18 miler - PUKE UP!

Key Words: 18 miler, Puke on the 59 Overpass, 166 BPM
Word Count: 1400 or so (come on, it was a long run, give it a read .. esp if you have opinions on heart rate)

So last Saturday was the HoustonFIT Chicago Marathon training program 18 mile run. As it has taken me three days to write this, it was clearly a rough event. First, as I'm not sure of the tone I am going to write this in, in case its overly negative, let me say I'm glad to be healthy enough to be able to run 18 miles in Houston's August heat. Lord knows I don't take care of my body or health the way I should (damn those vices!), but thankfully, I'm still up to the task. So there, onward to 18.

The Friday before the run was our fantasy football draft, and for that reason, I should not have been as sleep deprived as I was. After football drafts my mind is so busy racing with what could-a, should-a, that I have a hard time enumerating sheep. So it was with maybe five hours of sleep on Friday night, and 10 over the past two days, that I toed the line at 4:30AM for our run.

This was my first run with the new heart rate monitor. My goal was simply to learn about my body: what rate did my heart like when I was cruising, did it spike up during the painful parts, could I use it to force myself to run through difficult stretches of asphalt? As Larry and I (my running partner at the start of runs of late) headed to Luke's Locker my heart rate steadily climbed, settling in at a game 166 or so per minute. Much to my pleasure I noticed that I could foretell when my HR had climbed or fallen more than a couple of beats. Once I suddenly felt cool, calm, collected ... I looked down and my HR was a mellow 150! 3.5 miles to Lukes, somewhere around 10:20 or so a mile.

After Lukes we were to run to the Rice loop (6 total miles) and do one Rice Loop (3 miles), one Herman Park Loop (3 miles) and return to Memorial (18 total). Note therefore, that this could easily be a 12, 15, or 18 mile course. The big secret from our last 15 mile run was that I didn't do 15 miles; I only did 14! (scandal!) So I was committed to doing 15, and really wanted 18. I have been more and more vocal about the silliness of our 21 mile training run three weeks prior to Chicago and I will certainly not run it. This, if I made it to 18, would surely be my longest training run.

Things went well to Rice, with my HR staying pegged at 166. Some of Felix's crew (including his wife Sylvia) were running with us. It turns out that Felix is apparently running Chicago!?!? I had no idea. Anywho, I jockeyed with them a bit, and after they left the aide station at mile six ahead of me, I chased them around Rice. This is where the heart rate monitor came in handy. Right before mile nine, I had an urge to go ahead and decide to only run 15. I looked at me HR; 165, nope, doing 18. I had an urge to walk; HR was 166, nope keep on trucking. After a few more "urges", I calmed down and pulled into the nine mile stop under decent control. I had either just fended off a silly desire to run less, or fended off a smart desire to cut things short on a day when I wasn't at my best.

Then things went horribly wrong.

The HRM strap was irritating me a bit, so I took it off. This made my watch very angry. That made me very angry. My stomach got angry! ME HAGS MAD!!!! Suddenly I didn't feel well. My ears throbbed, my stomach churned, my head was buzzing. I figure the stress (which was silly) over the HRM was not what my body wanted while being so taxed, and it revolted accordingly. I grudgingly reset the watch, strapped back up, and headed out for my Hermann Park loop.

I could no longer resist the urge to walk during this part. I started jockeying with some fast 5/1 runners, and came across a walking Larry; people around me walking makes me want to walk, so I did. Somewhere around Hermann I realized that I probably should have only did 15, but as I was committed, I hobbled on into the 12 mile stop. My HR, though my speed was starting to drop, was hanging at 166 or so while running. In a sign of decent aerobic fitness, my HR would drop the required 20 beats or so during the first minutes of a break (I believe that's a traditional measure of fitness :).

From 12 back to the park was an exercise of triage; running when I could. I ran with Larry some, Alaina's Greg some, and Alaina herself worked the Lukes aide station and ran Greg in. I was generally doing 5/1 (five minutes running, 1 minute walking), though I certainly took liberty with the lowering the 5 and increasing the 1. Then came the puke. Thankfully not mine, nor that of another running, but as I was coming to the 59 overpass, I realized I was about to step in a puddle ... of puke! I quickly realized the puddle likely came from the guy passed out in the car next to said puddle! Hopefully he was alive. I say that out of concern, and because I, as best I could in my state, laughed my ass off! With a fleeting smile, the run continued. Somewhere after Lukes, probably around mile 16, I was weary of some of the pain coming from my right achilles. As this was the one that troubled me before this year's Houston Marathon, I simply hoped to get back in one piece. It twas truly a slow march down Blossom!

I made it back to the park in about four hours. The HoustonFIT seminar was over, the tent was being broken down, but the Fall Group aide station was still up, serving those us of limping back to our starting point after a long 18 miles.

For only the second time I can recall, I got a wee bit faint after this run. Not as bad as the infamous "Hotter Than Hell 25K" from 2005, but my head was buzzing, my ears felt full of blood, I had an undeniable urge to sit down. I quickly gave Larry his promised sample of Endurolytes and headed back to my car. The "Party in the Park" was on Sat. morning, but get this, I was too tired to go get free St. Arnolds beer! Yep. You read right. I was blasted.

So what does this mean? Well, I'll go into Chicago with a clear conscience. I made it 18 miles. Some running, some walking, some jumping of puke puddles, but I made it. Forgiving myself the runs missed due to injury, and assuming I make the remaining long runs, I'll be as ready as I can be. As for the heart rate monitor, I'm glad I got it. I still need to do lot's of runs with it, particularly in colder weather, and see what it turns up.

The biggest head scratcher of all this is how my heart rate stayed steady during the miles when I suffered so much. Does this mean there is no tie to heat and heart rate? Why didn't my heart rate drop? Was my cardiac system just blasted, so it was running fast? It could be that the "aerobic" part of my heart rate was lower, and the extra beats were a futile attempt to get blood to my skin where it could be cooled. With some tempo and speed runs under my belt, I hope to verify that the high 160s is where my heart wants to be (lower if possible, of course). With some cold runs, I can start to verify if there is a link between my heart rate and performance (i.e., the heat will be out of the equation). If there does prove to a link, I could us the HRM on race day to stay in a cardiac "happy place" and hopefully keep the engine purring for longer than I have in the past. Heart rate is, they say, the only true measure of how hard you are working. But "they" have been known to be wrong!

No speed workout today; thunderstorms. Probably good though, the legs have been a little tired. Jumping puke puddles at mile 14 is hard work!