It's finally spring and we are out of another long winter. The track season is almost here and I have a pretty full schedule lined up. Here's the list of races for this spring, some of which are already run:
3/15/15 - Encinitas Mile (Encinitas, CA)
3/21/15 - Adrenaline 5k (Haddonfield, NJ)
3/23/15 - Widener 1500m (Danny Curran)
4/3/15 - Princeton 10k (Sam Howell)
4/11/15 - Bucknell?? Maybe, depending on how I come off the 10k.
4/17/15 - Princeton 5k (Larry Ellis)
4/23/15 - Penn Relays??? Probably not.
5/1/15 - Princeton Open, not sure what distance.
5/11/15 - Swarthmore 1500 (last chance)
6/6/15 - Moorestown 8k (for money/USATF road points, should be an easy win)
A pretty varied racing schedule - pretty evenly spread across the three distances I care about outdoors. The 10k makes me nervous but I know I'm due for a big PR in that race, sub 30 should be quite doable.
The first two races have already been run as of this posting. The mile was a road race that was somewhat on a whim, done while visiting friends in CA. I got 4th, just out of the money, running 4:19 on an out-and-back course. The winner ran 4:14 and was a 3:59 guy at Minnesota, so I know I'm good for quite a bit faster on the track. The 5k was also a road race that went pretty well - I ran 18 seconds faster than I did last year on a slightly slower day (the course was a bit slushy) and I got flat out beat in the last mile. Quite a good race though - if I can run 18 seconds faster than last year on the track, I'll run 14:03. I don't expect that to happen but that does highlight the fact that I'm set up well for the upcoming races.
I never like trying to train for 1500-10k simultaneously. It's basically impossible to dedicate time correctly to such a wide range of training, but I've been gearing more towards 5k/10k in the hopes that the strength work will pay off for the 1500. I know from experience it's much easier to train long and race short than the other way around.
As far as expectations go for the coming races: I fully expect to smash my 10k pr (track pr is 30:50, XC is 30:46). I think I can get close to the 1500 and 5k marks as well - how close depends solely on how the races play out. I have run well at Princeton before and hope to be able to run well there again, but I do need to find another 5k to race in case that doesn't go well for whatever reason. The 1500 I am not so worried about because Swarthmore is always a lock for fast times.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Winter update
So far through this winter, training has gone fairly well. In the last month I have been training very well coming off of a forced break that lasted through the beginning of 2014. After taking a planned week off after USA club XC in December, I began running again with the intention of building back up relatively quickly and getting back into workouts. My body saw things differently and I felt pretty terrible for about 3 weeks after resuming running. I was initially worried that this episode was a repeat of last year, but decided that no matter what I might as well keep running at whatever level I could just to maintain routine and keep in touch with my body and feedback. After the new year, I started feeling better and began workouts successfully soon after.
Now that I can see the end of winter in the distance, it's time to start planning races for the spring season. Ever since I ran Chicago in the fall, I've wanted to get back on the track and see if I can run well over the 1500-5k, maybe even a 10k if the opportunity comes easily. With that in mind, I'm looking at a racing schedule that allows minimal travel with the best competition. The Princeton meets, Bucknell, Colonial Relays and Swarthmore are all within 4 hours and, for my level, have great races. I hope to be able to challenge my old UD marks and acquit myself well in these races.
More immediately, I may end up running an indoor meet coming up at Penn State. I originally was not planning on doing any indoor races, since I didn't really think I was in good shape and didn't want to waste a Saturday on a mediocre race. When I saw Chris Slate raced a mile at Boston last weekend, it kicked my ass into gear and got me thinking about racing something soon. I would run a 3k and hopefully get down near 8:20, but that is a pretty big guess and I haven't got a good gauge on my fitness for those distances now.
In the meantime I continue to train well with Digennaro and Feeney, getting in a good blend of tempo runs, long intervals and shorter intervals. I've found a good balance in my training and a good balance in my everyday life between work and running. If I can maintain the good patterns I've been riding for the last month I think I'll be in a good position to run well in the March thru May seasons.
Now that I can see the end of winter in the distance, it's time to start planning races for the spring season. Ever since I ran Chicago in the fall, I've wanted to get back on the track and see if I can run well over the 1500-5k, maybe even a 10k if the opportunity comes easily. With that in mind, I'm looking at a racing schedule that allows minimal travel with the best competition. The Princeton meets, Bucknell, Colonial Relays and Swarthmore are all within 4 hours and, for my level, have great races. I hope to be able to challenge my old UD marks and acquit myself well in these races.
More immediately, I may end up running an indoor meet coming up at Penn State. I originally was not planning on doing any indoor races, since I didn't really think I was in good shape and didn't want to waste a Saturday on a mediocre race. When I saw Chris Slate raced a mile at Boston last weekend, it kicked my ass into gear and got me thinking about racing something soon. I would run a 3k and hopefully get down near 8:20, but that is a pretty big guess and I haven't got a good gauge on my fitness for those distances now.
