Confession: I can absolutely see how my training would be less than useful, if not wildly uninteresting. I'm still too slow to be looked up to as an elite runner (the type whose training logs I have absolutely devoured in my day), but also probably too serious/intense in training to be a useful example for the average joe. I love it when people ask me for running advice, and I always do my best to help them out, but the last thing I would say is "oh just check out my log and copy that, you'll do great."
But at the same time I think if we're going to have this blog, it shouldn't just be for the big sporadic updates. So I'm going to try to give a really quick summary of what I did each week in case anyone finds it remotely useful in their own athletic lives.
A note first: the things that I consider important in training are 1.) hard workouts, and 2.) total mileage. Somewhere in there are a whole bunch of other really important things like sleep, hydration, hours worked, etc. but since I don't measure those with any regularity they will be ignored. But I digress.
Sun 2/16: 7.5 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) easy - 7:30 to 8:00 pace
Mon 2/17: 8.2 miles (AM) and 5.0 miles (PM) easy - 7:25 to 7:40 pace
Tue 2/18: Warmup, 7x 3 min fast / 3 min medium fartlek (41 min total). Covered 7.32 miles at 5:30 pace average, no idea on the actual pace of individual fast/slow parts.
Wed 2/19: 4.6 miles (AM) and 5.9 miles (PM) easy - 7:30 to 7:40 pace
Thu 2/20: 8 miles easy (AM) and 4.3 miles with 8x12 seconds hill sprints (PM)
Fri 2/21: 6 miles (AM) and 4.6 miles (PM) easy - 7:20 to 7:40 pace
Sat 2/22: 4.6 miles (AM) and 3.1 miles (PM) easy with 3x20 second strides in PM
Week Total: 81 miles, ~8 miles of quality work
BONUS:
Sun 2/23: Ran the Cowtown Marathon in 2:35 (5:55/mile). First 20 miles in 1:55:40 (5:47 pace) then a little slower into the finish to get under the 2:36 existing course record.
Next up is getting back into serious training - so far I've just banked on residual fitness from my Houston buildup. Looking forward to keeping this thing updated with all of the good and the bad...
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
A Not So Smart Idea
So I'm doing something a little strange tomorrow: running another marathon. Now there are plenty of tough, battle-hardened individuals out there that can race marathons at near their full potential with no more than a week or two of recovery, but I am not one of them. I can barely run the first week post-race, and I remain physically and motivationally deficient for at least another two weeks. But when I heard that beautiful Fort Worth was offering up a decent chunk of change for everyone and anyone who can break the existing course record of 2:36, I thought "what the hell."
2:36 is 12 minutes slower than I ran at Houston 5 weeks ago. 27 seconds/mile. Piece of cake right? Honestly I really don't know. Certainly it's a more difficult course. And I don't know what will happen to my legs around mile 20, because guess what? The last time I did a run over 20 miles was...that other race. But I'm excited to get out there and run hard with the other 100 guys and gals who also had the same idea (that money is going to get split a loooooot of different ways). Here's hoping I can hold it together long enough to be one of them!
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| Game time! Ft Worth Edition |
2:36 is 12 minutes slower than I ran at Houston 5 weeks ago. 27 seconds/mile. Piece of cake right? Honestly I really don't know. Certainly it's a more difficult course. And I don't know what will happen to my legs around mile 20, because guess what? The last time I did a run over 20 miles was...that other race. But I'm excited to get out there and run hard with the other 100 guys and gals who also had the same idea (that money is going to get split a loooooot of different ways). Here's hoping I can hold it together long enough to be one of them!
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Lucky Marathon #9
Three weeks ago I ran the Houston Marathon and lowered my PR from 2:27 to 2:24. I guess since I haven't exactly been good about updating our blog, that deserves a little backstory.
I can start with all the changes I didn’t make. The easy narrative in this type of situation would be I got focused, trained harder than ever before, cleaned up my diet, etc - but unfortunately that isn’t even close to true. Am I still known to toast a good workout with a glass (or 6) of beer? Yep. Do fried chicken and mexican food still feature prominently in my diet? Definitely. Oh and the training I’ve done is more or less an exact replica of what I’ve done for previous marathons.
