are common in the fall. The ones with smaller wings are  nymphs (juveniles). This tree had Boxelder bugs all over it, but strangely I only spotted the odd bug on the other trees in the area.

Although it happens every year, it's a bit of a shock to see the trees start to change color in August. The summer is short in Saskatchewan. The cool weather and (welcome) rain also make it seem like summer is ending.

The damp weather led to a rare foggy morning that coated the many spider webs on the bridge railings with water drops. I struggled to find a good angle with a clean background. The background in this shot is the river below, with the sky and clouds reflected in it.

Wildlife

Skippers aren't big flashy butterflies and often go unnoticed, but they are quite attractive if you get a close look.

Grass spiders are easy to spot - find their funnel webs on grass or bushes and look for the spider near the the tunnel. But don't make any sudden moves or it will disappear down that tunnel.

I had forgotten there were lizards around Victoria. These Common Wall Lizards are from Europe and were introduced to the Victoria area in the 1960's. There is a native Northern Alligator Lizard but I didn't spot any of them.

The American Bullfrog is another immigrant. They were brought in to be raised for food. That didn't work out, but the bullfrogs have stayed and multiplied. We saw lots at Swan Lake.

We saw this Harbor Seal mother and baby a few times. The baby seemed to be growing by the day.

Since childhood summer vacations on Vancouver Island, I've enjoyed turning over rocks on the beach to find the hiding crabs.

Of course, there are lots of gulls around. It was nice to see one finding its own food instead of scrounging human garbage.

Similarly, this crow had found a small fish, but it must have been quite tough since it was pecking away at it and not just swallowing it whole.

Great Blue Herons are much more common than in Saskatchewan.

I saw river otters a few times in the water. This one was out of the water by a busy path, in the middle of the afternoon.

A handsome black slug:

and a squadron of pelicans: (both at the Creston Wildlife Area on the drive home)

Abstracts

I'm falling behind posting photos so I thought I'd group some of the more abstract ones together.

This was on the Juan De Fuca trail near Mystic Beach. I had the vague idea of running this trail, but I'm not so sure after seeing all the roots. It would be slow going.

A random plant at the Gardens at Horticulture Centre of the Pacific. We also had a nice lunch at the restaurant there - Charlotte and the Quail.

The rest are various reflections. That's what happens when I'm around the water :-)

2600

The last five months I've managed to maintain a good (for me) volume of running, bringing my yearly total to just over 2600 km (1600 miles), which equates to 50 km (30 miles) per week. I'm pretty happy with that. Amazingly (touch wood) I haven't had any major issues - my knees and feet and IT bands have been quiet. There's nothing magical about 2600, it's just a nice round number, as is 50. Of course, competitive runners will do a lot more than that. It's possible I could do more but I'm a little nervous about pushing too hard and ending up having problems. The increase over the last year or two has come quite naturally, without really pushing. If I end up increasing because it feels good, that's great. If not, that's fine too.

When we left on a road trip to BC at the end of July I still had 36 km to go to make 2600. But by getting up early, I managed to run every day. I ran along the Bow river in Cochrane, on a vague track in Merritt, along the Boundary Bay Dyke in Tsawwassen, and along the Songhees Walkway and Galloping Goose Trail in Victoria.

Fatal Collision

I enjoy seeing the hummingbirds in British Columbia, but I was sad to find this one dead in a pool of water, food for water striders. It was a place where you might expect to see a hummingbird - the native plant garden at the Royal BC Museum. However, the garden is next to the archives building with large windows reflecting the garden. It's not surprising that a bird would mistakenly (and fatally) fly into them.