Just call me Rocky

Managed three runs over the weekend with distances of 11, 10, and 8 miles to bring me to 100 miles for the week in 9 runs. Overall, it was a good week with a couple of good hard workouts and two runs of 17 miles. Things got really hot over the wekeend in the Chicagoland area, so the goal was pretty much just survival over the weekend. I was hoping to do a marathon paced workout on Sunday, but with getting to bed at 3AM the night before and extremely high temps, it didn't happen. I settled for a nice relaxed run instead and lived to run another day.

Did 7 miles today and just decided that was enough. The temps were supposed to hit 100 today and it felt every bit that hot when I hit the pavement for my midday run. Again, I wanted to do a tempo run, but it just didn't happen. Things are supposed to cool off by midweek so I guess I'll just survive these next few days and then try for some faster stuff near the end of the week.

I finally registered for the Chicago Distance Classic, which is two weeks away. I don't really know what to expect as far as a goal goes. Right now half marathon PR is 1:17:07, so I think I should be able to better that without too much trouble, but August weather in Chicago is always a wildcard, so who knows. I'm thinking if it isn't too hot I'll shoot for something in the 1:15's. I actually really like running half marathons. They are just long enough where you can't go too hard in the early miles, but they aren't so long that you have a real danger of bonking either. It's a pretty fun distance. I'm looking forward to the fitness check.

With today's whopping 7 miles, I managed to log 441 miles in July, by far a career high. Last month was my first time over 400 miles, so I am definitely in unchartered territory. What I'm most pleased with though is that it seems that I'm just now starting to really be able to get some good hard miles in there. That definitely wasn't always the case. For most of the year, I've just been surviving these 100 miles weeks. I kind of felt like a boxer who was backed in a corner and just absorbing body blows every day. I wasn't going down, but I wasn't exactly winning the fight either. These last two weeks, I feel like I'm finally the one landing the punches. I like it…although I'm not too sure I like that whole boxing analogy. Hopefully, you understand where I'm coming from.

The past week:

Mon: 10 miles with 4 @ 5:35 pace
Tues: 17 Miles
Wed AM: 10 Miles
Wed PM: 7 Miles
Thurs: 10 Miles with 5 X 1 mile with .2 recovery in 5:23, 5:18, 5:19, 5:20, 5:23
Fri: 17 Miles
Sat: 11 miles
Sunday AM: 10 Miles
Sunday PM: 8 Miles

100 Miles in 9 Runs

Focus on the Long Run

I've always had problems with longruns. Not so much with the execution of them, although I have had my fair share of struggles during my longruns. No, the main problem for me anytime I have ever had a run scheduled for more than say 13 miles is just getting out the door to do it. For some reason, from a motivational standpoint, there have always been the toughest runs for me to get out and do. As I've discussed before, I really felt going into this year that overall endurance was the biggest limiting factor for me in my running, so I really wanted to make that a focus as I built up for Chicago in October.

So far this year, I have done 34 runs over 17 miles in distance. That is probably about 5 years worth of longruns if I was still training how I used to train. The majority of those longruns have been 17 milers (23), however I have gone over 20 miles 9 times so far. I like the 17 mile distance. I do them in just under 2 hours if I run them right and I think that is probably long enough for the body to start figuring out that I need to burn fat instead of glycogen if I want to survive. Plus, for me, the recovery between a 17 miler and 23 miler is pretty significant. I can bounce back pretty quickly from the 17 milers.

So today was a 17 miler and it was in pretty stifling humidity. The dewpoint was in the 70's by 7AM which made running pretty uncomfortable. Overall it was a pretty good run though. I averaged 6:55 for the run and finished feeling pretty good. Every year I run a relay race in Michigan called Dances with Dirt, and I saw one of my teammates near the end of this run. We were going in opposite directions so it was just a quick hello and a hand slap, but it was still a nice diversion for a few minutes. I'm pretty pleased with how this week has shaped up. I've gotten two quality workouts in so far and two longruns. I hope to get something done at marathon pace on Sunday to finish out the week.

A Callousing Workout

I believe Dellinger uses "callousing workout" to describe a lot of the workouts that he has his runners do, and I must admit, I like it. I have pretty limited knowledge on all the physiological concepts when it comes to running, but the one thing that I do know, is that you have to hurt every once in a while in training to really be prepared for those last few miles of a marathon. It can't all be nice and easy. For me, mile repeats are where I get my callouses.

The plan was to do 10 miles total with 5X1 mile worked in the middle. The way I do these mile repeats is I go to a park by my house that has a .4 mile asphalt loop around it. It also has each .1 mile measured out, so it's nice to do any type of interval work there since you can pretty much come pretty close to any distance with the help of the markers. Well, actually I guess quarters would be kind of tough since there are only markers every .1 miles, but I'm not a big fan of quarters anyway, so that's just fine with me.

I try and keep the rest interval pretty short for these, with the thinking that the smaller the rest interval the more it relates to marathon training. So, basically, I do two and a half loops around the park for my mile, and then jog the .2 mile back to the starting line for the next one. In all it works out to about a 2-3 minute rest. If I was specifically training for a 5K, I would probably be better served lengthening the rest and really pushing the miles, but this way, I kind of look at it as a tempo/interval mix. I guess they're what McMillan would call cruise intervals.

I was pretty happy with the way today went down. I did the first one in 5:23, and what I realized is that when I was done, I was almost instantly recovered. My breathing was back to normal after a few seconds and I was ready to go. I would assume the quick recovery is related to the tempo runs I've been doing. I've been doing my tempo runs a little shorter than I have in past years, but faster as well, so the quick pace on the mile repeats wasn't a total shock to the system. From there I got faster and did the 5 miles as follows: 5:23, 5:18, 5:19, 5:20, 5:23. I came through the first half mile on every repeat in 2:39-2:40 with the expception of the last one, where I was at 2:43. I kind of lost concentration on the first half of that last one. I guess that happens when you're wiped out. And I was pretty wiped out from this one. I've only done this workout once this year so far, about 2 months ago, and my times were about 5 seconds slower per mile last time than they were today. Actually, this is the first time I've ever gone sub 5:20 for a mile in one of these workouts, and I did this almost every week last year (although I didn't always do 5). I guess progress is being made.