This isn’t to gloat or seem overconfident. My build up races were spotty at best. I prepared conscientiously and even tapered(!) for a 10 mile race in mid October - a race in which I ran 52:37 last year at the end of a 130 mile week - but this year I turned in an awesome 54:30. Thanks taper, really stellar work there.
But somewhere around mid-December I started to get in a groove. 4 weeks out I did a moderately hilly 20 mile tempo at 5:37 pace (which was my previous PR pace). Then came 8x(2k fast, 1k medium), hitting ~5:15 pace for the fast ones, 5:45 pace on the slow ones, for a total of 14+ miles at 5:23 pace. I could only smile as I sailed a minute under my time from that 10 miler and then kept going another 4+ miles.
The workout that gave me the most confidence though was 20 days before the race: 4x4 miles at just below marathon pace, with 1 mile “float” recoveries between at roughly 5:55 pace. I averaged 5:26-5:27 for the fast parts, and 5:31 pace for the entire 19 miles (2:24 pace). At that point I started to think that maybe 2:24 could be doable, but I tried to stick with my previous goal of 2:25-2:26 and not get ahead of myself.
Even with this attempt at conservativism, by race day I was beyond nervous. I didn’t help much at the time, but with hindsight I can see now that the weeks leading up to the race could not have gone any better. I got tons of sleep, drank plenty of water, and with the exception of the last 24 hours, didn’t let the nerves get to me. Lots of people at work getting sick? Nope, somehow doesn’t affect me. Ok maybe my legs didn’t feel great, but they never do during the taper.
Let’s revisit that whole 2:25 goal - on race morning I heard that the elite women were planning on going out at 1:12, which didn’t exactly match my original plan of negative splitting my way to 2:25 (more like 1:12 high or 1:13 at halfway). I figured it would be better to hang onto a pack of pros and their pacers than to do my own thing in no man’s land. I mean 5:30 I’ve been preparing for 5:33-5:35 pace, so what’s another 3 seconds? 5:30 pace won’t be so bad.
Except right from the gun we were hitting more like 5:25. I was a little frightened (ok, maybe terrified), but I stayed hanging off the back of their pack. Thankfully after 5 miles in 27:10 and 10k in 33:50ish, they started slowing down. To my goal pace? Nope, after going too fast for me for 6+ miles, they now went decidedly too slow (almost like the world doesn’t revolve around my exact pace goal? Weird). At that point I decided I was in too deep and should just go for it, for better or worse. I pushed forward and, after a couple mid 5:30s, brought the pace back down to high 5:26-5:29. I hit the halfway mark in 1:11:37, and I knew I was officially committed.
If I could chalk this success up to one (or two) things I would say these:
1. A sudden and previously undiscovered ability to blow off a bad workout, and
2. The old ball and chain, Emily Daum.
I had a few stinker workouts in there, even mixed among the great ones towards the end, but for whatever reason I didn’t waste much thought on the bad ones. And as for #2, which may be related to #1, I let Em dictate a lot more of my decision making in training and racing. During training she helped me make good calls that kept me injury free and motivated, and during the taper she forced me to focus on rest to an extent that I haven’t previously. The result was the best feeling race of my life. Happy training everyone.
I can start with all the changes I didn’t make. The easy narrative in this type of situation would be I got focused, trained harder than ever before, cleaned up my diet, etc - but unfortunately that isn’t even close to true. Am I still known to toast a good workout with a glass (or 6) of beer? Yep. Do fried chicken and mexican food still feature prominently in my diet? Definitely. Oh and the training I’ve done is more or less an exact replica of what I’ve done for previous marathons.
This isn’t to gloat or seem overconfident. My build up races were spotty at best. I prepared conscientiously and even tapered(!) for a 10 mile race in mid October - a race in which I ran 52:37 last year at the end of a 130 mile week - but this year I turned in an awesome 54:30. Thanks taper, really stellar work there.
