And for my 19th half-marathon race, I did my first virtual half, the SeaWheeze Virtual Half Marathon!
I was invited by Lululemon to take part and I figured I need to log distance for my Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee (which I completed the race distance of 1021.68k in late June, but I added on doing Back Across Tennessee, that is, running back to where I started the race on May 2nd) so I registered to run this virtual 21.1k, which had to be completed anytime from August 15 to 23rd.
I didn’t plan to race it. My legs are very, very tired from the GVRAT, and my pace is slow thanks to the 2,043 kilometres I’m almost done with for that race. Normally you should rest your legs before a race. I’ve had no rest days since about mid-April (I’ve had days of solely walking miles but no zero days as we have been calling them in the Tennessee race). So my plan was to approach SeaWheeze (SW20) as a long, slow run. Since I’ve been focusing on short runs for GVRAT (sometimes multiple times a day, although my BAT portion of the race I’ve replaced much of the distance with walking to give my body a break) I knew I had to incorporate some longer runs leading up to SW20. So I completed approximately one longer run a week in the month leading up to SeaWheeze. The longest distance I ran was 18k and last week, I was simply exhausted (my schedule has been very busy) and I couldn’t muster the energy to run another long run the only time I could find in my schedule, usually at 10 pm so I skipped it. I also skipped that one longer run as I am reluctant to run anything longer than 10k at night out of safety concerns.
As SeaWheeze start date approached, and with no long run completed last week (I did muster the energy to complete a 14k run, though), I decided I wouldn’t run the SeaWheeze distance until the latter end of the 8 days allotted for the virtual race, closer to August 23rd than August 15th.
And then I realized I’d be finishing the GVRAT well before August 23rd, and there would be no way I’d be motivated to run 21.1k after finishing this monster of a virtual race (Lazarus Lake doesn’t create easy races, does he!). And I promise you that I am planning on some full R&R after I finish my Back Across Tennessee distance!
So coincidentally with this weekend off of work (from Friday to Sunday), I decided to run the 21.1k for SeaWheeze on the first day of the race period, last night, Saturday, August 15th. The weather was hot and humid, 30 Celsius when I started the race at 7:30, which was another factor making me even slower.
I ran a usual route I do on the west side of the city for 16 kilometres, then picked up Billie Jean for the last 5k. She could complete the whole half marathon distance but with the heat, I didn’t think it was safe for her. Instead, I listened to the Reply All podcast as I took my time logging the distance. The weather cooled as it got later in the evening; my route included stop lights, and at the tail end of the race, I ran along the closed-to-traffic Lake Shore Blvd (closed as part of #activeTO, the program the city has run all summer that closes off traffic on certain streets so as to allow people to enjoy the outdoors biking, running or walking while social distancing) so it sort of felt like a real race since I was running on a barricaded street.
While this portion was closed to traffic like a race, there were no spectators or water stations of course. So I ran with bottle of Gatorade and refilled it with Nuun when I picked up Billie Jean, since any of the water fountains in the city aren’t running due to the pandemic. Although there were no spectators (my friend Aylin said she’d come cheer, I didn’t take her up on the offer), a girl did stop me on Lake Shore Blvd. to talk to me when I was at about the 19k mark; she wanted to talk how cute Billie Jean is (and I’ll gladly talk about my amazing pup anytime!).
For me, a virtual race of this type is much more difficult to get motivated for but it was very freeing to not be stressing myself out about running the distance as quickly as I could. (As an aside, for me, the GVRAT is in a different type of virtual race category as I’ve found it very motivating to try to log distance each day and watch my position improve daily; it has become an obsession). My NRC app (on which I reached Volt Level in June) on my Apple Watch and Strava differed by about half a kilometre (and I don’t think Strava pauses when I’m not moving so my times differ on the two apps—I’m fairly new to using Strava and haven’t fully learned the ins and outs of using it) but my Strava logs my SW time as 2:17:37.
In the end, the race helped me log more than 43 kilometres in my GVRAT race for the day, and I am proud of the fact that I can complete the 21.1k distance without training for a half per se, and on very weary legs.
I’d love to run the actual SeaWheeze in Vancouver IRL some day, I’ve heard it’s a fun one and Vancouver is so pretty. If you’re keen to run this year’s virtual half or 10k this week, you can still register btw! Thank you to Lululemon for the invitation to take part and for the running gear (this cap is so comfortable for running and I like the subtle camo print, and the cut of both the sports bra and Muscle Love Crop Tank Top is very flattering).
Now, excuse me as I get back to completing this Back Across Tennessee race. I reached 1,000 miles before the end of July, and the finish line for BAT is in sight!
August 16, 2020
This Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee been one full of revelations for most of the 19,500+ participants worldwide. I see it in all of the posts to the Facebook group: so many of us wondered if we could ever finish this 1,1021.68k race in four months…and so many of us have surprised ourselves with what we have been (and/or continue to be) capable of.
Last night, I passed the 1,000 mile mark of my race back across Tennessee. Which means from July 1 to July 30th, I completed 561.9 kilometres, for a GVRAT total of 1,613.8k, bringing me just a couple of kilometres past the first milestone for the BAT portion of the race.
