Sean's Running Blog

A cool and beautiful morning in Snoqualmie. Perfect for a fairly long run to kick of a week where I hope to hit 90 miles again.

Didn't feel quite ready to do the midweek workout so I just ran an easy 14.

Didn't feel like running early this morning despite knowing today was going to be hot in the afternoon. It was.

Started my run at 5:30 when it was 85 degrees. Not very smart but I did take a couple of bottles of water with me. Just for fun I weighed myself before just to see how much weight I would lose in the process.

The workout was 6M@5:40 + 1M@5:15 or so. My coach told me that it would sound and even feel easy but that I was still recovering from Saturday's race and by the end of the workout, i would be feeling it.

So I did the workout along RR Days 5k route, doing two laps of it plus adding a mile at the end. Miles 1 and 2 were in 5:30. Oops. I really tried to slow down but was ineffective in doing so. I felt great I just knew with the heat I would probably regret it. Mile 3...5:32. Mile 4 5:30. Mile 5 I really made an effort to slow it down. The result: 5:28. OK, so I'm a sucky pacer at 5:40. Mile 6 was different. I was starting to feel the effects of the heat and landed at 5:40...right where I was supposed to be. So the last mile was exhausting. Ended up witha 5:20. It was pretty much all I had left.

The jog home was humbling. I was very dehydrated despite drinking 34 ounces of water during the span of the 11 miles to that point.

When I got home, I weighed myself...I had lost 5.5 not including the pound of water I consumed during the run. So in 90 minutes or so of running, I lost 6.5 pounds, almost all of it water. That's a gallon jug of water lost. Yikes.

Felt miserable most of the day in terms of sore muscles. Yesterday's workout really took it's toll and I am still pretty dehydrated and my muscles haven't recovered. It was one of my slowest easy runs I can remember. It was fun to do the final mapping of my trail run I am hosting in a month. It's going to be challenging but awesome.

I've lived in the Snoqualmie area for five years so it's not every day that I run a route completely new. Today was one of those days. I ran from my house to Issaquah along the Preston-Issaquah trail. We are blessed here to have hundreds of miles of runnings trails that are converted from old railways. The surfaces vary between paved and gravel/dirt, but they are generally beautiful. This one was no different. I had run from home to Preston a few times but never continued down all the way to Issquah. The trail actually leads all the way into downtown Seattle. Maybe when I feel like running 27 miles into work I will try it some time. Beautiful day although I am still pretty sore from Wednesday heat workout. Still battling the effects of dehydration.

Today's workout was among the most challenging I have ever done. Fortunately it was sunny but fairly cool when I got started around 4pm.

The workout was a lengthy hill threshold run of 3.7 miles up Lakemont Blvd in Bellevue. I started at the I-90 underpass and went to the entry gate of Cougar Mountain Wildlife Reserve...some 962 feet above the starting point. There are two downhill stretches of about 1/4 mile each but other than that, it's a pretty brutal climb especially the first mile which at 7% grade feels straight uphill. Just as a comparison, the Veyo hill which is almost exactly a mile from bottom to top is a 3.99% grade.

My coach wanted this to be a threshold run. So he did some fancy calculations based on my flat terrain threshold of 5:10 or so and he came up with 5:56. The only problem is he based it on a 4% grade it's simply not. It's 5% and I am a witness that every 1% totally matters.

To minimize both the downhill trauma and to shorten the rest interval, I stashed my bike at the top so I could ride it down after the first rep.

I felt mostly recovered from my bout with dehydration. I had spent the last 48 hours drinking like a fish and by this afternoon, my joints felt less achy and more oiled.

So after a two-mile warmup, I set off on my "adventure." I had stashed water in a couple of spots but ended up only taking it once on the way up. When I got to the top the first time, I had to take care of some bowel issues. Then I grabbed my bike at the top and started the trek down. After one more trip to the potty, I finished my trip down hitting 45mph without event pedaling. Freaky.

When I got off the bike, my legs were mush. A really weird sensation. So needless to say, the first mile was a wreck. But I managed to recover and be within a few seconds of my first rep times despite being pretty gassed.

Below are my times for each rep for each mile. Prety happy especially since I thought i was going to die after Wednesday's debacle.

Grade of first mile is 7% = 6:11/6:39 (ugh)

Grade of second mile is 5.3% = 6:14/6:16 (nice)

Grade of third mile is 2.8% = 5:54/5:51 (nice)

Grade of last .70 miles is 4.4% 4:25/4:35 (I'll take it)

Overall grade: 4.92% = 22:44/22:55

To get my 90 miles for the week I ran down the other side of Cougar Mountain and into Issaquah. It was beautiful. 90.75 for the week. Next week will be lighter as I gear up for the SJJ Half marathon on Labor Day.