Rest, Irritation, and Performance Enhancing Awesomeness: Taper Time

Two weeks from today, Emily and I will be running the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon. This fact doesn’t terrify me as much as it has in the past, although running a marathon all-out is still an intimidating proposition. I like to think that this time, unlike last time, I’ve truly done everything to be ready on the day. Is that true? Beats the hell out of me. I thought I was ready last year, ran 23 miles at 2:29 pace, then blew up like a car with 4 flat tires and a missing axle. That’s on fire. Good news is there are a couple of things I can take confidence from:

1. Better long runs and long tempos. I actually sucked it up and ran the full 26.2 miles sometime in August, and 2 weeks ago ran a 24 mile tempo at 5:58 pace - much faster than I’ve ever run for a steady run of that length. Confidence, increased.

2. Mileage has been pretty good. I don’t actually know if it’s any higher than last year, but I’ve averaged something like 108 miles per week since the beginning of June, when Em and I got back from our honeymoon. Pretty good. I would call it lower mileage for a serious marathoner, and I know I could definitely do a little more next time around, but for working full time and fitting this running nonsense in around a life, I’m pretty happy with myself.

3. Additionally, this marks the first time I’ve been training full steam and been in good shape for an entire year leading up to a race. I haven’t been seriously injured or derailed in any way since January of 2010.

4. I haven’t had a bad workout since the end of September. I think I’m on a hot streak. Maybe. Okay this one is more of a hunch, but the past three weeks have been pretty good to me, and I think just maybe I will have this marathon thing figured out enough to survive.

Two Whirlwind Weekends of Races

What the heck have we been up to lately? It’s hard for me to even keep track of it all. Last weekend, Chass, Emily and I headed down to Houston along with our friend David Fuentes to race the confusingly named USA 10 Miler (it stands for United Space Alliance). I think that was a bit of a wake up call for all of us. Not that any of us ran terribly - Chass was 3rd in 52:44, I was 5th in 54:15, and Emily was 1st in 60:48. I suppose it just wasn’t up to expectations of where we thought we’d be. Sure, conditions weren’t great, a little humid and a little windy, but it’s easy to make excuses and difficult to take a cold hard look at what you’ve been doing and what you could do better.

So if last weekend was a time for reevaluating, this weekend was a time for (mostly) celebrating great workouts and races (Emily’s been a little under the weather this week). First Em and I headed south to a small local race by the river to watch Amy and Rob race - for Rob, this was the first race he’s done since February, when he was knocked out with a fracture in the navicular bone of his foot, an injury that is sometimes career ending. Amy won handily with a time of 16:58, and Rob ran strong for 2nd to a good local guy, beating his time in the time trial we did last week handily (16:19 compared to 16:47 last Monday).

After the race, I got to talk to Chass, who had just done a workout of 4 by 2 miles with 3:00 jog recoveries. Last year Chass did a very similar workout in an average of 10:02 per 2 mile, 8 days before running 51:18 for a 10 mile race. This year he averaged 9:54 per repeat, which just sounds ridiculous to me - I’d be hard pressed to do 2 of those in a race-type situation.

Then today I averaged just a hair under 6:00 per mile for 24 miles. Certainly not the fastest workout I’ve ever done, but it’s up there for longest, and it was good to get this one out of the way. The end of the season is rapidly approaching, and it’s good to feel like I’m gaining momentum, rather than losing it.

But unfortunately it’s now time for the mowing of the lawn, before the wife and I get down to business cooking up some borracho beans. They speed up recovery from long workouts by at least a day, and that is a scientific fact*. I leave you with pictures and videos!

*This is almost certainly not true.

Jer at the 10-Miler

Chassy

Rem Dog almost to the finish

Melting from the rain!

Tired guys post race

VIDEO OF THE SPACE ALLIANCE 10 MILER

Start of the Strut Your Stuff 5k/10k

Two Robs?!

Amy!

High Five!

VIDEO OF THE STRUT YOUR STUFF 5K!!

Hitting the Road

Waterbear Racing (that's the unofficial name of our little running group for now) took our first official road trip a couple weekends ago and had a blast!