Now if I can just get this picture out of my mind, I will be fine. It has haunted me ever since I first saw it yesterday. Mmmm…Pizza.

Recovery Runs

Today was a nice easy day, which was a welcome break, since the last two days have been pretty tough. I did 10 miles this morning with some strides at the end, just to get the heart pumping a little bit. What I've found with strides is that it actually seems to stretch me out a little bit. I've always noticed that I'm really tight on the first couple of strides, but then I begin to feel more fluid as I go and usually finish feeling pretty good. I've always acredited this to the whole "recruiting of the fast twitch muscle fibers" as they say, thinking that as the fast twitch muscles were woken up, I started to feel better. Now, you must realize that this theory is based on zero scienctific evidence and entirely on me really butchering something I read somewhere. So now I'm starting to rethink my theory. What I'm thinking now is that strides just really stretch the leg muscles out and as they get more stretched out, the more comfortable I feel. This usually carries over to the next run that I do as well, so the whole stretching out theory does hold some value.

In the afternoon, I did another 7 mile run at an easy pace. Things felt surprisingly good during this run. I was expecting to feel run-down but I was actually feeling pretty bouncy (maybe stride related?). About 2 miles into this run, I was passing another guy on the lakefront path and he turned to me and said, "Do you mind if I join you?" That has never happened to me before. I'm really more of a loner when it comes to running. Of course, being the socially graceful person that I am (and not really being able to figure out a way to "Uh...No" and still come off as sounding polite), I responded with an enthusiatic "Sure!"

So we made small pointless chit chat for a while, and he wound up working about a block from my gym, so we ran together for the rest of the way. It actually turned out pretty nice because running with him forced me to slow things down a little bit, making it a true recovery run. Hopefully, that will help me out tomorrow as I make yet another attempt at some mile repeats. This is the 3rd time I've planned on doing them in the past 7 days, and each time I've found some excuse to replace the run with something else. The thing is, I kind of like doing them too. So tomorrow for sure. Mile repeats. No stopping me. Oh wait. Is that rain in the forecast for tomorrow morning? Uh oh.

My friend Nattu did complete Badwater this morning and came in just under the 48 hour time limit to get his belt buckle. He completed the 135 mile survival test in 46:22. Think about that for a second. 46 and a half hours. I can't even comprehend it. And look at that...he's still smiling!

Rolling Along

So far the week is off to a good start. Yesterday I did a 10 mile run with the middle 4 miles at tempo pace. The route I was doing the tempo portion of the run on was on the Lakefront and it was basically 2 miles out and 2 miles back. The first two miles were into a pretty decent wind, so I figured I would push those miles pretty hard, thinking the wind would offset what felt like a tough pace. I hit the turn around point in 11:20, or a 5:40 pace, so it was a little faster than what I've been doing these at. Why is it that whenever you turn and have the wind at your back you don't feel it the same as when it is in your face? I felt like I was running into a tornado when the wind was in my face, but when I turn around I don't feel a thing? Of course I know that's just perception, not reality as the wind must have aided me on the return trip as I was able to come in at 11:02 for the 2 miles back. Overall, the pace was just above 5:35 for the 4 miles. It was definitely the hardest I've run a tempo run all year and in actuality it was probably a little too fast. I was really starting to fight it during those last 800 yards or so. I guess that's OK now and then, as long as I don't beat myself up to much in the process.

Today I did 17 miles. This was the second week in a row that I've struggled a little bit with the 17 miler. I'm not sure if I'm just not giving enough respect to the distance, or if the weather is bothering me. Today was better than last week, but I've still had better runs. I think the run still had the desired effect as I was doing it on pretty tired legs from yesterday's harder than normal effort. Plus I slept like crap last night. We tried to make it through the night without turning on the air-conditioning, but after a few hours of tossing and turning, I finally broke down and turned it on. I slept like a baby after that, but unfortunately, the damage was already done.

The one thing that I have noticed since I switched shoes from the Asics Kayano to the Brooks Axiom is that my legs seem to be more sore with these new shoes, most notably after longruns. In the past, I would say that this was a tell-tale sign that the shoes aren't doing their job, but now I'm not so sure. In a twisted sort of logic, I'm thinking that maybe the less cushioned shoes are kind of helping my legs get stronger by not cushioning every footfall. But then again, what do I really gain from that? Maybe a few ounces off the shoe weight, but I'm still not convinced that is really going to equate to much in a marathon. But I don't see the Kenyans wearing big clunky shoes out there, so maybe I'm wrong. Certainly wouldn't be the first time.

Seeds of Doubt

For whatever reason this week, some self-doubt has crept into my subconscience. I'm not entirely sure why it has chosen this week to invade my psyche, but it's there and all I can do is deal with it. Part of it is probably due to the fact that I didn't PR in my last race, which was the first time that has happened in my last 15 races. I guess I'm used to that little confidence boost that comes with a PR. In reality, I didn't really set myself up to PR in this race, so I really shouldn't let it bother me, but it does.

Secondly, I think I'm getting a little stale in my training. I have gone over 100 miles for 7 straight weeks and 10 out of the last 11 weeks. Doubts are starting to creep in about whether I'm doing the right thing. I've been kind of winging it so far in my training, with the assumption that more is better. During base building, I think that's pretty decent reasoning, however, at some point, I need to get out of base-building and into the more intense stuff. I have no idea when to start to make that adjustment. I'm kind of thinking I'd rather do it too late instead of too early though. I really don't want to peak too early.

So now that I have that off my chest, I did have a decent weekend of running. On Saturday morning, the whole family headed off to the park for some fun in the sun. While the kids played at the park, I did loops around the .4 mile track at the park. What I quickly realized is that with my wife and kids on the infield watching me, I was running way too fast for what should have been a recovery run. After a mile, I checked the split and it was dead on @ 6. Now the plan was to do mile repeats on Sunday, but since I was already into this workout I decided to just ride it out and turned the run into a marathon pace workout. 22 and a 1/2 laps later, I finished the workout with an average pace of 5:57 for the 9 miles. With the warm-up mile it made it 10 for the whole thing. Later in the day I took the kids out for a 7 mile run in the double stroller. Now that Chloe has mastered her training-wheel-equipped bike, it was a little bit of an effort to get her to agree to go in the stroller. Daddy pushing her was so last month. After some amount of reasoning, and maybe just a little bribing, she agreed to humor me and went along for the ride. It was slow and was probably the recovery run that I should have taken this morning.

