Dialing In

I'll admit I'm somewhat of a hack when it comes to training. I'm afraid if you come hear to learn about the finer points of training, you will leave a little disapointed. I mean I understand what I'm supposed to be doing and all the different types of runs that make up a total marathon plan, but I am somewhat ignorant as to what exactly is classified as a VO2 max workout and what is an Lactate Threshold workout. I guess my basic philosophy is that if you run enough, and try and do enough variety so that you are running different speeds on different days, you will most likely be OK. Not exactly scientific, but it allows me some flexibility in my training and if I just don't feel like going to the track to bust out mile repeats, well, a tempo run will work and while they probably don't work the same systems, I'm OK with that.

As a matter of fact, I'm thinking there is some merit to the idea that there should only be two sorts of workout breakdowns for marathon runners: Marathon pace or faster and everything else. I understand that there is some value to working your anaroebic system prior to a marathon(although I'm not entirely sure how you go about doing it), but since the marathon is 90 some percent aerobic, I wonder if that time wouldn't be better served working on something else. I also understand that there are a lot of coaches and runners much smarter and faster than me who do advocate a period of anaroebic work, so I'm sure there is some merit to the whole thing. However, for me, this time around, I'm sticking with aerobic conditioning all the way.

Having said all that, this week is about dialing into marathon pace. On Tuesday, I did a mid-morning run of 8 miles with the middle 4 at marathon pace. To be honest, it didn’t feel good at all. It was done on a treadmill, so I'm sure that didn't help, but it was still pretty discouraging. Then about five hours later, the opportunity arose to do a 20 miler out to my parents house. I jumped on it and did the first 15 miles at a 7 minute pace and then managed to do the last 5 at a 6 minute pace. While I did have a little bit of trouble dialing into that marathon pace after close to two hours of steady 7 minute paced running, once I found that second gear, I was able to maintain it for the 5 miles.

Today was an 11 mile run with 8 mile at marathon pace or faster. I give myself a little leeway on this one since it's done on the lakefront and the wind really dictates your speed to a certain extent. I did this same exact run last Thursday and was able to average 5:54 for the 8 miles. However, that run was done with a tailwind for the first four miles and then a headwind for the last four miles. This week, that scenario was reversed, so I had the headwind for the first four, but the wind was at my back on the way home. This definitely lends itself to faster times and today was no exception. I did the 8 miles in 46:04 for a pace of 5:45 for the 8 miles. I remember a few short months ago, struggling to do a 4 mile tempo run at this same pace. What was most encouraging about the run was that in the second half, I was very relaxed. In the past, I would tend to tense up at the end of tempo runs, thinking I really had to bear down and work hard to maintain pace. At this point, I'm feeling comfortable with the 5:45 and I'm confident that I can relax and still maintain pace at that speed. Hopefully, on marathon day, with an extra 15 second cushion, things will feel equally comfortable.

Marathon Pace

I'll admit that I'm still a little intimidated when I say that my goal marathon pace is 6 minute miles. I guess it's just kind of ingrained in my head that 6 min/miles is fast. I remember as recent as just over two years ago running a 5K with the goal of averaging a 6 minute pace. Now I want to run that same pace for for 23 additional miles. Yeah, it's a little intimidating, but it can be done. Actually the half-marathon that I ran a few weeks ago, predicts a 2:37:30 marathon which would be right at 6:00, so technically, I guess, I should be saying that it will be done, not it can be done. You know…confidence and all that jazz. Whatever, we'll know soon enough I guess.

The reason I bring all this up was that today I wanted to spend some good time at marathon pace. The goal was to do 11 miles total, with 8 miles at 6 minute pace and to finish feeling strong. I've done 8 miles at marathon pace before, but usually by the end of it, I'm pretty wiped out. I didn't want that to happen today. I headed out at a comfortable pace and I was feeling good. I actually was averaging a 5:48 pace for the first half, but that was most likely due to a good wind at my back for the first four miles. The real test came at the turnaround point, were I had to head back into the wind for four miles on somewhat tired legs. I hit the turnaroud in 23:15 and then really had to increase the effort with the wind in my face. I knew the pace was a little too fast in the beginning so the main goal now was just to keep each half-mile split under the magical 3:00 minute mark.