We left Friday and traveled to the Eder household in Ft. Worth for a delicious homemade dinner! Afterwards we piled in the car, again, and headed to Dallas. It was our first time renting out a hotel room in Dallas, less than 3 miles from the start of the race (thanks Coach!), and attempted to calm our pre-race excitement in order to get a decent amount of sleep. 

The morning of the race reminded me of what it's like to have an overnight trip with a team again. I had forgotten what it's like to room with a handful of people who each have their own pre-race rituals. It was a neat experience...girls braiding hair, Chass shaving his legs being Chass, Jer making sure everyone has everything. 

We headed to the YMCA where they were shuttling racers to the Arboretum. It was beautiful and the first time I had ever been to any Arboretum for that matter.

The race itself was awful, for me. I finished 3rd with a time 30 seconds slower than what I ran a month prior,on a much tougher course. Hopefully this was my official "bad race" of the season. I let nerves get the best of me and ended up not eating enough for fear of throwing it up. Running on an empty stomach doesn't work for me. Lizzie had a tough time too, battling sickness, but she still pulled through to get 6th place in the field of elites. Amy did great, especially for her first road race as a post-collegiate athlete. She finished 2nd overall, behind a former Trinity teammate of ours (D'Ann Arthur), with a time of 36:27.

The boys blew away the competition with a strong 1-2 punch! Chassy cruised it in for the win and Jer followed for a nice 2nd place finish. Jer's second place came somewhat as a shock since he could barely run the two days prior to the race due to IT band issues. The fact that he even got on the starting line was a shocker, but the pain was all gone during the warm-up so he went with it.

Although the race didn't play out exactly the way I was hoping, it was still nice knowing that the awards we ended up winning more than covered the cost of the trip - so not a total bummer. Afterwards we listened to the fun 80's cover band they had and then made another food stop at the Eder house before heading back to good ol' San Antonio! Now, picture time!

Chassy

Amy

Coachy

Em

Liz

The group!

HERE is an article from the Dallas newspaper that mentions our little group from the race! 

Next up, Jer, Chass, and myself will be heading to Houston for a fun, flat, 10miler this weekend!!

Thoughts and Ramblings from a Very, Very Long Run

So yesterday I did my longest long run ever, other than the actual marathon of course. The term "long run" is relative of course, but in my case it was 24.3 glorious miles in perfect weather! Now 2 hours and 51 minutes is a lot of time to think about how things are going throughout the run. Some people have asked me, "what could you possibly be thinking about when you're running for that long"? So for those of you that'd like to get a glimpse of what went on in my head during the run yesterday, here's a little mile per mile run down. Enjoy.

6:30am-Starting at Casa de Daum
Mile 1 (7:36 pace) Man this weather is seriously perfect, I lucked out. Why am I breathing harder than normal? Is it because I'm nervous? Calm down, it's way too early in the morning for that. This mile better be faster than 7:45 or it's going to be a very long run.

Mile 2 (7:38) It's really dark. That would suck if I twisted my ankle this early into the run because I couldn't see.

Mile 3 (7:21) Alright, you really need to use the downhills when you can get them. Good, build up some momentum.

Mile 4 (7:18) Oh good...there will actually be daylight today. I thought the sun had forgotten to wake up this morning.

Mile 5 (7:18) Doing great, I'm ahead of the scheduled planned progression and feel amazing. Although I remember Jer saying it's going to feel pretty comfortable the first part of the run. Just keep it the same pace until I get back to the house..there's still 14 miles of workout left by then and that's plenty of time to start showing off.

Mile 6 (7:12) Just stay focused...pretend like it's the actual marathon and stay relaxed. This is exactly what you need to be thinking when things get tough the second half of this workout...It's so freakin beautiful and peaceful out. I love being a runner.

Mile 7 (7:16)  Holy crap! There are other people in this world! Hello runner...I can't believe it's been nearly 7 miles since I've seen someone.