On Sunday I did 10 miles to cap off the week. It started off very slow, but as the legs adjusted I was able to pick it up as I went along and finished it fairly strong. So for the week, I did 104 miles in 9 runs. The 104 miles ties my career high. I was thinking about adding one more mile onto the end of Sunday's run, just so I could claim the record, but in the end I decided against it. I didn't feel like this week really deserved the title. With no runs done at anything faster than marathon pace, I wanted to save the career high distinction for a more deserving week.

Mon: 10 Miles
Tues: 17 Miles
Wed AM: 10 Miles
Wed PM: 7 Miles
Thur: 10 Miles 8 @ MP
Fri: 23 Miles
Sat AM: 10 Miles 9 @ MP
Sat PM: 7 Miles
Sun: 10 Miles

104 Miles

The Halsted Run

In a comment from a few days ago, Eric mentioned that I should make sure that I'm training to race, and not just training to train. That's never really been a problem for me in the past. For the most part, most of my training has been a frantic effort to make sure I was in decent enough shape for a good marathon. To be sitting here in late July, pretty much in the best shape of my life and probably very capable of setting a PR at any distance that I ran is a little different for me. Laast year at this point in the summer, I still hadn't done a run longer than 13 miles. So adding mileage was an attempt by me to make things more interesting. There are two ways to make things interesting…more miles or more fast miles. After thinking about it some more, I think the answer is to try and do some more quality in there and keep right around 100 miles a week. Not sure what exactly it's going to look like, but hopefully next week will offer some clarity.

Today I did the infamous Halsted Run to work. As described before it's 23 miles and I hate every step of it. I mean really. I hate this run. There is absolutely nothing appealing about it. It's a boring route, I have never seen another runner out there in the 4+ years I've been doing it, and it isn't a very safe nighborhood to be in. But I need to do it. It is this run that makes me feel like I can do anything. I do most of my training to work this system or that system, to try and trigger some physiological dohickey, or well, most of it goes way over my head. However, the one thing I do know is that Halsted Run makes me mentally tougher, and that comes in handy at mile 24 of a marathon.

I did things a little differently today on this run. For the first half of the run, I was not into it. I just wanted to stop and go home. I stopped about half-way through the run for some water, and after that things started to feel better. I think mentally being past the halfway mark on a point to point route kind of helps. Once your past the point of no return, all you can do is press on to the finish line. All in all, it was a pretty good run. With dewpoints in the upper 60's at the start, it was humid again, but the temps were lower, so it could have been worse. I was still soaked when I was done again. The humidity gets me everytime.

I just wanted to take the last paragraph to acknowlege my friend Nattu, who is going to Badwater this weekend to take on the Badwater Ultramarathon which starts Monday morning. Just getting accepted to run this crazy adventure is not an easy thing to do, and don't even get me started on the actual race. I think it's generally accepted to be the crowning achievement of an ultra-marathoners career. And to think, that Nattu is a relative newbie to this whole ultramarathoning thing, just makes it all the more impressive. He's being crewed by a few friends I've met through running and a few people I don't know. I hope everyone, crew included, gets a chance to fully appreciate the magnitude of what they're about to accomplish. It truly is awesome. And all for a belt buckle.

Working on Marathon Pace

Woke up this morning at 5:30 to sound of driving rain and quickly pulled the sheets back over my head and went back to sleep for an extra hour and a half. The plan was to do my mile repeats today, but I'm not a big fan of running in the rain, and I'm even less of a fan of doing fast repeats in the rain, so I bagged it. I probably could have gotten up and slogged through 10 miles, but going fast would have been difficult. I figured I'd save the run for lunchtime and try and do something constructive at that time instead of just getting in the miles. It was pretty easy to talk myself out of it as I lie in my bed.

This afternoon, I went to the gym and hopped on the treadmill for a marathon pace run. I did the first mile as a warm-up and then did 8 miles at a 6min/mile pace and then a mile cooldown. I've done this workout before and this was definitely the best I've felt while doing it. 6 minute pace is now definitely an aerobic workout for me. I don't think that has always been the case. I remember even earlier this year really struggling as soon as the treadmill hit 10 MPH. I could probably go about 2, maybe 3 miles before I really starting fighting it. Now it's not a huge deal. My breathing remains under control for the most part and today's 8 miles at that pace felt fine. But man, do I sweat. It took me 5 towels to clean up after myself after the run. It's almost embarrassing really, but hey, I'm working hard over here.

I still want to get out and do some miles repeats at some point this week. Last year that was a staple of my training, but I've only managed to do them once this year. The focus has definitely been more aerobic conditioning this year though, so there is a reason I have been slacking on the faster stuff. I think as I get closer to racetime, I will try and incorporate more of the shorter faster stuff, so I can really peak in October. For now, I'm pretty pleased with how the tempo stuff is working.

Yesterday my average mileage per week inched just past 80 miles for the year. It used to be that I could move the average a couple of miles either way with a good or a bad week. Now, it's pretty tough to get it go up, but I would imagine that a bad week here or there could really get it to plummet pretty quickly. I've worked pretty hard to get it past 80, so I think I'll try and keep above that point for a while.

When Ducks Attack!

Both of my runs today were pretty boring from a purely running standpoint. My legs are feeling pretty good, which I think I can attribute to the amount of running I've been doing this week on the soft trails by my house. For the most part, I try to run on the roads for most of my miles, but every once in a while, it's nice to give myself a break and hit the trails. The only real problem with the trails is that it is overrun with insane birds and fowl. In the springtime, I pretty much stopped going there all together, because the geese were getting way too aggressive when I would run past. They would hiss and flap their wings at me if I got too close. Spring must be when they have their little geese babies because that seemed to be the main cause of their agitation. There's nothing like a crazy goose charging at you if you want to work on your leg turnover. It pretty much does the trick everytime.

