This weekend was the second Coronavirus Pandemic Halifax Road Hammers Virtual Team Relay. It was also my weekend to work day shifts. I skipped out on the first Virtual Hammer Relay because it was the same weekend as Ella’s Frontyard Virtual Ultra. I really wanted to do this one.
The Virtual Hammer Relays were designed by our Halifax Road Hammers Coach Lee as a way to stay connected as a team and to cheer each other on during virtual run efforts at whatever pace we choose. This one was a “marathon relay” where we were randomly divided into teams of 4 with 3 of us running 10km, 1 running 12.2km to total a 42.2km marathon time. I was assigned to Team 2 with some fellas and had a 10km distance.
The sorta-ridiculous prelude:
I did not provide myself with a very smooth training block leading into this. I got a little over-excited in my first workout back after my ultramarathon resulting in a calf muscle pull after running 8 x 400 fast. I should have relaxed more. Instead of stacking healthy run upon healthy run, I began chasing this sore calf. Two forced rest days. I skipped the adult version of Blue Nose Virtual Weekend and just did my kids’ 3km run. I did a lot of icing, stretching and yoga.
Sign-up for the Hammer Relay required providing an expected finish time. I was gentle with my target. I wasn’t sure how much this calf would recover. My training log had been an inconsistent mess since March and the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. There was also the 73km ultra event plus my haphazard recovery from it. I set my target at 41:30, softer than threshold pace, since I hadn’t run an interval longer than 4 minutes in…. A long time.
My Wednesday workout pre-relay weekend ended in calf pain. I was hopeful that I could still do the 10km at some kind of pace on Friday morning since I would be working on Saturday and Sunday from 8am-6:30p. I had fixed the calf pain once. I was hopeful I could fix it again.
Then my sister and I took my kids on a hike of Bluff Trail on Thursday, totalling 9.35km and more than 4 hours on the trail. While my calf did not hurt, Kristen pointed out that this was not an ideal pre-10km running prep. I decided to push my relay run to Sunday.
My Friday morning shake-out run hurt my calf. I stopped at 2km. I remained hopeful because hopefulness is always the best option.
I iced my calf in the icy water of Rainbow Haven Beach on Friday. I rolled my calf out after the beach and pinpointed a tiny stretch of rope-like tendon, the origin of the pain. It seemed to give some. I worked from my home office on Saturday and designated my bed as my office chair. Laptop in lap, legs elevated, and I iced/heated like a boss. I loved watching the Hammer Relay results roll in throughout the day. My hammer teammate Christy was saving her run until Sunday as well and we planned to both run in Hammer Territory at Marginal Road.
Determined to make a smart decision to protect my health and my pandemic running longevity, I developed some backup scenarios. I needed to submit a 10km time for my team. My Team 2 teammate Graeme crushed his 10km with a 34:47. He also ran 8.4km total for warm-up/cool-down. So I figured at worst, I would run a mile warm up and shut it down if pain and Team 2 could use my 1.6km warmup plus Graeme’s warm up and cooldown to total my virtual 10km contribution.
Sunday, “race day,” I had my alarm set for 5am. I went through my pre-race rituals. I was super tentative on warm up and happy to feel no pain. I ran 4km instead of my superstition Hashem-17-minutes so that I would have 4km banked towards a 10km total in case the running didn’t go well.
It was glorious on Marginal Road. Early morning sunshine coming up over the harbour. Barely a breath of wind. The water beyond Point Pleasant was still as glass. No cars. I felt so happy to be out here on this wonderful morning, doing what I love.
I had no idea what pace I would be able to run over 10km. I planned to start carefully, a little slower than threshold pace, = ballpark 4:05-4:09/km. In a race, I usually trend more aggressive than cautious. I’m cautious with the athletes who I coach. Less so with myself. My personal theory is that it might be that magical day and you’ll miss it if you don’t go for it. And if you blow up, who cares, nothing bad happens. You’ll live to race another day. And on the flip side, it might actually be that magical day. I wasn’t thinking about any of this today. I was simply wondering if I was going to make it to 10km without further injury.