Mile 8 (7:04) Listening to the Death Cab for Cutie song "I Was Once a Loyal Lover" and here's the point of the run where I'm running through what we call the bacon strip of hills in Hill Country Village. As soon as I hit the top of one of the hills the lyrics "There's plenty of hills to climb" comes on. I immediately start laughing out loud and thinking...yes, this run does and will have plenty of hills to climb. Thank you Death Cab for making me laugh. I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud running by myself.

Mile 9 (7:13) I feel really great..this is going to be a wonderful run! You are going to kill it even with getting nearly no sleep the night before the night before!

Mile 10 (7:01) Almost time to see Jer! I hope he's out with the Gatorade when I get there. I know I'll be a little earlier than expected because I'm doing so awesome! I LOVE downhills...they seriously are the BEST!

Mile 11 (7:01) hmmm why didn't Jer get upset when I told him my time which was quicker than what he wanted me to hit for the first 10? Oh well, I'm sure I'll get an earful when I pick him up in a couple miles, but I'll just tell him how great and easy everything feels.

Mile 12 ( 6:59) half way done!! The first half went by so quick!! Wait, I'm already hitting sub 7 pace and there's still 12 more miles left of this thing. No big deal, just don't get any faster until the last 4 and go 6:50ish for those, just like Jer said.

Mile 13 (6:56) down hills are wonderful. My legs are feeling a little tired. I really hope this mile is 7 minute pace.

Mile 14 (7:06) I could use some more Gatorade..my mouth is already starting to dry up again.

Mile 15 (7:02) NINE MORE MILES?!? Why did I have to get cocky and start off faster than was planned?! No worries I have Jer and Chass now. They'll help get me through this, just gotta get in a nice rhythm with them.

Mile 16 (7:07) Everything is fine, just listen to Jer and Chassy's conversation. It'll make the rest of the run go by as quickly as the first half. Why aren't they talking? They ALWAYS talk. They're probably worried about me. Here is when I tell them they can talk and then they reply that they were afraid to say anything funny for fear of making me laugh because I'm the type of person that can not run when laughing too hard. Hmm, them talking isn't really helping out.

Mile 17 (6:48) This mile feels significantly more difficult than it did the first time out. I really hoped we picked it up because it definitely feels tougher now. Wait, we should not be picking it up THIS early. IT BETTER BE 7 minute pace or a little slower or I'm going to say something to them.

Mile 18 (6:52) Well it was faster than 7 minute pace, but that's ok, I'm doing awesome and it felt just like the previous mile did. I'm almost to the 5 mile out and back and then it's all over!

Mile 19 (6:56) I NEED WATER! Why the crap are these houses so far back from the street? Would people really be upset if there was a runner in dire need of water using their hose?...Are we to the turn around yet? Why did I have to show off the first 10? This always happens. I always freaking go out quicker than I should on a progression run and never want to slow down, because it's called a PROGRESSION run. That's it, I'm not running the last mile of the run. Jer specifically said 23-24 miles, so stopping a mile out would be 23 and that's still really good. We're already going sub 7 pace. I don't care what they think, I'm stopping at 23.

Mile 20 (6:51)-My mouth is so dry. Why does it feel like my stomach is sloshing around? I had gatorade 5.5miles ago?!...I'm telling Jer I need water, I'm not going to make it back without water...Dammit, I should've let Jer plant that water bottle like he wanted to before the run. Why is the sun so freaking bright? I'm wearing sun glasses and I'm still squinting.

Mile 21+.3 (6:38pace)-We end up going off the course to get water and use the port-o-potty. Why does water taste so good? I probably shouldn't be drinking this much water, but I don't care. I'm so thirsty!...Crap, I shouldn't have drunk so much water. No worries, the run is almost over and you're pretty much done with all the hard hills.

Mile 22 (6:39)-I've got this...I feel like I could actually make it back...I'm so freaking close!!! Stupid water. I hate that I had all that water. If it wasn't creating massive waves in my stomach I'd actually be feeling really great right now. I hope it was worth it Em.

Mile 23 (6:32)-Holy crap we're sub 6:40!! I feel awesome! I don't care what this mile is I'm going to finish this run and NOT throw up before the end. I seriously can't believe how great my legs are feeling. This is  the first run where I've felt so horrible for the last portion of it and am actually bouncing back for the last couple of miles!!