Lately, I've noticed that it must be little ducky birthing season, because I've seen a lot of little ducklings wandering around the trails. The duck parents are, for the most part, a lot less aggressive than the geese, so I really was never too worried. Then today, I came upon a mother duck and her ducklings sitting in the middle of the path. She was quacking at me and trying to look as ferocious as a duck could look. So I stopped and figured I would just let them cross the path and when they were safely in the water, I would continue on. I'm for the most part a pretty non-confrontational kind of guy (unlike Mike), so I wasn't in the mood to stir up trouble. I mean this was just a recovery run so it was OK to stop and smell the roses for a bit. So there I sat, patiently waiting for the ducks to clear out. They didn't. They just sat, with the mother duck quacking and flapping her wings at me the whole time. Finally, I realized how silly I must look, standing there afraid to cross the ducks path, so I just plowed ahead.

Right as I got past the mother duck, she went crazy. She flew up on my back and started hitting my head with her wings and feet. Well, they felt like feet. I don't know what it was, and I really didn't care, I just wanted to get out of there. I'm pretty sure I went anaerobic for a few seconds there. When I looked back, I saw a couple of guys fishing on the other side of the lake laughing their butts off. I must say I can't blame them. I would be laughing at my patheticness too. I came away from the incident unscathed, if you don't count my ego.

Did 2 runs today with the first being 10 miles (and 1 duck attack) and then 7 miles in the afternoon with some strides at the end. So far the week has been pretty uneventful, which is just fine with me. It's nice to actually be able to settle into a nice rhythm and not have to continually worry about making up mileage. I will hopefully hit the track tomorrow for some mile repeats, which I haven't done in a long time. It should be fun, in a masochistic sort of way.

BONK!

Today was not a good day. I did 17 miles this morning and it was a struggle. I just didn't have it from the get-go and the last 4 miles were just brutal. I guess it's safe to say now that I just don't handle humid weather all that great. For the most part I really like warm weather. If I had to choose between race day temps in the 80's or race day temps in the 30's, I would almost always choose the 80 degree temps (Except for maybe the marathon). However, this year it's just killing me. I've never been a follower of this dew point reading that I see referenced by so many runner's lately, so I have no idea what my breaking point is from a historical perspective, but I do know that today's 67 dew point was tough. The temps were in the low 70's which normally would seem almost cool at this point, but man that humidity. It just sucks the energy from you. Anyway, I finished the thing with an average pace right around 7:30, so while it certainly wasn't pretty, it is at least over.

This week almost seems like a relief. With no races, no vacation and no real commitments for the weekend, there is no juggling with the schedule or anything. I can do my three 27 mile pods and my long run on Friday, just like normal. Actually, I don't even know what normal is anymore. I just know that I'm running more than ever and I seem to be holding up pretty good under the stress.

I've been toying with the idea of trying to get up to around 120 miles for a 3 week stretch in August, just to see how my body would react to it. If I do it, it would have to be a three week experiment though. What I've found earlier this year is that anytime I significantly increase my mileage from one week to another, it takes me at least two weeks to adapt to the new stress. So I'm gonna guess that the first two weeks may not be too pretty, but the third week would be the true test. My main struggle with this is to try and figure if I would be better served trying to add some faster runs into the 100 mile week, or stay status quo with 2-3 faster runs a week but increase the mileage by 20%. I guess it's the old quality vs. quantity argument. I don't know what the answer is, but I know that mileage has been working for me so far.

My gut is to increase mileage in August and then begin cutting back a little in September but really increase the quality. So with plan A, I would do 120 miles in August, keeping 2-3 tempo type runs in there and then in September cut back down to 100 miles but try and do 4 marathon pace or faster workouts a week. With the Chicago Marathon on October 22nd this year, I have pretty much all of September to really train and then begin my taper somewhere in early October.

I think the increased mileage in August might make me feel stronger for the fast stuff that comes in September, but again, I just don't know. All this stuff is pretty new to me. Last year at this time, I was still running mileage in the 40's trying to force myself into actually doing a longrun.

It's not so much the heat.....

Yeah yeah yeah. I can't stop talking about the heat.

So after the 5K on Saturday night, we spent the night rehashing 5K war stories with the first-timer that I spoke about below, this guy (who ran a killer of a 5K earlier in the day) and his wife, these guys and a few other friends who don't have websites…can you believe that? No personal website. In this day and age. Anyway, we stayed up way too late, and since we were with the band (actually, it's my brother), we partied like rock-stars. Well, truth be told, that's a lie. Actually, I partied like a 33 year old who had kids sleeping upstairs. But we did stay up past midnight, so that's saying something. Isn't it?

So after Saturday night's festivities, I was too tired to get up early and run on Sunday so I put it off until midday and did get the 15 miles in that I needed to get to 100. I was hoping to do 20, but wasn't too disappointed with 15. It was hot when I started the run around noon, and even hotter when I finished. Again, not an ideal week as far as long runs go, but there was some quality in there and now with the short races out of the way, hopefully I can get back to solid consistent training again. The week went like this:

Mon: 8 Miles
Tues: 19 Miles
Wed: 7 Miles
Thur: AM 11 Miles with 4 @ 5:45 Pace; PM 9 Miles
Fri: 10 Miles
Sat: 15 Miles; 6 Miles with 5K in 16:41
Sun: 15 Miles

This morning my wife and I went to the Doctor for her 20 week ultrasound. We got to see some pictures of the little peanut. The main reason I went was to make sure that my wife didn't have a moment of weakness and ask for the sex of the baby. We both agreed that since there is a decent chance that this will be our last baby, we would not find out the sex and allow it to be a surprise. Since we did find out for the first two, we want to experience the surprise factor at least once. With one of each already, I truly have no preference one way or the other. I just go with the old standby that I pray it's healthy.

I did squeeze in a 10 miler before I had to get into work too. Hopefully, this will be my last mid-day run for a while. I've fallen into a little funk as far as waking up early so I've been forced to do a lot of afternoon runs (lunchtime runs actually). With the weather getting so hot lately, it probably isn't a good idea. I really want to maximize the quality runs this week and not just get in the mileage like I kind of feel like I've been doing lately. Vacations and races on strange days and at weird times contributed to that a little, but some of it has been a little bit of a loss of focus. I hope to regain some focus this week. We'll see how it goes.

"Twilight 5K" or "Streaks are Made to be Broken"

I had hoped to get out on Friday evening for a 10 mile run to get it out of the way, so that I could rest up for the 5K that was scheduled for Saturday night. Of course, I didn't make it out, so early Saturday morning, I got out there with the plan to go 10 miles. It was still relatively cool in the early morning, and I was feeling pretty good after 10, so I tacked another 5 miles and did some strides at the end just to make sure everything was firing properly for the 5K. So in all I did 15 miles in the morning.

