The 10 Mile Barrier

For the past few months (after I made the decision to push up my schedule and do the Death March Heavy Division as a run in 2011 instead of waiting and fully preparing for 2012) I’ve been a touch stressed about run progression. I made that decision after an extremely successful run with a 25 lbs. pack where I had set out to do an 8 miler and ended up doing 12 instead just because I felt that good on the run. My plan was to up the pack weight to 40 lbs. and drop back down to 7 mile runs and increase the mileage one mile per week…putting me at around 22ish miles right before the run in March.


Alas it didn’t really work out that way. That 15 lbs. was a significant jump. I had some minor knee issues, had a run where my legs locked up (Morgan believes lack of potassium, too much salt, not enough sugar) with severe spasms, and a couple of other minor things. Week after week, I wasn’t making the mile per week progression. I was stuck at 8 miles for quite a while and managed a 10 or 12 occasionally with severe pain during and the following day.

I’m hopeful right now though that I see the end of that 10 Mile Barrier. This has been an awesome week or so with awesome results. The rundown goes like this:

Tuesday Dec 28th – Chest/Shoulders/Tris/Abs

Wednesday Dec 29th – Back/Bis/Abs and 4 mile run in the snow with 40 lbs. pack (with my son Brian, who hasn’t been training but finished the 4 miles right next to me!)

Sunday Jan 2nd – 10 miles with 40 lbs. pack (including Hell Hill at the 7-1/2 mark of the run)

Monday Jan 3rd – Chest/Tris/Abs

Tuesday Jan 4th – Back/Bis/Abs

The part I’m enthusiastic about is the 10 mile run on Sunday. The rest of the stuff I included to show that the run wasn’t in a “void” barren of other workouts…it was part of the normal routine and I was no more or less fresh from other workouts than I normally am.

I had no pain at all on the run. I hit Hell Hill at 7-1/2 miles into the run, charged it with max energy output…and kept on going. No rest. Did not use any Gu or other energy enhancement on the run, only water. Finished with no pain (cramps, spasms, soreness, etc.). Monday I had no soreness other than just a touch of lower back/upper hips.

I will take that as a very good indication that it’s time to push on. I’m leaving the 10 Mile Barrier behind me.

That said, I am going to need to alternate my plan just a touch for the actual run in March. I know from past experience with the FiveFingers that transitioning from a run to a walk in them is bad. The difference in gait causes some pretty significant foot muscle problems. I can only suppose that that’s because I have not done a lot of walking in the FiveFingers, so the muscles needed to support that activity are not up to par while the ones supporting the running gait have gotten a lot of work.

The plan right now is to incorporate my trusty old Merrell’s from last year’s Bataan into my pack with a couple pair of those awesome wool socks that Ingrid found for me last year, run Bataan as far as I can (I’m hoping for 18-22 miles at this point but that might be overly optimistic), swap to the Merrell’s and finish at a brisk hike. I view that compromise as the punishment for pushing the schedule up to 2011 instead of waiting for 2012.

Update on my training partner: Corey is still having the big knee issues, but he’s on the mend. Starting with the new year, he’s authorized by the docs to start up running again sans extra weight and he’s been out testing that out. Results are mixed…he’s got some pain while running, and since the run he now has pain on the elliptical machine as well. It’s not the same level of pain, but it’s there. He’s out for pack runs for now, but is still keen on distance running. Having been a soccer player his whole life, he’s never really done distance/endurance running at all and is very interested in the challenge of it.

That said, he’s still kicking my ass in the training sessions with Morgan, although Morgan did make him puke last week. Alas I wasn’t there to see it, as we were off visiting family for New Year’s.

Current Weight: 154 lbs., creeping back up from a low of 147 back in the November timeframe. I made it through the holiday season with no significant weight increase, just steady progression upwards like I’ve been seeing recently. Most of the body fat is gone and the extra muscle I’ve put on over the past few years is defining significantly with the change in routine introduced with the personal training. I’m fairly sure that the steady weight increase is mostly stabilization/support muscle, but there has been some overall size increase as well. Overall I think body composition is on track for exactly what I need for the run…minimal weight needed to support the pack while increasing overall strength as much as possible.

Oh, and parting shot…for the first time the specific workouts that I’ve been doing paid off on a fire call late last month. We had a chimney fire that we responded to with our ladder truck. The first on scene had radioed to us that they needed the ladder right in front of the house so were reserving a place for us to get in and deploy quickly. When we got to about an eight of a mile from the scene we found that an engine that arrived before us had tapped a hydrant with 5-inch hose and left the hose across the road. We had to bail out of the truck and move the hose…and the truck had to get up to the scene and deploy…so it took off after we moved the hose out of the way to go get positioned, leaving us to hump from the hydrant to the scene. I sprinted up there and was happy to find that despite boots/bunker pants/jacket/helmet I wasn’t the least bit winded, even making it there in time to help finish getting the ladder prepped for deployment. That felt good. Minor victory to be sure…but three years ago I would have been a pile of goo by the time I had a chance to collect myself from that.