In the meantime I continue to train well with Digennaro and Feeney, getting in a good blend of tempo runs, long intervals and shorter intervals. I've found a good balance in my training and a good balance in my everyday life between work and running. If I can maintain the good patterns I've been riding for the last month I think I'll be in a good position to run well in the March thru May seasons.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
2014 Rothman 8k recap
After Chicago, I wasn't really planning on doing much racing for the rest of 2014. I thought I would need some downtime to recuperate and rebuild specific fitness for the shorter races. However, the guys at Pike Creek peer pressured me into running Rothman and the USATF club XC championships at Lehigh in December. So, I took a step back and looked at making a schedule for getting into shape quickly for these 8k/10k races.
After 2 miles, I made one mistake. The leaders began to drop the pace and break up the large lead pack. I got caught in the back half of this pack as it broke up, and missed the break just enough to keep me out of contact. As a result after 2 miles or so I was somewhat on my own as the lead pack slooooowly pulled away. After that comparatively controlled 2 miles, I ran as hard as I could for the last 3 miles and was able to pick up a couple stragglers who blew up in the last mile.
I realized quickly that the fitness I accumulated through marathon training and all that work at 5:00-5:30 pace was very beneficial to the shorter distance stuff. Of course, I knew that that would be true to a degree, but I was doubtful that with 5 weeks between Chicago and Rothman I would have enough time to recover and put in any meaningful training. I ended up feeling pretty confident going into Rothman and was hoping for a PR and a good race.
The race itself was very different than last year in almost every way. It was very cold this year, well below freezing, and the lead pack did not start out fast like it did in 2013. In fact, I think the first mile was likely my slowest. My training buddies Deej and Feeney were also in the race and we were all together in the pretty big lead pack through two miles. There were at least 15 people bunched up and for a fast 8k road race we were running pretty conservatively. I believe were in the low 4:50s for the mile and around 9:40 for 2 miles.
 |
| Lead pack coming to the first mile |
 |
| Coming up the last hill with about 400m to go |
I ended up running 24:06 for 6th, which was both encouraging and disappointing for very different reasons. I was pleased with the reflection of my fitness and another PR on this course, but I was mad at myself for just missing the vital break that almost certainly would have pulled me to a faster time. Running a slightly faster pace tucked into a group would not have been impossible compared to running the last 3 miles solo or close to it. Incidentally, I was one place and about 4 seconds out of winning a bit of money, so that was another (albeit minor) reason I was mad about missing the break.
Anyway, it was pretty good to see that the marathon training was more or less directly beneficial to the shorter distances. This was more of a confirmation of what I already thought, but it's nice to see your training philosophy and theory confirmed by real data. On to the 10k in a couple weekends, with a loaded field including lots of professionals.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Looking forward - plans for Fall 2014, Spring 2015...fall 2015?
In the past week, all I've done in easy jogging to recover from Chicago. Like every training cycle, I had things planned out up to and including the Big Race. After that, I had no idea. During my training for the marathon, if the world ended the Monday after the race I would not have cared. I never think past the current cycle. With just unstructured running, I've had some time to think about how I want to focus my training over the next cycle, which to me goes through the meat of the spring season.
First on my list of races is the USATF club XC championship in early December. This race is at Lehigh over their 10k course. I was asked to do this as part of the club team that I loosely run for, and since I had no other races planned around that time I figured it wouldn't come at any cost to me to run it. I have about 6 weeks to get ready for that, which shouldn't take much more than adapting the fitness I gained from marathon training down to more XC-style fitness.
I may also do some other low-key races around that time. Thanksgiving is always rife with races in the area, and Wilmington has a 10k turkey trot on Thanksgiving day that I've never done. These sorts of races are ones that I don't really plan for, but can just sort of crop up and I'll hop in if I have nothing better going on in my running plan.
I am still on the fence regarding racing indoors. On the one hand I do want to get back to the track, but on the other it will be tough for me to get in good racing shape over winter, likely training in the dark and without a track for most of the time. Track racing is also not great for my schedule; I would have to take time off and go out of my way, likely all the way up to Boston, to find the level of competition that I'm looking for.
With that being said, I am pretty set on trying to run fast on the outdoor track. Since I've been focusing on long distances ever since college, I think I want to try for a 5k/10k PR. My 5k PR is definitely respectable and that was maybe the best I've ever run a race, and will be challenging to improve on. My 10k PR is terrible, and I would love to knock a minute off that and get under 30 minutes. I think that I can run well at both distances by training for 10k - I ran 14:21 last spring at Swarthmore, and I felt during the race that I could have gone faster if the race as a whole had been higher quality. That was off of dedicated training for Broad Street and 5 minute miling.
Again, the drawback with racing track is that the schedule is set up for college running and most distance races are Friday night. Not that taking off work is a big deal, it's just less convenient than racing Sunday morning. I am pretty committed to racing track, though, and there are some good meets within reasonable distance from home (Princeton & William & Mary immediately come to mind, maybe even Penn Relays) and if I'm hard up for races I can always look to the roads as a backup plan.
