Test Run 4

Primary objective: test in-run nutrition 

Secondary objectives: test night-time running after a full day of being awake, test trail running (have so far mostly been running on paved roads), test my own ability to run longer distances, test night-time equipment, monitor post-run physical condition

Time: April 9 / 10 

Estimated Duration: 6 hours

Distance: 50 km (22 circles of 2,25 km)

Terrain: flat trail (wood chip mulch)

Weather: rainy, 3 degrees C, south wind 10 m/s 

RESULTS

Primary objective: success. I now have s smoothie formula, which containes everything I need for resupplying my by during the Run and it comes in a semi-liquid form which can be consumed while on the move. I made a slight miscalculation by finishing a carbohydrate rich pasta meal 2 hours before the Test Run 4. I was still feeling the pasta when I hit the track. Note to self, leave at least 3 hours between the meal of solid food and starting the Run. The in-run smoothie containes: 

Secondary objectives: partial success. 

1. Test night-time running after a full day of being awake. Success. Didn't feel sleepy at any point. Of course, I had not spend the previous day running. And it was the first night. During the actual Run I suspect the second night might be the most difficult.

2. Test trail running. Success.  It's much softer to run on compared to paved roads, but it has different challenges. Uneven surfaces, especially during the night, can be a fast-track to ligament sprains. Also, part of the trail was wet, making it slippery. There's things to think about, then.

3. Test my own ability to run longer distances. Fail. It was a floodlit track, but they turned the lights off at midnight, which I did not know about beforehand. I started Test Run 4 at 9pm and was planning to go run until 3 am. I was wearing my headlamp, so when they turned off the floodlights I was able to keep going for another few laps, but not for long. So the actual run wash just 3 hours and 25 km, instead of double that, as I had planned.

4. Test night-time equipment. Partial success. Very comfortable to wear. I was expecting it to slide out of place or jump up and down as I run along, but there was none of either. It's early spring and 

monitor post-run physical condition

Diary - Daily Run 20

Time: April 5, 2021

Duration: 30 minutes

Distance: 4.5 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, non-paved roads

Weather: dry, 2 degrees C, cloudy, no wind

Diary - Daily Run 19

Time: April 2, 2021

Duration: 60 minutes

Distance: ca 9 km (GPS ran out of juice about halfway through)

Avg. speed: ca 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, non-paved roads, a bit of forest

Weather: dry, 5 degrees C, sunny, slightly windy

Running together with Maru.

Diary - Daily Run 18

Time: March 31, 2021

Duration: 33 minutes

Distance: 4.8 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, 5 degrees C, windy, sunny.

Diary - Daily Run 17

Time: March 29, 2021

Duration: 1 hour

Distance: 8 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: forest paths

Weather: dry, 5 degrees C, light wind, sunny.

Was out running with Maru again. The data above is approximate, since the watch had a software update the day before and was unable to connect to satellites.

Diary - Daily Run 16

Time: March 27, 2021

Duration: 1 hour

Distance: 8.4 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, 8 degrees C, light wind, sunny, intermittent clouds and rainshowers.

First run this year in a t-shirt. 

Diary - Daily Run 15

Time: March 24, 2021

Duration: 45 min

Distance: 6.3 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, 0 degrees C, light wind, sunny.

Diary - Daily Run 14

Time: March 22, 2021

Duration: 43 min

Distance: 6.3 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads

Weather: dry, -1 degrees C, light wind.

Diary - Daily Run 13

Time: March 18, 2021

Duration: 43 min

Distance: 5.2 km

Avg. speed: 7 km/h

Terrain: icy forest tracks

Weather: dry, -1 degrees C, no wind, sunny.

A run in Järve forest, with my new running mate Maru.

Diary - Daily Run 12

Time: March 15, 2021

Duration: 52 min

Distance: 6.9 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, dry.

Weather: dry, -2 degrees C, no wind.

A nice evening exercise. 

Diary - Daily Run 11 & a New Running Mate

Time: March 14, 2021

Duration: 23 min

Distance: 3.1 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: forest track, slushy, icy

I have a new running mate, now. My sister's dog Maru has turned 7 months old and can now go on runs. We started with a very short distance. For the first 500 m there was confusion:

a) Maru stopped on several occasions to look back and wonder, why isn't my sister following us (she says running is not really her thing).

b) Maru was on a short running leash and tried to run from one side of the tree, while I was going from the other.

c) Maru picked up some interesting scent in the middle of the road and stopped abruptly, forcing me to skidjump around or over him.