The run itself was slow and done on soft trails to try and keep my legs as fresh as possible for later on. The strides at the end were probably the key to the whole run. The first one I did was painful. The legs were just stuck into that slow rhythm and didn't want to go fast. The second was better, and by the 10th one, everything was back to normal and ready to go. I never was really a big believer in strides, until I started doing them. Now I see their usefulness and unless you really don't care about your shorter distance speed at all (which may be the case for some runners), you really should try and do them after some of your easier runs.

I spent the rest of the day trying to recover as best I could and to stay out of the heat. I pretty much was either in the house or in the pool for the rest of the day. Not a bad job if you can get it.

By game time the temps were in the 90's and it was humid. Pretty much what you would expect for July evening in the Chicago area. I had a couple of streaks that I was trying to keep alive in this race. First off, I had won this particular race the last 2 years. I wanted to keep that going for sure. As I mentioned in my last post, this race is kind of special for me. I especially like it because my whole family can walk to the finish line and see me at the start and the finish. Now that my daughter is starting to get some concept of what this running thing is, it's kind of cool to see her cheering me on. The second streak was a bit of a fluke, but I had actually won the last 3 races I had entered. They were all local small races, so I'm not exactly ready to rival Edwin Moses or anything, but it's nice to win regardless of the race, so I'll take it. Finally, I have a PR streak of something like 15 races. Basically, every race that I've run in the past 2 years has been a PR for whatever the distance was that I was racing. However, as those PRs continue to get lower, the streak becomes harder and harder to keep going. The first two streaks I was fairly confident about extending, but the last one was gonna be tough. I had just set my 5K PR less than 2 weeks ago, so it was gonna be hard to best that time when it was going to be 25 degrees hotter for this race.

So with that huge build-up, I'll make the actual race report nice and short. I did win, but my time was 16:41, it was no PR. I went out hard and hit the first mile in 5:08, but I was really fighting it after about a mile and a half. The two mile split was 10:31 (5:23 mile), and with a final time of 16:41, I think that brings my last mile to about a 5:40. Yeah, I died in the heat.

After the race we stuck around the finish line to watch one of my friends finish his first race since high school. He hit his goal of sub 25 and actually went home with an age group trophy. Not too bad. Luckily for me, they were saving the real swag for the winner.

The last two years I got some decent stuff for winnning the race. The first year it was a $80 gift certificate to a local running store. Last year, they took a step-back and gave away a free sitting and portrait at a local photography studio (a supposed $115 value). So I wasn't sure what to expect this year. It turned out to be quite a coup. Basically, it was a bag full of gift certificates for local restaraunts, a couple of local running stores, and The Home Depot. In total, the value of all the GC's was almost $300. Nice. For once in my running life, I was able to justify the $22 entry fee to my wife. Now, how to spend the Home Depot cards without forcing myself into too much do-it-yourself hard work....

One last short race

10 very uneventful miles so far today. I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend will hold for me. Basically, I have 3 more runs that I have to jam in there, and one of them should be of the 17+ mile variety. With a 5K race sandwiched in there on Saturday night, my options are somewhat limited. It looks like longrun on Sunday, a ten mile run either later this evening or tomorrow morning and then the race on Saturday night.

It sure is a lot of juggling around for a little 3.1 mile race. But this is my race. First off, the race is about 2 blocks from my house and runs right through my neighborhood. It's kind of cool to race through on the same streets that you usually train on. Secondly, this will probably be my last short race for the year. After this one, it's all gonna be about the marathon.

Finally, two years ago, after an 8 month layoff where I think I ran a total of 30 miles, I started back at it in June. I slowly started rounding into shape and this was the first race that I ran on my comeback trail. I won the race with a time of 17:57 or so. I know. Not exactly stellar, but it was the inaugural race and there just wasn't a ton of fast guys there. Then last year, I came back and won the race again in 16:54, but it was a much tighter race. The high schoolers came out and made me work for it. Now this year, I'm ready to improve on my time from last year and try to defend my title. We'll see if it's good enough. I hope it is. This one is special.

Wooo. I made it through the whole blog entry and didn't mention the upper 90 degree heat and high humidity that we'll have to deal with tomorrow. I'm very proud of my self-restraint.

Oops.

it's not always gonna be easy

Sometimes, I feel like I just don't have a clue. Yesterday I woke up and felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my entire body. My legs were sore, my foot was sore, my knee hurt, and my back was killing me. I assumed that it was most likely related to the 19 miles that I did in the late afternoon the day before. Normally, I do these big distance days in the morning and then have all day to recover from them. That didn't happen on Tuesday so I figured maybe just going to bed still tight from the run caused some problems. I was able to go out and do 7 very slow miles during the day, and I did feel slightly better when I was done, but I still didn't feel good.

I was hoping I would wake up this morning feeling rejuvenated after yesterday's easy day, but it didn't happen. I didn't sleep all that great last night. My lower back is continuing to give me fits which make sleeping very uncomfortable and the humid weather isn't helping much either. So this morning when the alarm went off in my head to get up at 5:30, it just wasn’t happening. I finally dragged myself out of bed around 6:15 which gave me enough time to grab a train half-way into work and do 11 miles on the way in. I brought my watch with the hopes that I would be able to talk myself into doing something that included some faster running.

The first couple of miles felt horrible and I really just wanted the run to end. The temps lately haven't been all that bad, but the humidity has just been crazy. If you just go outside and stand there, it seems like it's not too bad, but when you actually start doing something, you get very wet, very quickly. Kind of disgusting, I know. Anyway, there is a point on the lakefront trail on the way into work where there is a 4 mile stretch of well-marked path where I normally do my tempo portion of the run. As I was approaching the first marker, I was still debating with myself whether I should go for it or just go easy the rest of the way. Finally, I figured that you can't only run fast when you feel like it. Sometimes, you just have to go, regardless of how your body feels. So I went.