Actually the second half went suprisingly good. There were a few miles in there where I was in the upper 5:50's, but every mile was under a 6 minute pace and I did finish feeling strong. The second half of the run was definitely done at a higher effort than the first part of the run, but I think that had more to do with the wind than anything. In the few sections of the lakefront path where I was shielded from the wind, I was able to smooth everything out and my breathing became much less labored, which was encouraging. I did the second half of the run in 23:37 for an average of 5:54 per mile. Overall, the pace was 5:51 for the 8 miles, which was probably a little too fast for what I wanted to accomplish today, but with the wind, I think it was OK. Most importantly, I felt good at the end. There was no strain to keep the pace below 6. With fresh legs from the taper, hopefully, things will work on October 22nd.

Recovery Complete

This really isn't a good time to be come down with a case of sore muscles. With less than 4 weeks of real training time before the taper for the Chicago Marathon, time is getting scarce. I guess it's just natural, no matter how long you've been working towards a big race to feel like you need just a little more time to get everything together.

In reality, all of the training I have done this year, starting way back in January, has been done with an eye towards October 22nd. To think that a few more weeks would really do me any good is probably crazy-talk. While I feel like I have made great strides this year, which will hopefully result in a fast marathon, I think there are still a lot of things I can improve on. However, now probably isn't the time to dwell on that. I will do a thorough post-mortem sometime in late October. Right now is the time to focus on what I can do in the next 3+ weeks to make sure I peak for my goal race.

As I mentioned in my post on Monday, I was extremely sore all day Sunday and Monday. While I did manage to get out for 8 miles on Monday, it hurt and other than getting some blood flow to the legs, I'm not sure the run did a lot of good. Tuesday I had a 17 miler scheduled, but going to bed on Monday night, I wasn't sure if that was going to happen. My legs were still heavy late into Monday evening. However, when I woke in the middle of the night on Monday, for one of my standard midnight drinks of waters, my legs felt much better. At that point, I pretty much decided that I was going to give the 17 miles a go.

Well, I wish I could say that Tuesday's 17 was easy and effortless. It certainly wasn't that, but it also wasn't the worst 17 miler I've done this year. I was able to average under 7 min/miles for the run, and felt stronger during the second half of the run than I did for the first half of the run. More importantly, in the hours that followed the run, I seemed to continue to recover from the weekend's pounding. I was afraid that with a longer run like this, I would take a step back and go right back to having dead legs. That didn't happen.

Today called for another 10 miles. I wanted to do it early in the morning, but when I woke up at 5AM, I was greeted with a steady downpour and thunder. I decided to roll over and go back to sleep, thus pushing the run out to lunchtime. At lunch I did manage to get out for the run. I started the run heading directly into the wind and it made and sort of fast running nearly impossible. However, once I turned around and had the wind at my back, I was able to work the pace down to a 6:45 overall average. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but a little better.

So I think that I am now almost fully recovered from the race on Saturday. All things considered, I am pleased with how I was able to jump right back into training. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's been a long time coming.

Dances With Dirt

Wow. What a weekend. As I elluded to on Thursday, this past weekend I headed out to Southwest Michigan for Dances with Dirt, which is a 5 team 60 mile relay race over the hills, through the streams, and in the mud. Our team is usually pretty competitive and we were hoping for more of the same this weekend. Unfortunately, I made sure pretty early on that that wasn't going to happen.

My legs for the relay race were legs 2, 7, & 15, with the thinking that we put our two fastest runners first and second to try and get out ahead of the pack so we could focus on running and not navigating bodies for the rest of the day. Good theory, right? Not today. Our first runner Christian, took off on leg1 and was running in 12th place(there are about 350 teams in the race), but then he followed some people off course and he got a lost for about 10-15 minutes. That's part of DWD. You're following ribbons the whole way, and it's very easy to go off-course. He eventually figured it out and tagged off to me for leg 2. I took off like a bat out of hell and was just focusing on passing as many people as I could in the early miles of the 6.2 mile leg. I knew eventually we'd hit a single track path and passing would become much more difficult so it was important to run hard early. Unfortunately, while I was busy passing people, I failed to follow rule #1 of Dances with Dirt….Never blindly follow the pack.

Somehow, we got veered off track and would up on leg 15 instead of leg 2. Too compound the mistake, leg 15 was also marked with white ribbons so we had no idea we were going the wrong way, until we came up on the exchange point for leg 14 (we basically ran leg 15 backwards). At this point, there were probably 75 people, all confused and mulling about at the exchange point, trying to figure out what to do. I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed, so I just turned around and took off back from where I came. I reran the entire leg 15 (a 4.1 mile leg), and then started the course over. This time, I rather easily found the correct trail that I was supposed to be on.