But he learned quickly. After about 5 minutes, he figured out what we're doing and started running slightly ahead of me. The 3.1 km wasn't much effort for him, so on Thursday we're going to do something between 4 and 5 and work our way up from there. He's still young, they say staffys should wait until they turn 1 year old, to start doing properly longer distances. So we'll take it slow, but I'm happy to have a running mate. So, meet Maru the Fearless Leader, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and my new running mate. And check out his Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/maru.the.fearless.leader/

Diary - Daily Run 10

Time: March 13, 2021

Duration: 33 min

Distance: 4.9 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, icy

Diary - Daily Run 9

Time: March 8, 2021

Duration: 32 min

Distance: 5.0 km

Avg. speed: 9 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, snowy

Diary - Daily Run 8

Time: March 1, 2021

Duration: 37 min

Distance: 5.2 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, semi-dry

Starting to check out the route

Went to Võsu today, to check out the starting point of the Run. I'll likely book a stay somewhere there, so I can start early in the morning. Checked out the beach, where I'll start from, and then the roads from there. Because the snow under the forest was still knee deep, there was no running. But the idea is, that if I'll be able to scout a substantial part of the route beforehand, especially the turns, intersections etc, then I won't need a map when running. Or at least will not need to consult it as often.

It was good news all around. Because I will be following the trails of the State Forest Management Centre, I found them to be well marked by colored spots on trees and an occasional sign. The initial part of the map I had created at home also checked out fine i.e. the terrain corresponded to the map. On the photo below is one of the first bigger intersections. It's actually called the "Intersection of Six Roads". Took a bit of map consulting to determine, which road I will need to take from here (the one to the immediate right of the construction).

All things told, it was a succesful scouting trip. Need to do a bunch more of these, with hopefully less ice road driving :)

Diary - Daily Run 7

Time: February 26, 2021

Duration: 1 hour 27 min

Distance: 11.6 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads, wet

Weather: dry, 0 degrees C, very light wind (2 m/s)

A nice evening exercise. 

Diary - Daily Run 6

Time: February 22, 2021

Duration: 36 min

Distance: 4.9 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: flat, paved roads covered in ice

Weather: dry, -7 degrees C, slightly windy (4 m/s)

A nice evening exercise. 

Diary - Test Run 3

 Primary objective: test my own ability to run longer distances

Secondary objective: test various mental approaches, monitor post-run physical condition

Time: February 19

Duration: 3 hours 3 minutes

Distance: 24,1 km, a run around the peninsula where I live

Terrain: mostly flat, paved roads, covered in snow

Weather: dry, -9 degrees C, north wind 3 m/s

Primary results:

Success. This is the longest distance I've ever run non-stop.  

Secondary results:

Mentally, I need content for my brain to process. While running, the brain is getting excellent bloodflow and with it a lot of nutrients and oxygen. This is like nitro to the brain, but if it does not have something to process, it starts to pay too much attention to the present moment, the body, the run. That's unnecessary, I would rather trust the body to do it's own thing and occupy the mind with something else. So I'll have to put together playlists of debates and lectures for the longer test runs and the eventual Run itself. Or I can switch off the mind during the run, but that would be a waste :)

There were a few aches here both during and after the run, but that was to be expected. I did some good stretching, applied some Deep Blue herbal ointment to joints for the night and was happy the next morning. There's some weird muscles at the back of the leg, that I felt a little bit the next day. I need to figure out a stretch for them, but other than that, everyting was fine. I feel confident going into Test Run 4. That's going to be double again i.e. 50 km.

Nutrition is still an unsolved issue, though. After Test Run 3, I was hungry. For Test Run 4, I will definitaly need water and I think I will need some carbohydrate gels. But for the Run itself, I've no idea what kind of food I need and how to resupply the body and muscles with nutrients during the Run. Need to do some research here.

Diary - Daily Run 5

Time: February 15, 2021

Duration: 1 hour 14 min

Distance: 9.5 km

Avg. speed: 8 km/h

Terrain: hilly, paved roads covered in snow

Weather: dry, -5 degrees C, slightly windy (7 m/s)

A nice afternoon exercise. 

The Equipment - Received the Headlight, Update on Shoes

The Headlight

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found a 225 lumen, 20 hour Li-Ion rechargeable Black Diamond Sprint running headlight, which I think best fits my use case. It arrived yesterday, I haven't been out running with it yet.

The Shoes

I found someone on eBay selling a new pair of size 11 men's Nike Flex Run 2016 shoes, but together with transport from the US and tariffs the price came to € 168. That's an unreasonable amount to pay, considering, that I paid around € 40 for my first pair years ago.

I've been pointed towards "barefoot" running shoes. They're not really barefoot, it's just a more minimalist design approach to running shoes. Reading up on it a bit, I've found, that interestingly Nike Flex Run 2016 adhered to many of those principles - mesh top, very light, very flexible sole. 

I went to a small boutique shop selling barefoot shoes to try them on, but they were out of my size for the Xero shoes I'm interested in. I will be going back in a few weeks, they said they will be receiving new pairs soon. 

While Nike Flex Run has become overengineered, there are other Nike running shoes, that adhere more closely to the minimalist principles, so I will be trying these on as well. Look for more posts on the shoes issue in the future.