I started carefully, first km split at 4:11/km. Surprise: I felt good. Relaxed. No pain from the calf. With my training all over the place, I decided at 1km I would just run and not look at my watch. I had no expectations. No split targets. No goals other than the goal to just make it through 10km.
I had chosen to run this 10km at Marginal Road because I’ve run hundreds of miles there and there’s comfort in that. I would simply run the first 5km loop relaxed and then if there was still no pain in my calf, I would gently press on the gas for the second loop.
It turned into a magical day.
I had my wireless headphones on and had Friendly Sessions Podcast blaring (non-stop stream of mash-ups!) so I was getting my kilometer splits through my headphones but I wasn’t paying much attention to them. I wasn’t assigning them any value: fast or slow and I wasn’t doing any mental math. I was just running. Relax first. Then press on the gas. I felt fabulous. I absorbed some virtual strength from Colleen when she floated by around 4km. There were very few thoughts.
The 6th and 7th kilometers were a grind as usual in the 10km. My arms were full of lactic acid: “it’s ok, you don’t really need arms to work today.”
For the eight km, Christy was perfectly and serendipitously up ahead and it was helpful to focus on chasing her instead of focusing on the searing of lactic acid in my arms.
I cued a thought of my daughter in the 9th km and a thought of my son in the 10th km though I think these thoughts were fleeting. I knew I could be on pace to run a PB and I was mostly thinking: “How bad do you want it?”
Half of my brain was screaming at me to stop the agony over the last kilometer but a stronger other half was screaming at me to make it the best PB possible and to not double-zero it (:00), even though I had no idea where I was going to land on a race clock.
Finally, that blissful last Garmin beep.
I dove onto the grass just past the longshoreman shack. Facedown, happy-toast. When the stars cleared, I looked at my watch and I could hardly believe what I saw:
38:39.
My previous 10km PBs were 39:25 from 2016 Maritime Race Weekend and 38:05 from Natal Day 2016, converted into a 39:09 for the RNS Performance Series.
There’s even an 18:59 for 5km in there from 3km through 8km!
I ran cooldown with Christy. Correction: Christy dragged me through cooldown, of course distanced by 2 metres, at her marathon pace. I kept saying, “I can’t believe I just did that!”
How Did it Happen?
In trying to unpack “how did this happen” on a solo time trial, before my 8am day shift began, with inconsistent workouts and inconsistent mileage, during a global pandemic?
I think there’s a magical mental combo of “no expectations” mixed with “go for it in case it’s that magic day.”
I couldn’t wait to talk to Coach Lee about this result. This is only my 3rd PB in 3 years (adding to 18:38 for 5km in August 2019 and 10:59 for 3000m in February 2018). Prior that, my last PB was a half marathon PB in April, 2017).
Lee had a few insightful things to say. That this was an example of how the mind can be a powerful tool. That often we let our minds drag us down, but by not looking at the watch and going by feel, I had let the body run free and this is what can happen. And that all those years of hard training are there, and it never goes away: this is an example of those good days where it all comes together.
Amen, Coach!
This one feels good.
I made it to my 8am home work desk with 5 minutes to spare. I had a great big smile to myself in my team’s opening-shift Skype call while 6 other women talked about how they are struggling to fit in any exercise right now. Me: big goofy PB smile, still in my Road Hammer race clothes (thankfully it’s an audio only call!) shovelling pancakes in my mouth with my mic on mute, just having run 18km total and a 10km PB, 4 years in the 10km-PB-making. (I did have a shower and change clothes when I took an early coffee break, lol).
It was that magical day.
So fine running friends: keep showing up; keep loving it; keep believing in yourself; don’t run 8 x 400m 10 days after an ultra event; and always choose hopefulness.
