Almost There

Recovery seems to be almost complete from the marathon with the exception of the continuing nagging of my right hip. I'm not sure what to make of it really. It doesn't seem to be anything structural, it's more of just a nagging pain in my hip/butt area. Actually I don't even know if I want to call it a pain. It's really more of just a general feeling of weakness in the area. My gut tells me that I can run through this and as I continue to add mileage it will eventually dull and become a non-issue. That's the way these things usually work with me. However, I'll continue to monitor (and probably wine about it) over the next few days to see if it worsens at all.

Today was a nice 16 miler on the Chicago Lakefront. I tried not to look at my pace too much during the run as I just wanted to run by feel, but when I got to the turn-around point and saw it was hovering around 6:30, I knew I was in for a good day. I ran comfortably for the remainder of the run and finished in 6:23 average. The hip (I refuse to say I have a butt injury) was manageable and the legs and general breathing felt great. For the first time since the marathon, I actually felt like a runner again. Nice.

Lots of Recovery

Last week was filled with lots of recovery. I got out the door on most days and things started to slowly feel better as the week wore on. I'm not sure why, but after my last two marathons I have felt completely beat up. That's not to say that after other marathons I felt great, but the last two have been noticably worse. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it probably has to do with the shift to wearing racing flats. The legs just take a lot more pounding than they do with the trainers that I have worn in past marathons. I guess that's the price you pay for ensuring that the only thing that will slow you down is your own poor pacing/fueling decisions/incomplete training/etc.

Today I decided that I wanted to do something that would be up-tempo to see how everything responded so I set out on some quarters. The plan was to do them until I got tired which I was hoping would be at least 12, but after 8 I started feeling that old marathon fatigue starting to creep back into my body and decided to call it quits right there. There will be time to tough out workouts, but this week doesn't seem like the time to do it. I did manage to keep the average pace for the eight 400s right at 75 seconds each with about a 55 second rest interval between each hard effort. It turned out to be a nice little workout. Hopefully this will be the springboard that gets me back into training.

EC Trail Marathon

I've always had a thing for 6 minute miles. When I was a freshman in high school, I remember thinking it was a big accomplishment when I ran my first sub 6 minute mile. Then sophomore year, the goal became to run 3 miles at a 6 minute per mile pace. Through the years, the distances have changed, but the goal has always remained pretty much the same…get under 6 minute miles. Sometimes that goal seemed ridiculous. If you'd have asked me 4 years ago if I thought I could run a marathon in sub 6, I'd have laughed at you. Other times it seemed attainable, but it was always out there, motivating me. For the most part, I've accomplished the goal with PRs well under 6 at most distances, but the one distance that had eluded me so far was the marathon with a best of 6:02 per mile. Finally, on Sunday I was able to reach that goal.

The EC Trail Marathon is a (very) small marathon that is run in northwest suburbs of Chicago. The normal route for the race is to do about a 5 mile loop on an asphalt running path, then head out onto a limestone path for a 10.5 mile out and back course. The course is flat and the limestone is pretty forgiving on the legs. It's a nice low key spring marathon. However, this year, due to some flooding on the path, they changed the course so that we would do two identical 13.1 mile loops, with about 2/3rds of it being on the road.

Going into the race I felt pretty good. I didn't do a full taper going into the marathon, but I did cut back my miles on race week which left me feeling pretty fresh. I was a little concerned about some lingering soreness in my right hip and left hamstring, but it has been nothing that stopped me from training, so I was hoping both things would hold out during the race. The hamstring was a complete a non-issue during the race. The hip let me know it wasn't thrilled with me a few times, but it eventually realized that it would less painful for all of us if it just fell in line.

Race morning was perfect weather with temps in the lowers 50's and clear skies. There was a little wind, but for the most part it was a pretty calm day. After Chicago last year, I really couldn’t ask for anything better. The gun went off and so was I. I knew going in that this would most likely be a solo effort as there just aren't a lot of people in this race, and it became pretty clear that it was gonna be just me staring at the back of a bike for 2 and half hours. As usual, those first few miles passed by way too fast as I finished that first 5 mile loop in 29:02. At that point I tried hard to just settle into a nice 6 minute pace and I did finally find a nice little groove.