When I finished the Race Across Tennessee on June 28th (58 days into the race for me—here’s my race recap), I knew I’d continue with the BAT portion of the race; after all, I’d thought I’d have this race to focus on all summer, not just May and June. And although my initial plan was to just take it a lot easier and aim for August 31st to complete 1,000 miles…on July 2nd, I was already texting my friend Aylin (who’s also running the race) the math I’d done to see how many kilometres I’d have to do daily to complete the entire BAT (that is, an entire 1,021.68k again) by the deadline of August 31st. “Well, that escalate quickly,” I messaged her, when I caught myself already planning on doing the entire BAT.
Forced to focus on active recovery
After I finished the RAT, I took three days off of running, and walked. As I mentioned in my race recap, for the BAT, I planned to include walking miles in the race. This has always been allowed in the race, and encouraged by Laz, but I was stubborn and a stickler for making it a running race for myself, and so I only counted running miles for the first 1,021.68k.
And that kind of wrecked my legs. Not that I got injured, but my exhaustion was obvious whenever I walked with friends (slow pace, ginger steps and wincing as we hiked uphill or took any stairs). So I decided to include the purposeful walking miles that are permitted as per the race rules, but I planned to do short runs as well, and I resumed that three days after completing the RAT.
It was a good 16 days after I completed the RAT that I realized how intensely sore and tired I continued to be. I’ve run 14 marathons and never ever have my legs been that ache-y so long after a race, and so for the next eight days, I only walked. Which was a nice break from running EXCEPT WALKING TAKES SO LONG. My walking pace is generally leisurely, and it’s been incredibly humid and hot in Toronto, so I slow down even more then. I’m honestly not clear on how people have only been walking this race (Are you speed walkers by sport? If not, this is hours and hours out of your day!). If I’m walking and not distracted and intent on getting to my destination efficiently, I probably walk the average, which is about 5k/hour. In the heat and generally no time limit and tired legs, I’m probably more at a 4k per hour pace walking. Which means I’ve spent hours daily walking in the month of July.
The eight days focused on active recovery were much needed, though, and my legs felt much better (although still tired) once I started running again on July 20th. And I wanted to get back to including some runs (to have fewer long walks to slog through) and because in typical obsessive fashion, it irked me that I was on track with my training schedule, but that it had me completing the 1,000 miles by August 4th.
My goal to complete the 1,000 miles in July
But August 4th? Wouldn’t a nice and neat time to complete 1,000 miles be to complete it for July 31st, I asked myself. And so on July 16th, I upped my daily mileage, and on days off (usually weekend days) I walked as much as I could so that I could bank some kilometres since some weekdays can be extremely hectic, with limited time to run or walk. It took awhile for the projected finish in the standings to reflect by July 31st goal (at which point I found myself disappointed with it, the computer should know me and my obsessiveness better than this after more than two months!). And thanks to loads of walking, I finished one day earlier than my goal! Huzzah!
This BAT portion of the race has had me walking quite late at night and for most of the walks, I did a few usual loops within a four kilometre radius from home, and these walks (compared to walks with a specific destination in mind) were draining mentally on many days. I was grateful to not have to run on the most sticky humid days, but at the same time I’ve found the walking around downtown usually pretty dull. I did receive a new iPhone though, and on some walks have started listening to podcasts again (which helps pass the time, but I typically don’t listen to anything when I walk at night for safety concerns).
I’ve been keeping track of how much walking vs running I’ve done to get to this point of the race, along with how much mileage Billie Jean has done; I ended up doing much more walking than running, but I’m fine with that. My legs were completely spent from GVRAT, and I feel quite fortunate I didn’t injure myself. The general rule of thumb for ramping up your distance safely is to not increase your weekly distance by more than 10 percent. Had I followed that guideline, based on my last week of running in April, I’d have logged 240 kilometres in May (instead I logged 450k) and 325 in June (except I logged about 600k, to complete the RAT race and then a few additional distance since I started the BAT right after) so I ramped up extremely quickly and took no rest days, which I know is everything you shouldn’t do.
Another nice thing about including walking for the BAT means that it’s opened up more options, including walking with friends (most of my friends aren’t runners) and it’s been good for Billie Jean since I can’t run much with her in the harsh summer conditions as I want her to be safe from the hot concrete and heat stroke, but it’s less exertion for us to be walking (plus we take water breaks and always stop for her to cool off in Lake Ontario).
So how did my 1,000 miles play out over most of the month of June?
From June 1-June 30, during which I reached and surpassing the 1,000 mile mark:
- I walked 465 kilometres.
- I ran 118 kilometres.
- Billie Jean, my little superstar pup, she completed 411 of those kilometres with me.
- It took me 91 days (gun time) to complete 1,000 miles (90 chip time since I started the race on its second day, May 2).
- I’m in position 886 in the race. 886!!! I can’t believe it.
With all of August plus today (the last day of July) in the GVRAT race window of four months, I have 430 kilometres left to make it back to the starting line where I kicked things off on May 2. I currently stand in position 886 (and if the gender ranking is correct—there was a long explanation from Laz about the constantly changing rankings, including why you can appear to pass people who ran RAT faster than you, and this is due to the fact that not everyone has chosen to continue BAT, if I understood his post…)—I’ve moved up to 406th woman).
I’m beyond thrilled to be in the top 900 in this race so far, and my position is fueling my obsession with doing more miles daily, and I have already calculated how many kilometres I must complete daily to finish by August 31st…but let’s be real, I’m going to up that distance so I can finish earlier! I’m also registered to do the Lululemon Seawheeze Virtual Half-Marathon mid-August so that will be part of my total mileage for this race.
Hope your summer of virtual racing is going swimmingly! I’d love to hear how your running season is going!
July 31, 2020