So at this point, I was already on mile 10, of what was supposed to be a 6.2 mile leg (I had also gotten lost running leg 15 backwards which cost me another 2 miles). I was pretty beat, but what could I possibly do, but just keep running. I have no idea of pace or anything, but I know that I had nothing left when I finally came to the exchange for leg 3. The team acted like they were mostly concerned for my safety and all that, but I'll admit, I was deeply disappointed. Here we were, two legs into what was supposed to be a competitive day for us, and we were already done. It's kind of easy to deal with something like that when you only let yourself down, but when you have 4 other runners counting on you, it really does suck.

The rest of the team continued to run hard, and I was due up to run leg 7 next. Leg 7 was probably my toughest run of the day as it was 5 miles in length, and had some serious mud and water crossing to deal with. I wasn't sure what I had left after running 16 miles on leg 2, but once I took off and the legs started moving again, things seemed to fall into place pretty good. I had a blast on this leg. The last time I ran this leg was two years ago, and I had missed a turn and lost about 15 minutes. This year, I ran the leg about as good as I could have possibly ran, and passed many many runners. The leg starts with about 3 miles on a single track path and then you make the turn and go through about a mile of muck, water, and mud. I came out of it with mud up to my waste and all over my arms, from trying crawl out of the mudpits. After you escape from the mud section, you have about another mile on a nice limestone path. I tried to really push it on this section, but as soon as I started to find a rhythm, I was greeted with a nasty calf cramp. I tried to run through it, but it was pretty crippling. I stopped and tried to massage it, but all I could feel was a rock hard ball in my calf. Massaging it made it worse. So I continued to run and actually was able to keep a pretty good pace as I ran through it. It eventually loosened up and I was able to finish the leg.

After running a good hard leg like this, I felt a lot better. Our team was slowly climbing back into the middle of the pack and most importantly, we were having fun. My last leg was leg 15, the anchor leg. I expected this leg to be a triumphant victory lap for our team, but unfortunately, because of my screw-up, it turned into just another leg. I decided that I wanted to make myself hurt on this leg and I was hoping to average a 6 minute pace for the hilly 4.1 miles. I've run this leg a few times and my fastest average pace for it was 6:53. While I wasn't able to swing 6 minute this time around, I was able to be in the 6:20-6:30 range. I can't be more specific than that, because I forgot to hit my watch right when I took off. My time was 25:30 for the 4.1 mile jaunt, plus about 30-60 seconds when I forgot to hit the watch. Having run leg 15 twice earlier in the day, I knew it like the back of my hand this time around. I guess that was advantage, although, I certainly wasn't thinking that way while I was out there. At this point, my entire body was numb and I was running on fumes, but I also felt like I could run forever. I was at the point of complete exhaustion, but I was also at the point, where my legs couldn't run fast enough to really make me hurt.

So for the day, I ran 25 miles, most of them hard, and had mostly fun doing it. I'm so proud of the way that our team battled back from my screw-up to finish respectable. They picked me up when I needed it and I hope to return the favor next year. For any of you who have never done a team relay, let me just say that you should try it. There is nothing that can re-energize your spirit for running like battling with other runners for a day. I had an absolute blast.

Yesterday, I tried to run an easy 5 miler on the treadmill while the kids were sleeping and I couldn't even make it past a quarter mile. My legs were absolutely shot. It felt like someone was wacking my quads with a hammer every time my foot hit the ground. Normally after every DWD I can expect to be pretty sore for the week that follows..similiar to a marathon. This time around, I was thinking that since I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, I should be able to recover quickly. Of course that was assuming I would be running 15 miles, not 25. It will be interesting to see how long the soreness drags on. I did manage 8 miles this morning, but again, it hurt. Not a bad hurt though. A good hurt. The kind of hurt that you only get when you push yourself to limit, and survive.

Dances with Dirt

This weekend after labor day is the day that I look forward to most every year from a running point of view. That is the weekend that Dances with Dirt falls on every year and it is my favorite race of all time. It is a 5 person, 60 mile relay race through some of the toughest off-road trails that you've ever seen. If you read through the some of the leg descriptions you'll get a feel for what it's like. The picture above was taken after I finished one of the tougher legs of the race, affectionately called, "This Sucks." And it did suck.

That one leg pretty much summed up what DWD is all about. It is about 5 miles in length, if you stay on course. I didn't that year, so for me, it was about a 6.5 mile run. The first 3 miles of it are pretty decent trail running. Then you get into the suck part. There is about a mile stretch where you run through mud pits, streams, and just general muck until your legs are numb. At one point, I got stuck waste deep in mud and had to wait for someone else to come by to pull me out. So of course this year, I did what any sane person would do. Demanded that I get to run that leg again. You just don't get to have fun like that too often.