Mile 24 (6:15)- I'm running really really fast and feel like I could go even faster. It would be really awesome if I could close in goal marathon pace. 6:30 is way faster than Jer wanted me to close, but they keep encouraging me. I'm really glad I didn't go crazy on them in Hill Country. As soon as we approach our street there's about a minute left in the run and Chass starts commentating in his British voice "Here comes Emily Daum approaching the finish. First female by minutes. She gives a little wave to the crowd and even a fist pump". You can let loose now, it's over! Wave to the invisible crowds! Put that big smile on. You freaking did it!!

The Racin' Season Be Upon Us: Race Recap(s)

Many moons ago, when Emily and I started this little blog thingy, I figured we’d just talk about what the two of us are up to. But, things have a way of changing, so here goes, a big ole team-wide race recap. And......BEGIN!

On Monday, Emily, Chass, Caitlin, and I took a little drive north to the New Braunfels area for the Labor Day “Whine Run”, a 5 mile race that Em and I won last year. Well not too surprisingly, old Chassy put the hurt on me, but I think we both put out a pretty good effort - him 1st in 25:45, me 2nd in 26:30. This was right as the cold front was still blowing in, so we faced strong, steady winds from the North - conveniently the direction that the uphill 1st mile headed. I haven’t had to work that hard to run a 5:26 mile since I was in high school. We knew it was a hard course going in, and the hills coupled with the wind kind of ruined any benefit the cool, dry weather might have given us. But, I’m not one for excuses, so the times are what they are, and at least we got to run rockin’ sub 5 last miles coming back down the hill.

Start of the Whine 5 Miler

Superstar Rob

Classin' it up with the wine!

Emily and Caitlin got 1st and 3rd in the women’s race, with some random master’s runner taking 2nd. Oh, but wait, that’s no normal master’s runner, it’s a THREE TIME Olympic Trials qualifier - Lori Stich, who was 47th, I believe, at the ‘08 trials in a time of 2:43. So that’s pretty cool, always good to see some elite peeps popping up at local races. Here’s an interview from the Spring of ‘08, where she talks about doing lower mileage with the Hanson’s team in Michigan: low as in 110-120. NICE. http://www.runmichigan.com/interviews/full.php/2008/03/27/lori-stich-hanson-brooks-odp.html

So while this was going on, Miss Liz Eder was off gallivanting around the east coast, hanging out on the Jersey Shore, working on her tan or something. In fact, she refused to leave the beach even to do a race, but it’s all good because she won too. WOOT.

Yep, all on the sand!

So that’s Monday. Then today (Saturday), unless my memory has failed me, we had our first post-collegiate foray into cross country, as Amy headed over to Seguin for a meet at TLU. The competition was pretty solid, with good teams from Texas State and UTSA, but Amy kept the hammer down until she was running solo, and ended up with a nice 20+ second win.

Coming down the home stretch

Congrats to Amy on the XC PR and Win

This week is exciting for 2 reasons: I’m kicking off marathon workouts for the 3 of us who have a date with the San Antonio marathon this November, and this Saturday is our first major race of the season: the Tour Des Fleurs 10k in Dallas, where Chass, Em, Liz, Amy, and myself will be shooting for some cash and sweet road PRs.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your...Fun?

Doubles. I doubt this term has any real meaning outside of the world of competitive distance running, but it's the topic of today's training talk. Outside of running they use terms like "two-a-days". The implication is usually that the two-a-days are out of the norm; a special, relatively short-term period of intense training. In distance running, this is not the case: for us, doubles are the norm.

I am, as a rule, a very hard person to convince of anything. Some have even said I have a tendency towards cynicism. But the argument for training twice a day is this: 99% of all elite distance runners, for at least the last 50 years, have run twice a day. Every day? Maybe not. But nearly all distance runners, who for the most part train very differently, do 10-13 runs per week. As the great Haile Gebrselassie famously said, "I run twice a day every day but Sundays and Christmas." And personally I don't see why we can't run twice on Christmas.