I came through the first mile in 5:48, and it felt OK. I was under control and felt like I could maintain it. The second mile was almost identical to the first and my two mile split was 11:37. I have a goal that I want to finish these tempo runs faster than I started them, just to prove that I'm not burning myself out on them. I have a bad habit of doing that sometimes. The third mile came in at 5:42 and the last mile was an identical 5:42. So overall for the 4 miles of tempo the pace was 5:45. I was pretty happy with that considering how I felt beforehand and the overall conditions of the day. My shorts where absolutely soaked when I was finished. It looked like I went swimming in the lake not running at it. What I was most pleased with about this whole run was the recovery afterwards. I would say that after about 30 seconds of jogging after the hard effort, I felt like I was almost back to a normal breathing pattern and my legs felt good again.

So standard thinking would tell me that if my foot, knee, and back are all hurting me, and my legs are sore, I should take it easy. However, in practice, I'm learning that sometimes a good hard effort will help snap you out of a funk and those little nagging things just don't seem so bad when you actually feel like your accomplishing something. Sometimes you just have to force your body to move when it doesn't feel like moving. OK. I get it. Mental note taken.

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Just figured I update this with the afternoon run. Things felt much better. I cruised through 9 miles feeling pretty good the entire time. It is getting hot out there with the temps in the mid 80's and extremely humid. I guess that's good as the Twilight 5K that I will be running in on Saturday is looking at temps in the mid 90's and high humidity. Oh the humanity.

Still Chasing the Dream

I come from a fairly large close-knit family of six kids. As we got older and started to move out of the house, my mom, most likely in an effort to thwart off the effects of the empty-nest-syndrome, designated Tuesday as Family Dinner Night. In laymen's terms, that means that every Tuesday night, my mom cooks dinner, and whoever wants to come over and eat it is welcome. She always gets a few people every week and my wife and I try to make it as often possible. Last night was my God Daughter's birthday celebration so of course, we just had to be there.

Now I never pass up the opportunity to sleep a little later in the morning if I can swing it. Truth is, most days, I just can't swing it. I have to get up and run in the morning or it just doesn't happen. However, on Tuesday Night Dinner day, I have the option of running part of the way to my parents house, since I take the train into work and have to take the train out to their house as well. Last night, I decided to just run the whole way. From Downtown Chicago where I work to my parents house, in the leafy suburbs of Chicago, is about 19 miles. Some of it is through the urban jungle, some of it is through scary neighborhoods, and some of it is through multi-million dollar home neighborhoods. However, all of it is done on Washington Blvd. My parents live on Washington and my work is two blocks south of Washington in the city. So I just strap on the shoes, point myself west, and go.

Last nights run was kind of tough. It was raining and extremely humid in the late afternoon when I was out there. Since most of the bad neighborhoods that I have to run through all come in the first 10 miles or so of the run, the rain was somewhat welcome. It keeps the hecklers off the street. However, getting drenched to the bone in the first few miles of a 19 miler is not fun. At all. The blisters started forming on my pruned up feet somewhere around mile 12 and were really bugging me for the last 4 miles. Luckily, today they seem to be back to normal so no real damage was done.

However, my favorite part of this particular run is when I get to run through the towns that I grew up in. From about mile 14-16 is what used to be my playground (did I really just use a Madonna song in my blog?). I spent my Kindergarten years right through my Junior year in highschool in that area and very little has changed since then. Sure some of the names on the buildings have changed, but for the most part, it's the same place.

At one point, I came up on my best friend from grade school's house. I spent a lot of days at that house. I have no idea if he still lives there or not. Last I checked about five years ago, he was. As I passed the library that just so happened to be right across the street from where he lived, I remember how we used to run over there when his mom would let us cross the busy street and goof around on the computer that they had there.

Now the computer games in 1987 were quite a bit different than the computer games today. We were pretty much computer geniuses at 11 years old. Most of the time, we would spend our time writing stupid little programs that would display the pixels in different colors so we could draw a smiley face. Or maybe write a little looping program that would write "Greg is Great!!" over and over again on the screen.

However, one thing that I do remember doing is taking a brand new floppy disk and, after properly formatting it and punching a whole in one side of it so we could make it a double-sided disk, writing down what me and Hugh wanted to be when we grew up. I think he said he wanted to be Wilt Chamberlain and I know I said I wanted to be Jesse Owens. At the time I don't think I realized that Jesse Owens was a sprinter. All I knew was the he could run really really fast. That's what I wanted to do.

Eventually, I'm sure the disk was lost or reformatted and used for more worthy pursuits, but I still remember writing it. Hugh, who was about 6'4 in 8th grade, went onto play high school basketball, but that was about the end of the line for his basketball dreams. I ran track and cross-country in high school, but by my senior year, the desire to compete had fizzled and I had given up as well. However, after college graduation I slowly started back at the running thing and now can't imagine life without it.

What struck me about all this is that what I had written as a 7th grader is still driving me today. Here I am some 20+ years after writing that I wanted to be Jesse Owens when I grow up, and I am still chasing that dream, even though I'm all grown up. Well, I'm not trying to be Jesse Owens anymore, but I am still trying to find out how fast I can be. Sure the distances have changed and the expectations aren't quite as high as they used to be, but the dream hasn't changed. I still want to be fast. After all these years.

Game Reset

I like graphs. They can really present a lot of information in very little space. This graph is my year so far in a nutshell. All those countless hours pounding the pavement, and what do I have to show for it? A line graph that took me all of about 10 minutes to create in excel. Anyway, at first glance, I must admit I was a little disappointed in how the graph looked. I was kind of expecting to see a linear line heading straight up until eventually it peaked and held steady at 100 miles. You know, something similar to the Pike's Peak elevation chart. Instead I have the Boston Marathon elevation chart. Why?

I suppose it shouldn’t be totally unexpected to see what looks like some inconsistency in my week to week mileage. I took a fairly methodical and conservative approach to building my mileage over the winter months. I would go 3 weeks of building or maintaining mileage, and then take a stepback week. I mentioned somewhere in an earlier post that I was never really able to figure out how to do the stepback week though. I mean it is called a "step" back, not a "leap" back. As the chart indicates, I probably was a little too "aggressive" in those down weeks, cutting mileage by as much as 50% in some weeks. So going forward, I've taken a page out of Mike's book, and pretty much just eliminated the stepback week. While that is not to say I won't take one if I feel like I need it, I won't be scheduling them for now. I think I've acclimated to the 100 mile weeks and since I won't be going too much higher than that until at least after my October marathon, there probably isn't as much of a need to allow my body some downtime.