After the initial 5 mile loop, we headed out on the roads and I was a little taken aback by the fact that these were not the pancake roads that this flatlander is used to. Now don't get me wrong. These weren't huge mountains or anything, it just wasn't what I was expecting. I guess you could call them gently rolling. We did a 6 mile out and back on the road and then headed back to the trail for a short 2 mile out and back on the limestone path. The limestone path was a nice break during the race and gave the legs a little bit of a breather.

I came through the half way point right around 1:17:30 and things seemed to be on track for a PR, if I could just not blow up. Mentally I felt like this course was nice because it was easy to break the run up into nice manageable chunks. There was the 5 mile loop, the 6 mile road out and back, and the 2 mile trail out and back. Then you do it again. Once I hit the second 5 mile loop, I was feeling pretty confident that if I could just make it out of there feeling decent, I would be through 18 miles and be in good shape. Some doubts started to creep in during this loop, but nothing too bad. It was also right around this point that I started to pass half marathoners who had started a half hour after us. They were very supportive and it was nice to have people cheering you on at this point in the race.

Once I hit 20 miles, I was feeling pretty confident that today was going to be a PR day, but staying focused was becoming more and more difficult. I was passing half marathoners all over the place and it was kind of easy to let your pace slip and still feel like you're moving fast because I was passing slower runners. I tried to stay focused and for the most part succeeded, although my splits did slip a bit over the last few miles. While I'd love to blame that on lack of concentration, it probably had more to do with fatigue.

The end of the race is a nice long downhill section that really lets you turn it on and finish looking good. When I came through the finish chute the timing was still set to the half-marathon time, so I wasn't sure of my official time, but I was later informed it was 2:36:13….a 2 minute 23 second PR. I was happy…or maybe relieved. I feel like I had a marathon PR for a while now, but it has been about and a year half since I broke 2:40 for the distance. I was hoping that eventually training and opportunity would cross paths and I would improve my marathon time eventually, but at 34 years old, I also realize nothing is a given. For a day, it was nice to run 26.2 miles faster than I ever have before. Oh yeah, and it was nice to look at my Garmin afterwards and see avg pace…5:57.

Here are the splits...


Mile Pace
1 5:44
2 5:41
3 5:48
4 5:52
5 5:58
6 6:03
7 6:03
8 5:58
9 6:02
10 5:52
11 5:49
12 6:02
13 5:59
14 5:52
15 5:56
16 5:58
17 6:00
18 6:00
19 5:59
20 6:02
21 6:09
22 6:11
23 6:01
24 6:08
25 6:11
26 6:07
26.2 5:53

A New PR...

More to come later (when I have access to my Garmin), but finally broke the 6 minute/mile barrier in the marathon this weekend with a 2:36:13. Was fairly comfortable the entire way, but am really sore this morning.

I'll write up a full report tomorrow.

Spring Training?

So far this winter I've been putting in some pretty good training, although the mileage has consistently been a little light. I've had several excuses for that. First it's been a brutal winter in Chicago, with it either snowing or absolutely freezing for what seems like every day since January. Secondly, my home treadmill broke in early January and getting a warranty repair on it has been, well, slow. Finally, baby Jack just hasn't been sleeping that great at night, so that little voice in my head has won the internal battle more than a few times when it was time to wake up for the run at 5AM.

Now, that's not to say my mileage has been horrible. For the most part, I've been between 70 and 85 miles every week this year. The thing that has been lacking are those easy supplemental runs that boost your weekly mileage and, in my opinion, add strength to your training. So finally this week, the perfect storm arrived. Jack started sleeping through the night late last week. The weather finally broke and temps started consistently hitting 40's and 50's pretty much every day. Finally, my new treadmill arrived on Tuesday. No more excuses.