So why doesn't everyone run twice a day? Well I would guess that the bulk of weekend warriors, of which I count myself a proud member, just don't care to actually change into running clothes and sweat twice a day. Which I understand. I mean, I don't particularly enjoy these 100+ degree afternoon runs. And the fact of the matter is, we all make compromises between achieving our potential in a particular endeavor (in this case distance running) and having a good, balanced life. But, assuming that someone is actually interested in coming close to whatever their "potential" is, why would they not run doubles?

Honestly I don't really know. There's a weird misconception that running twice a day is somehow harder than running once per day. And maybe that's true if you really believe that running is some sort of arduous task; something you should fear. But I believe that once you've gotten used to the daily grind of being a runner - once you've really taken on the lifestyle of a serious runner, a 2nd run should be a nice way to loosen your legs, and an easy way to pack a little more mileage into your week, not some chore to be avoided if possible.

I'll close with an anecdote from one of the best and worst places on the internet to discuss distance running, letsrun.com. This particular post comes from one of the old letsrun regulars, "malmo", or George Malley, former American record holder in the 3000m steeplechase and half marathon. In it, he discusses training with a young Terrence Mahon, who would later gain more fame for coaching Ryan Hall to a 2:06 marathon and 59:43 half marathon than he got for his own athletic career.

"In 1989 Terrence Mahon was in the same place as many of you today. As a college freshman at the University of Oregon he sucked. He hadn't improved since his junior year of high school (9:13.6 2 mile in 1987). He decided to get serious and train for the Summer and asked me about how he should go about doing it. I told him to bump his mileage up and do doubles every day he could. Eager to improved he asked "what happens if I get tired?" I said, "IF? I know you'll get tired, it will pass." About three weeks later he reported back to tell me his training was going great and he was not feeling so fatigued anymore. Wud I say?

"Terrance went from being an unknown to his coach in June to All-America 5 months later in November. He ran a sub 29:00 10k in December of 89, which still ranks as a top 10 US Junior performances.

"Terrence had the same gift that many of you have back in May of 89. He just never bothered to use it until June."

I could post up a hundred more examples, from this year's 2nd place finisher at the Boston marathon to this year's World Cross Country Champion. But it's getting late, so I'll yield to old Malmo one more time. After all, I couldn't say it better myself:

"Runners around the world do doubles. You should too. Of the hundreds of athletes that I've known and trained with, I don't know any who ran singles."

Midget Twins DAUMinate Sunrise 10k

(First let me just clarify that Em came up with the title for this one)

Saturday, August 20th, 2011. A day like most any other. But this, this was no ordinary Saturday. On this day, our own Emily Daum and Liz Eder took to the streets of Alamo Heights to dominate the Sunrise 10k. Here's a picture of the aforementioned domination in progress from the start:

Start of the race

Emily came in at 36:27, and Lizzie followed soon after in 36:57. I ran this race myself 3 years ago, so I speak from experience when I say it is a painful, painful race. They start it pretty early, 7:30am, but there's no getting around the fact that it's still August. In South Texas. And then there are the hills. Lots of them. Just when you think you're done with them, the course takes a turn and oh look, there's another one. So I'm very impressed with where those two are so far. They both ran within 30 seconds of their personal bests, off of base training, on a course that's at least that much slower than a flat race, so I'd say things are going pretty well. I look forward to someday maybe taking them to some pancake-esque race with nice, cool weather, to hopefully make up for what could not have been a very pleasant last 2 miles.

Yes, they got matching sports bras...girls.

Winners!

We also have a new teammate. Amy Shackelford! She just graduated from SFA and is in the physical therapy program at the UT Health Science Center here in San Antonio. She was an NCAA DI Regional qualifier in the 10k and has impressive PR's of 35:08 for 10k and 16:52 for 5k. We're all really excited to have another great runner added to our crazy bunch.

Team-iness! Awwwwwwwww

Next race up is the Labor Day 5 Miler on September 5th, where Em and I both won last year. Unfortunately this year the competition will be a little heavier on the guys' side, as our very own Chass Armstrong will be making his season debut. As long as one of us takes home the bottle of wine, I'm happy, because I know Chass...he'll share.