The rolling 3 week mileage totals looks a little better, but still those down weeks really killed that line too. I guess the funny thing is that I would have been pretty happy with a 3 week rolling average of 60 miles at any point in my running career up until this year. This year, it is my low point. I guess I've made some pretty significant strides this year. The result really don't lie either. I'm faster and stronger than I've ever been.

My monthly mileage looks like this:

Jan: 279
Feb: 289
Mar: 346
Apr: 320
May: 371
June: 409

That's a little more consistent. With a fairly significant injury in April and a marathon that I had to recover from (which happened after the injury), the dip in that month is easy to understand. Other than that month, things are moving in the right direction.

I was able to get in 18 miles on Sunday in doubles which brought me to 100 for the week. It's the 5th 100 mile week in a row for me and 8th out of the last 9 weeks. Unfortunately, I've fallen into a bit of a cycle, where I fall behind early in the week and then work like heck near the end of the week to make up the mileage. Some of it has been unavoidable but it's not what I want to be doing. I hope to break that cycle this week with some solid early week runs and then coast into the weekend. I have another 5K race on Saturday and my PR streak is definitely in jeopardy in this race. If I go into with dead legs, I can kiss the streak goodbye. I know it really doesn't matter, but you take motivation where you can find it.

The Weekend Longrun

I, for the most part, hate the weekend longrun. I have a real hard time waking up extra early on a Saturday or Sunday to slug through 20+ miles. Plus, I'm usually pretty beat-up after a 20 miler so it can take me a good half a day before I'm fully recovered. Normally, I try to schedule my week so that I can get all my runs of 17 miles or more done somewhere during the week. However, this week, due to the crazy Tuesday race, it just didn't work. My week has been a little unconventional this week, but I got two good workouts in with the race on Tuesday and the marathon paced run yesterday, and with today's 20, I have two runs over 17 miles for the week. With 18 miles tomorrow in doubles, I can get to 100 miles over 9 runs, which has become the standard for me. Today's 20 went pretty good as I averaged 6:55 miles for the duration. While I had a hard time getting going, it actually got easier as I got into it.

And now, the family and I are off to the disgustingly charming Saugatuck, MI. It's the kind of place where you regularly hear people talking about "antiquing" and "last weekend at the summer home." It has blocks and blocks of little shops selling "one of a kind arts and craft." Sure you pay a little more, but it's one of a kind! Until you find the same thing at Walmart the next week for the half the price.

Despite all that, I do enjoy the town. It use to be a very relaxing weekend as my wife would explore the town and I would sleep by the pool. Now with two kids in toe, it isn't quite as relaxing, but I still enjoy it.

How I Resurrected my Running

I think the biggest boon to my running happened exactly one year ago today. It wasn't a great workout, or a breakthrough performance. It wasn't a re-dedication to training or even an increase in motivation. It was the simple act of quitting my old job.

I graduated from College in the winter of '95 and a few month later went to work at a technology company as a peon grunt. I stuck with it, and after 10 years of hard work and numerous promotions within the company, I finally worked myself up to a peon, first-class. Unfortunately, in this role of peon, first-class, my duties included the glamorous role of production support. I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time that I spent as a production support person, but it was really taxing. A typical week would have the on-call contact logging somewhere between 30-60 calls off-hours. As I'm sure you can imagine, this would reek havoc with a persons sleeping patterns and general life enjoyment. I would spend many-a-night tapping away at the computer while the rest of the house slept peacefully.

So naturally, running while on-call usually took a backseat. It would be real tough to drag myself out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to go for a run when I spent half the night on the computer working on issues. Normally, I could count on a 4AM call to come through, so sometimes I would just stay awake and go running, but none of this was ideal. There was more than one occasion where I would take a call while on the run (yes, I had to take the on-call phone with me while I was out for a run) and the person on the other line would ask if everything was OK. Apparently, these people aren't used to heavy breathing from their support person.

Running at lunch was always an option, but due to the absolute chaos that was my typical workday, you could never really count on being able to break away for an hour during the day. There were fires breaking out all over the place on a regular basis. This is what happens when you are supporting "technology" that was written in the late 80's-early 90's and is advertised as cutting edge stuff. A lot of behind the scenes duct tape to keep everything moving. Unfortunately, the role of the duct tape usually fell to the support people.

So on-call weeks were typically just survival. It wasn't too bad usually, but then beginning in about January of last year, people started to leave the company. First one from our team of five took the plunge. Then another one did. Suddenly, instead of being on-call once every 5 weeks, it was once every 4 weeks. Then once every 3 weeks. And then there was just two of us..and he was threatening to leave too. One day after a particularly bad morning, I was able to steal out for an afternoon run. When I came back my light was blinking on the answering machine. I checked the message, and low and behold, the one interview that I actually went on had called me back. They offered me the job. More money, less headaches, a free gym membership, a pop machine that only cost a quarter. Where do I sign?

Actually, it was a tough decision for me to make at the time. I had to leave the only real job I ever had for the complete unknown. Thankfully, I did leave. It was probably one of the better decisions I've ever made. While my current job certainly isn't glamorous or really very exciting, it's predictable and when I leave the office, I leave the office. In general, no take-home work, no overtime, and most importantly, no production support. So now, I can plan out a week ahead of time and not have to worry about work getting in the way. It just wasn't possible before. I often wonder if I would be able to do what I am currently doing running-wise, if I was still at the old place. The answer is a definitive no. While I didn't realize it at the time, my decision to leave that company affected almost every area of my life…in a positive way. Most importantly I'm a better husband and a better father because of the switch. I can actually come home at 5 now and enjoy my family without worrying about work. I'm also a better runner because of it. An added bonus, but one that I'm liking.

People often ask me how I fit in all the running that I do with work and family life. The key to it is to figure out a routine and stick with it. If it means getting up early, do it. If it means running at lunch, do it. If it means, waiting until the kids are in bed, do it. It may not be pleasant at first, but the body is a pretty amazing thing. It can adapt to pretty much anything if you give it enough time. The key is to be consistent. I would guess that the one thing that spells doom for a lot of people fitness plans is that they just kind of go into thinking, I'll just fit in the (insert sport here), whenever I can. With that line of thinking, usually the first thing to get chopped when time gets tight, is the excercise.

