Ugly Toes

So I ran 50 miles this week, which would be a mileage PR had I not had a freaky 56.5 mile week back in high school. I may try to add some miles in on the 55 mile week just so I can beat that, but I'll have to see how things are going. I'm doing pretty well right now, I think. I was supposed to have a few 50 mile weeks when I trained for Freescale, but my IT band prevented me from finishing all the runs as scheduled. I haven't had any complaints from the ITB this year (yet); I think doing leg lifts (hip abductions) and using the stick every night are helping. I don't think I would've believed it if you'd told me a 1.5-2 years ago that I'd be able to run a 5K PR and then kick out an 18 miler the next day.

My Garmin is having issues - oh no! I've had it for almost 2.5 years, and I seem to remember having read about other people with similar aged units having issues. On Wednesday, it took forever to lock into a signal. Here's my usual pre-running routine when I run from the house: turn on the watch as I walk outside with Molly, take her to do her business, pick up watch (with satellites locked) after visiting garbage can. I did all that, but it was still finding a signal. It almost looked like the screen was frozen, so I tried to turn it off and back on again in the hopes that it would fix things. But it just got to the same point and then kind of hung there waiting. I was getting tired of sitting in my driveway petting the dog, so I decided to just start running and hope it would lock in eventually. I figured I had a rough idea where the 1/2 mile mark was, so worst case scenario I'd have an estimated distance run. (Like back in the pre-GPS days!). It did lock in while we were running, but the long wait was pretty annoying.

Today, I was pretty sure it was dropping distance when a split of 10:10 flashed in the middle of running 8:40s. I got another funny split, and I wonder about some of the early splits, too. Motion Based and TopoFusion confirm that I lost about 0.20-0.25 miles. I like my splits for this run, so here they are:
1 | 9:27
2 | 9:29 | 18:57
3 | 9:44 | 28:41
4 | 9:18 | 38:00
5 | 9:16 | 47:17
6 | 9:48 | 57:05 (uphill)
7 | 9:17 | 1:06:22
8 | 8:59 | 1:15:22
9 | 8:56 | 1:24:16
10 | 8:30 | 1:32:49 (downhill)
11 | 8:44 | 1:41:33
12 | 10:10 | 1:51:44 (WHAT? GPS error)
13 | 8:42 | 2:00:26
14 | 9:21 | 2:09:48 (? GPS error)
15 | 8:50 | 2:18:39
16 | 8:51 | 2:27:30
17 | 8:58 | 2:36:29
18 | 8:50 | 2:45:19
--------------------------
18.04 miles | 2:45:47 | 9:11/mi. (GPS dropped distance)
18.25 miles | 2:45:47 | 9:05/mi. (corrected total)

I don't know why the first few miles were so slow. I thought I had a good hydration strategy (same one that enabled me to run Freescale without peeing which is probably what I'm most proud of from that race), but I went to pee at the lake before running and then needed to go again by 3 miles. I actually spent the end of mile 3 and half of mile 4 in the community college parking lot running for a portapotty. I saw one, but when I got to it, it was blocked by a fence (so mean). I decided to just suck it up, but then found one on my way out of the community college.

I switched from my apple-cinnamon Carb-boom to the orange vanilla today, since those are what I'm going to use in the race. I don't generally eat/drink caffeinated things, but feel it's semi-useful in a race situation. (While my boss likes to fixate on my not drinking alcohol, Triathlete can't believe I don't drink soda because he's so addicted to his daily Dew). I only eat 1/2 pack starting at 6 miles and then every 5 miles after that. This reminds me that I need to look on the Chicago site to see if they have the water stations mapped out to make sure my starting point will work.

The map file name has 05 in it, so I don't know if it's up to date. But it looks like there is an aid station after the 6 mile mark, so I should be good.

I'm kind of annoyed about the pace groups. They're not going to have a 3:35 group like I'd assumed:
"3:00, 3:10, 3:20, 3:30, 3:40, 3:45, 3:50, 3:55, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 4:45, 5:00, 5:15, 5:45"
I found my '02 book, and they had pace groups in 5 minute increments that year. I'm sure it's hard to find pace group leaders, but why does 3:45 get a group and not 3:35? And why do they have 5 min increments before 4 hours and then switch to 15 min increments after 4 hours? Weird.

"What corrals will the Pacing Teams be in?
* Competitive: 3:00, 3:10
* Preferred I: 3:10, 3:20, 3:30
* Preferred II: 3:30, 3;40, 3:45, 3:50, 3:55
* Open: 3:45, 3:50, 3:55, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30, 4:45, 5:00, 5:15, 5:45"
Looks like I might be lining myself up towards the front of my corral - kind of scary, in a weird way! But wow am I thankful that I've got my preferred start, since I wouldn't have any pace groups to choose from in the open area.

hee - I love this part of the course description:
"There are no significant hills on the course, and the highest elevation areas is 24 feet."

I wonder how this will work:
"New Balance is proud to present the Final Five - spectator rally stations along the course featuring live music to bring participants and spectators an extra boost of energy from Mile 21 to the Finish Line. "
Isn't the tunnel in the last 5? I hope they don't put bands in there because the echo would drive me nuts. Then again, it's always so desolate in there.

OK, got sidetracked obviously!

I was thinking about maybe taking gel at the start of my run, and then just every 5 miles after. I think the instructions usually say to do something like that. I don't know ... lately I seem to start slow and not really get going until after my first gel stop. Maybe I'll try that out next week, or just stick with what I've been doing.

Back to the GPS ... I'm thinking about getting a 205 since I'm now pretty concerned that my 201 is going to just totally crap out on me at some point. The Engineer seems to be okay with me maybe getting one (esp. since I said he could buy a new grill which costs a lot more!), but I hate spending so much money. I get a discount at a St. Paul running store, but they said they Garmin only lets them take 10% off MSRP. I tried to call my local store to see if they'd match the price, but the manager isn't in until Tuesday. I'm betting they'll say no, as they don't consider the Twin Cities stores (direct) competition. The Engineer thinks that's dumb, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I know from working in retail that most stores limit their price matching policy to stores within the same zip code/city. I've looked around online, and see some places selling them for under $200 but I have to wonder if they're actually authorized Garmin dealers. I know when I bought my Polar that their website (Polar's) warned that anyone selling at a deep discount wasn't authorized and that the warranty was only good if bought from an authorized dealer. I haven't located anything similar on Garmin's page, but anything under the 10% off is making me wary.