So with no fall back, I really had no choice but to do the runs. And I did. Finally. The week went down like this:

Mon: 15 miles @ 6:40 Pace. This was a tough run as it came just 24 hours after the Shamrock Shuffle 8K. This is the second time this year I've done a 15 miler the day after a race. While the run itself isn't that much fun, it is nice to get it out of the way and get back to recovering. I know. That makes no sense.
TuesAM: 9 Miles @ 6:48 pace
TuesPM: 6 Slow Miles
WedAM: 11 miles w/ 8 @ 5:50 pace I did this same exact run last week and averaged a comfortable 5:48 pace. This week was equally comfortable, but I didn't have the advantage of my Garmin to dictate my pace to me. The battery died out around mile 1 so I ran the next 7 miles blindly (how did they EVER do that in the olden days?). Then right when I was finishing up, I turned the Garmin back on and started back up the timing and then stopped it, hoping I would have a run start and finish time registered. I could then calculate my own pace. And hey…it actually worked. So that's my public service message for today.
WedPM: 6 miles @ 7:02 pace
Thurs: 9 miles w/ 12 X 400 in 75 sec avg. I had some problems getting going on this one, but once I did things started to smooth out. The splits were 78, 79, 74, 74, 75, 74, 75, 74, 75, 73, 74, 73 with a 200 meter jog in between each. Again, not a killer workout, but it was nice to get in some work around 5 minute pace without killing myself.
Fri: 24 miles @ 7:06 pace I've written about the Halsted run on here before, and to be honest, in my old age, I don't know that I'll ever do it again. It's just not worth the risk. Instead, today I did….The Western Run! It's pretty much the same as the Halsted Run, except I'm running on a street about 2 miles west of it. What a difference 2 miles make. My life didn't feel in danger once the entire run. It isn't a perfect run, as the first 5 miles are run on the shoulder of a busy street (in the dark), but it's much better than the alternative. The pace was slow for this one because, well, it's 24 miles and secondly, I had a nasty headwind the entire way. I think it might have been enjoyable if not for the stupid headwind.
SatAM: 10 miles SLOW This hurt. I havent run 24 miles since October of last year. It felt like it today.
SatPM: 6 miles @ 7:03 pace This actually felt much better than the morning run. I did it on the (new) treadmill as the wife was out on the town and the kids were all sleeping upstairs. NCAA tourney on TV.
Sun: 10 miles with 2 X 2 miles in 11:20 & 11:17. I'm not sure what to make of this run. I'm really just following the schedule when it calls for 2 X 2 mile in 11:20 with an 800 meter rest in between. It would seem that a simple 4 mile tempo run @ 5:40 would make more sense, but I was pretty wiped out from the week, so I took the easier option of the two. I'm probably lucky that I did, as I had a harder time with this than I thought. Right from the get-go I knew that things didn't feel great as I was struggling during the warm-up to even get the pace under 7 min/miles. Finally once I started up the first 2 mile section, I got into what I thought was a 5:40 pace and tried to get comfortable. I came through the first half mile in 2:55 and realized that I need to pick it up to come in at pace. I slowly worked it down over the next mile and a half and came in right at 11:20. After a very short half mile break I started on the second tempo section and things felt much better (after I got over that first quarter mile of my body screaming at me to stop). This felt more like I was expecting it to and I was able to cruise through to an 11:17.


Weekly mileage: 106 Miles
YTD Milage: 1018 Miles

Now the challenge is to follow this week up with another solid week. With my spring marathon plans kind of up in the air, I don't know when I'll be racing next. I guess the goal right now is to just make sure I'm ready for whenever that might be.

Shamrock Shuffle

This past weekend marked the beginning of the spring running season in Chicago as the shamrock shuffle was run. Overall it was a really good race for me. I finished in 26:17 which is a 40 second PR over last year's time. Also the pace of 5:17 per mile is the same per mile pace as my 5K PR, which is also encouraging. They did have a marker at 5K in this race and I came through it in 16:10 which would be a 12 second PR if I would have stopped there. Sub 16 seems very doable.

Of course the real drama in the race was the finish. My friend Dave and I were both shooting for a sub 26:30 and our training over the winter has been remarkably similar. I knew we'd be finishing very close to each other, but even I wasn't expecting this finish:



So while it appears that he got me by a foot, the official results show me as coming in a second ahead of him. After way too much analysis on the finishing photo, it has been determined that it came down to chip placement. I led with the chip foot, he didn't. Better luck next time Dave. I'll just chalk this one up to veteran savvy.