Today I did 2 runs of 9 miles each. The morning run was done at a relaxed pace. I was thinking of doing some tempo work during this run, but the legs just weren't really responding, so I decided to save whatever I had in them and try it again at lunch. At lunch I did 7 of the 9 miles at marathon pace (6 min/mile). It was pretty painful. The legs still didn't want to go, but I kind of forced them into it. There was probably about 3 miles of cruising, and 4 miles of "how much longer do I have to do this?" I finished, which I guess is the key.

Eye on the Prize

Coming off my 5K PR from a couple of days ago, I must admit that the temptation is too take a couple of weeks and really focus on that distance and try and get that PR even lower. I really only have one more 5K scheduled for the rest of the year, and it's next weekend, so I could probably justify doing some short fast track sessions between now and then to get the pistons really firing. But, I know that would work against my longterm goal, and that has to be the focus. My 5K time right now predicts a marathon time right around 2:40, so I still have a lot of work to do to get that down to 2:36 which is what I'm shooting for. I can't really afford to get caught up too much in short-term goals. Funny that Mike's comments from a few days ago echo this mentality almost exactly. It's good to have people watching your back.

I guess it all comes back to the whole anareobic vs. aerobic workouts and how the two really don't mix. I don’t pretend to understand it, but I know that people much smarter than me say that going anaerobic too early in the training cycle isn't good. I'm not gonna argue.

I guess what I find most amazing about the race from a couple of days ago is that I took 28 seconds off of my 5K PR on nothing but mileage and a tempo runs. I've done one session of mile repeats a few weeks ago, and other than that, I never really ran anything faster than about 5:40 in a workout. Luckily, the body didn't forget to go when it had to.

Did 17 miles this morning at about the standard 7 minute pace. No real residual effects from the hard race effort on Tuesday, so that's good. For some reason, I had the Salerno Butter Cookie jingle stuck in my head for most of the run today. I don't really know why. I haven't had a Salerno Butter Cookie in a very long time, and I haven't heard the commercial in an even longer time. After singing it in my head for about an hour and a half, I started to realize that the kid in the commercial would not be getting a cookie in our house if he asked like that. No please, no thank-you. Jeez.

The Procrastinator

I'm a creature of habit. I usually have my best weeks of training when I'm working the full five days of work. When the Holidays roll around, or I just have a day off here or there, it usually spells trouble for my running. I'll sit in bed and talk myself out of running in the morning, reasoning that I have all day to do it. Then I'll eat breakfast, play with the kids, putz around here and there. Next thing I know, half the day is gone and I don't feel like running. I need to be in my rhythm. Wake up at 5:30, get in the miles, get into work, run at lunch if I need to, get home and relax with the family. Without that structure, I'm lost.

I often wonder what would have happened had I trained like I am right now when I was 25 years old. The problem with that line of thinking is that it was darned near impossible for me to train like I am right now when I was 25. It's just the way that I'm wired. I'm a bit of a procrastinator. Tell me something needs to be done by the end of the month, and I sit on it until, well, the end of the month. Christmas Shopping? That's what Christmas Eve was made for. If you ever need to find me before a race, the best place to look would probably be at the race day registration table. Yep, I'm a procrastinator, which is usually not the best of qualities to have, but it's working for me now.

I think most people agree that generally a distance runner can improve into his mid-30's. With me celebrating my 33rd birthday a few weeks ago, I would say that puts me squarely into that range, where I don't have a whole lot of time left. It's time to move. It's time to find out how good I can be. It's what driving me these days. It's working for me.

All of which brings me back to this week. I can deal with a race on Saturday or Sunday. I usually train hard right up until Thursday or Friday, take a relatively easy day the day before and then race. I'm used to that. That fits into my routine. But a Tuesday race? I can honestly say that I haven't run a Tuesday race since, well, ever. It's kind of throwing off my week. With a measely 7 on Monday, 10 yesterday, and another 10 today, it's getting to the point, where I may just have to write the week off and break my string of 100 mile weeks at 4. But I'm not willing to admit defeat quite yet. With a couple of solid days here to close out the work week there are still some scenarios where I could get the mileage in. If not, I know it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. It's just this 100 mile week thing, it's kind of habit I've been enjoying, and one that I'd rather not break.

Run for Freedom

Despite the melodramatic name for this race, it is actually a fairly low-key race run in my hometown that is about a mile from my house. Last year, I ran this race and was able to break 17 minutes for the first time in my life and place 3rd overall in the race. This year, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I told my wife to make sure that if she wanted to see me finish, she shouldn't get there any later than 8:16:20 CST. So I guess I did have a goal.

I did about 2 miles warm-up prior to the race, and to be honest, I didn't feel all that great. I assumed it was just normal raceday nervousness. For some reason, I turn into a hypocondriac on raceday. Every stomach grumble is the flu and every sore muscle is a strain or a tear. By the time the gun went off, I was fairly certain that despite all my medical problems, I would be fine to run. I noticed before the race that they had the course record up, which just so happened to be the winning time from last year, since this is only the second year of the race. 16:41. I wasn't sure if I would own the course record after the race, but I did know that the winner would have to run faster than that this to win year.

It was extremely humid at the start of the race but luckily it was probably only in the 70's so while the weather wasn't ideal, it wasn't too bad either. The gun went off and we were off. It was me and a few other guys at the start, and by about the half-mile mark, I took the lead. I could feel a few other guys on my shoulder, but they never really tried to take the lead from me. I came through the first mile around 5:12.

I started feeling it a little bit during the second mile, but at no point during the race did my legs start to lock up. I have run a 4 and a 5 mile race so far this year, and this was the first time all year, that I've felt like my speed could actually somewhat match my endurance. In the past race, I felt strong throughout the entire race, but my legs just couldn't move fast enough. This time, I really felt like my legs were moving.

I pretty much owned the lead for the entire race. I missed the split at mile 2 (I think the lady was having a hard time figuring out how to read her digital watch). I came through mile 3 in 15:56 and pushed to the finish for a 16:26 final time. A 28 second PR.

This race did give me some confidence that I'm on the right track. I felt like my speed has improved a lot in the past month or so and my strength is at an all time high. I did about 5 miles after the race in total to bring the total for the day up to 10. Just in case I was getting a little too cocky after the race, I was forced to run the mile to my house after the race with the bouquet of flowers that went to the winner. They know how to keep a man humble.