So with my epiphany yesterday, concerning the lack of speedwork in my training lately, I decided today was a good day to actually try and rectify the situation. I went out to Northerly Island here in Chicago and did 3 X 1.12 miles. Yeah, I know that's a bit of an odd distance, but that's what one loop around the Island is, so I went with it. My splits for each of the runs were 5:56, 6:00, and 5:59, which works out somewhere in the 5:20 area for a regular mile. I took about 2 minutes of a slow jog between the hard efforts and did 10 miles in total for the day.

This was actually a very tough workout for me. For whatever reason, I was sore going into the workout. I mentioned yesterday that I never really got sore from the race on Monday, but then it hit me today…and I still don't even think it was from the race. I think the soreness was from the strides I did yesterday. Is that sick? Getting sore from 10 strides? If that doesn't speak volumes for what I need to work on in the last few weeks before Chicago, I don't know what does. Yes, it's time to start working on the fast stuff.

Time to Sharpen

The last two days have pretty much confirmed that I took it way too easy on Monday. I woke up on Tuesday morning and felt absolutely no soreness from the race. I was planning on taking the morning off as a precaution, so at lunch I went out and did 10 miles and felt fine the entire time. Today was another easy day with 10 in the morning and 7 in the afternoon.

In doing some post-mortem on the race, I went back and looked at my training over the past month. The one thing that really jumped out at me, as Mike (or StarCrunch as he apparently wants to be referred to nowadays) eluded to in yesterday's comments, is that lately I pretty much stopped doing the faster than tempo pace stuff altogether. Part of that is because all my training has been so inconsistent lately, part of it has been because my knee still is bothering me when I go really fast, and part of it is just plain laziness.

So this afternoon, as part of my 7 mile run, I decided to try some strides to see how it felt. Wow. It was pretty much the most unnatural, awkward feeling thing I have had in a long time. I was actually scared that there might be someone around watching me, because everything felt out of synch and slow. I mean it was like I forgot how to run fast. Now normally, I feel this way for about half of the first stride and then things start to smooth out, but this time, the feeling lasted pretty much the whole time. I've never been a big believer in the value of strides. I always thought there was more value in just running an extra mile as opposed to stopping and doing striders. However, after doing them fairly regularly this year, and I must say, I have slowly changed my attitude. Maybe it's mental, but I do seem to run better when they are part of my regular routine.

Now, I'm not saying that I would have nailed my goal on Monday if I'd have just kept up on my striders over the past month. However, what you get on race day is a mixture of a lot of different ingredients. I think I got the base and the endurance stuff down pretty good right now. Now I need to work on sharpening. I want to peek in 6 weeks, so now is the time to start hinting to my body that the time is near. Today's strides were just a little wake-up call. With some longer more targeted fast stuff over the next few weeks, hopefully, things will get faster from here.

Park Forest Scenic 10

Have you ever had a race that for no good reason, you just don't seem to feel comfortable at? I do, and it's name is the Park Forest Scenic 10. Now, I can't really say anything bad about the race. It's one of the best run races I've ever taken part in. The community really gets up for the race and the course is one of the nicer ones that I've run on. It's slightly hilly, but as evidenced by all the elite times at the race, it is a fast course. I've only run it twice so far, so the sample size is fairly limited, but both years that I've run it, I've walked away shaking my head at my performance.

Last year, I was definitely not as fit as I am this year. I was hoping for a sub 58 minute time, but instead came in at 59:35. I remember the whole time that I was running last year, that I wasn't particulary tired, I just couldn't seem to get moving. I finished the race feeling winded, but not wiped out like I usually do. This year, almost the same thing happened. I was hoping to finish sub 56 minutes, but instead came in at 57:35. I could tell by looking at my splits at each mile that I wasn't moving fast enough to reach any of my goals for the race, but once again, there was nothing I could do about it. I just couldn't move any faster. I have no idea why.

In the end, it was a 2 minute PR for the 10 mile distance, so I can't be completely upset about it, but I am left puzzled by the whole thing. It is just lack of concetration and/or toughness? Shouldn’t I be able to will myself to run at goal pace, even if my body doesn't want to cooperate? I think I should. If I can take any positive from the race, it's just the fact that I am disapointed with a 5:45 pace for 10 miles. Even as late as last year, I would have been thrilled with such a time. I have come a long way in the past year, but I have still have some work to do. Hopefully this weekend less than stellar performance will motivate me to keep working hard for my ultimate goal in late October.