But somewhere around mid-December I started to get in a groove. 4 weeks out I did a moderately hilly 20 mile tempo at 5:37 pace (which was my previous PR pace). Then came 8x(2k fast, 1k medium), hitting ~5:15 pace for the fast ones, 5:45 pace on the slow ones, for a total of 14+ miles at 5:23 pace. I could only smile as I sailed a minute under my time from that 10 miler and then kept going another 4+ miles.
The workout that gave me the most confidence though was 20 days before the race: 4x4 miles at just below marathon pace, with 1 mile “float” recoveries between at roughly 5:55 pace. I averaged 5:26-5:27 for the fast parts, and 5:31 pace for the entire 19 miles (2:24 pace). At that point I started to think that maybe 2:24 could be doable, but I tried to stick with my previous goal of 2:25-2:26 and not get ahead of myself.
Even with this attempt at conservativism, by race day I was beyond nervous. I didn’t help much at the time, but with hindsight I can see now that the weeks leading up to the race could not have gone any better. I got tons of sleep, drank plenty of water, and with the exception of the last 24 hours, didn’t let the nerves get to me. Lots of people at work getting sick? Nope, somehow doesn’t affect me. Ok maybe my legs didn’t feel great, but they never do during the taper.
Let’s revisit that whole 2:25 goal - on race morning I heard that the elite women were planning on going out at 1:12, which didn’t exactly match my original plan of negative splitting my way to 2:25 (more like 1:12 high or 1:13 at halfway). I figured it would be better to hang onto a pack of pros and their pacers than to do my own thing in no man’s land. I mean 5:30 I’ve been preparing for 5:33-5:35 pace, so what’s another 3 seconds? 5:30 pace won’t be so bad.
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| Early on, hanging by a thread |
Except right from the gun we were hitting more like 5:25. I was a little frightened (ok, maybe terrified), but I stayed hanging off the back of their pack. Thankfully after 5 miles in 27:10 and 10k in 33:50ish, they started slowing down. To my goal pace? Nope, after going too fast for me for 6+ miles, they now went decidedly too slow (almost like the world doesn’t revolve around my exact pace goal? Weird). At that point I decided I was in too deep and should just go for it, for better or worse. I pushed forward and, after a couple mid 5:30s, brought the pace back down to high 5:26-5:29. I hit the halfway mark in 1:11:37, and I knew I was officially committed.
 |
| Making new friends |
At this point the best possible thing happened to me: I caught another guy who was trying to run 2:24, no slower, no faster. JACKPOT! We worked together for 6 magical miles, splitting mostly high 5:20s along the way, until my inner moron again showed himself. My split at mile 18 was slower (5:37). And what does a moron do when confronted with exactly ONE (1!) slow split? Why crank the pace down to 10:44 for the next 2 miles of course. I hit 20 miles in 1:49:14. It made me very happy to see that split under 1:50.
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| I know it doesn't look like it, but I am actually feeling quite good |
I hung tough through the next 5 miles, mostly in the mid 5:30s, but by the start of mile 26 I was cratering hard. 2:23 went out the window during that mile - a time that 2 days prior I would have told you was not even in question, but when you’re that close it’s hard not to get greedy. I got over that thought pretty quickly, and as I was coming down the homestretch I felt myself smiling despite the immense amount of discomfort I was in (definitely located that wall during 26). I felt (and still feel) a great sense of accomplishment. I did exactly what I set out to do, and I felt as though everything had gone exactly as I hoped.
 |
| Last 50 meters |
If I could chalk this success up to one (or two) things I would say these:
1. A sudden and previously undiscovered ability to blow off a bad workout, and
2. The old ball and chain, Emily Daum.
I had a few stinker workouts in there, even mixed among the great ones towards the end, but for whatever reason I didn’t waste much thought on the bad ones. And as for #2, which may be related to #1, I let Em dictate a lot more of my decision making in training and racing. During training she helped me make good calls that kept me injury free and motivated, and during the taper she forced me to focus on rest to an extent that I haven’t previously. The result was the best feeling race of my life. Happy training everyone.
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