On a brighter note, my daughter Chloe took part in her first race yesterday. She toed the line with the other 3 year olds and held her own in the 1/8th of a mile distance. She got a t-shirt and a medal for her efforts and her post-race feelings were that of a seasoned runner. Immediately after the race, she wanted to know where the candy was (apparently I told her about the post-race goodies at races). Then I asked her if she had fun. She said she didn't ever want to race again. I figured it was just the fatigue talking. Sure enough, once I got home, she changed her tune and began making plans for her "next wace."

Turning a Corner?

I am trying hard to keep this thing updated. Really I am, but with everything else going on right now, this is the one thing that I'm slacking on. Well, actually the blog and the pool in my backyard are the two things I'm slacking on right now. The pool isn't exactly what I would call "swimmable" right now. Alright, onto the running...

Last Saturday we went to Michigan to stay in a cabin as part of my nieces 12th birthday celebration. On Friday night, a few hours before I was leaving to go up there, I found out there was a 5K out there the next day. Never one to skip a chance to run a race if the opportunity arises, I figured I would do it. I didn't have much to go on except for the race name, which was called "Red Bud Challenge Extreme 5K." Hmmm...sounds like it could be a fun one, but really. How extreme could a race be that it's in the middle of nowhere and has a total of 80 runners?

The answer: very extreme. The race started out on the road and we immediately headed straight up a pretty good sized hill. Once we got to the top of that we hung a left and headed into the woods. That's when the fun started. I came through the first mile in 5:23 and it was just me and one other guy, whom I had picked out before the race as someone to be reckoned with. I think he was a little surprised to see someone running with him. Once in the woods we headed through streams, up and down hills via some switchbacks, and climbed over and under fallen trees. It was a ton of fun, but it was tough running. At one point, my shoe came off in one of the many mudpits, and I had to go back and get it. Then, just as we were coming out of the woods (it was still just me and the local fast guy), one of the volunteers tells us, the leader is about 50 seconds ahead of you. Huh? Did you say the leader? No ma'am, we're the leaders.

Sure enough once we got out of the woods, we hit a straight away on the road, and there was another guy out ahead of us. He certainly never passed us, but somehow he was ahead of us. We tried to catch him and we did make up about 30 seconds in the last half-mile, but he finished ahead us. The local guy beat me too as my legs were just toast once I hit the road. After the race, we questioned the guy but he wasn't budging in his stance that he didn't cut the course. He obviously did, but we dropped it and accepted our 2nd and 3rd place trophies with pride. I later found out that local fast guy is a 2:27 marathoner who is trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials in 2008. It kind of took the sting out of getting outkicked by him a little...although that other guy finishing ahead of me really does kind of bug me. Oh well. Oh yeah, after that blazing 5:23 opening mile, I came in with a finishing time of 20:57. And you know what? I didn't even die at the end. The course was just that tough...or extreme I guess.

This week has been good quality training, but I am still having a hard time getting the volume up to where it should be. While I could potentially bust my butt over the week to hit 100 miles for the week, with a 10 mile race scheduled for Monday, I don't think I want to do that. I will probably just take it easy and try and really nail the race on Monday. I did some marathon pace work on Tuesday, and a tempo run on Thursday, and then an 18 miler this morning.

Since my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on August 1st, my training has been sporadic at best. It just doesn't hold the same importance to me right now that it once did. However, I also know I'm in the best shape of my life right now, so I owe it to myself to at least finish the training and try and run my best at the Chicago Marathon. My mom has always been my biggest supporter, so I know she is rooting for me too. However, with the initial shock of the news from my mom and then a nasty cold that followed that, the quality of my running really took a hit in August. I finished the month with a total of 292 miles, which is my lowest monthly total since February. If I can recover from this month and ramp back up the training, I don't think this will matter much, but I need to refocus on it now.

The tempo run yesterday and today's longrun were both very encouraging. The tempo run consisted of 4 miles at a 5:44 overall pace, with the first two miles in 11:40 and the last two miles in 11:16. I finished feeling strong and probably could have pushed it a little further if I wanted to. Today's longrun was equally easy. When I got into work I actually did a google map on the route because I couldn't believe that it was really an 18 mile run. I figured it must have been short. It wasn't, (if anything it was a little long) so I'll take it.

Alright, now that I have been added to Mike's 2:30 chaser list, I guess the pressure is really on. I promise to update this thing more frequently.