Looking even farther ahead: My overarching goal for the next year is to qualify for the marathon trials, which are to be on Feb. 16, 2016, in LA. The best opportunity to qualify for me will be the Philly Rock N Roll half next fall. In 2011, before the 2012 trials, everybody who was near 65 minutes ran that race because:
1) it typically has great weather
2) it always has a good field
3) it's close enough to the race for up and comers to have enough time to get fit
4) it's far enough out from the race to allow for a proper recovery/buildup cycle for the Trials
5) the half marathon standard of 65:00 is easier than the equivalent marathon standard of 2:18.
I have to think that this will be the case again, and since I consider myself one of the many guys who will be in ~65 minute shape, I might as well take my shot too. Obviously if I qualify, I'll run the trials. If I don't I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but it's far enough away to not even think about.
I may also do some other low-key races around that time. Thanksgiving is always rife with races in the area, and Wilmington has a 10k turkey trot on Thanksgiving day that I've never done. These sorts of races are ones that I don't really plan for, but can just sort of crop up and I'll hop in if I have nothing better going on in my running plan.
I am still on the fence regarding racing indoors. On the one hand I do want to get back to the track, but on the other it will be tough for me to get in good racing shape over winter, likely training in the dark and without a track for most of the time. Track racing is also not great for my schedule; I would have to take time off and go out of my way, likely all the way up to Boston, to find the level of competition that I'm looking for.
With that being said, I am pretty set on trying to run fast on the outdoor track. Since I've been focusing on long distances ever since college, I think I want to try for a 5k/10k PR. My 5k PR is definitely respectable and that was maybe the best I've ever run a race, and will be challenging to improve on. My 10k PR is terrible, and I would love to knock a minute off that and get under 30 minutes. I think that I can run well at both distances by training for 10k - I ran 14:21 last spring at Swarthmore, and I felt during the race that I could have gone faster if the race as a whole had been higher quality. That was off of dedicated training for Broad Street and 5 minute miling.
Again, the drawback with racing track is that the schedule is set up for college running and most distance races are Friday night. Not that taking off work is a big deal, it's just less convenient than racing Sunday morning. I am pretty committed to racing track, though, and there are some good meets within reasonable distance from home (Princeton & William & Mary immediately come to mind, maybe even Penn Relays) and if I'm hard up for races I can always look to the roads as a backup plan.
Looking even farther ahead: My overarching goal for the next year is to qualify for the marathon trials, which are to be on Feb. 16, 2016, in LA. The best opportunity to qualify for me will be the Philly Rock N Roll half next fall. In 2011, before the 2012 trials, everybody who was near 65 minutes ran that race because:
1) it typically has great weather
2) it always has a good field
3) it's close enough to the race for up and comers to have enough time to get fit
4) it's far enough out from the race to allow for a proper recovery/buildup cycle for the Trials
5) the half marathon standard of 65:00 is easier than the equivalent marathon standard of 2:18.
I have to think that this will be the case again, and since I consider myself one of the many guys who will be in ~65 minute shape, I might as well take my shot too. Obviously if I qualify, I'll run the trials. If I don't I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but it's far enough away to not even think about.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
2014 Chicago Marathon recap
It's been a week since I ran the 2024 Chicago Marathon. I purposefully waited to write a comprehensive look at the race because I wanted to get rid of any impulsive feelings regarding my performance.
I set the goal of running this race after the spring "season" I had. After Swarthmore, I didn't know what direction I wanted to go for the fall. I knew I wanted to race the Philly RNR half, but besides that I wasn't sure. I was in danger of falling into the same old patterns and routines as other years. I was talking about this with my roommate Dan Feeney and he suggested I look at fall marathons. My knee-jerk reaction "hell no," because I felt that I wasn't in good enough shape and didn't have enough fitness to consider a big jump to that distance. After I thought about it, I reconsidered. I decided on Chicago because it is a fast course at a good time of the year for marathons. Furthermore, after sitting down and considering how much time I should give myself to prepare, Chicago seemed to be the best choice. Philly was a bit too far away to stay focused, and anything earlier would have been too close. It also fell 3 weeks after the half marathon that I already planned on doing, making the half an excellent prep race.
My training went well all summer, except for the typical East Coast heat and humidity slowing the times down. I'll discuss this more later, but this probably had more of an negative effect on the workouts than had I been training for something shorter. Besides that, I stayed away from any injury worries and was able to train about as well as I could expect considering work.
I began summer training aiming for Chicago, of course, but without a clear indication of any time goals to set. Since I needed some sort of target to hit to base my workouts off of, I started with the goal of a 2:24 (~5:30 pace). I figured this would be a solid, conservative goal that I could always change as I got fitter and closer to race time, and had better indications of where I was at.
Moving into the late summer, I adjusted the time goal from a conservative 2:24 to a more optimistic 2:20 (~5:20 pace). I like round numbers so that the math is easier within workouts and races. As the weather started to improve and I got in better shape, I was able to get closer to 5:20 than 5:30s in workouts.
My prep races didn't go that well because I ran slower than I ran in them last year. In the back of my mind, I knew the weather was much worse for both (summer hung around) and I was focusing on marathon-based work than the half marathon focus I had last fall. The slower times didn't really affect my confidence, but it would have been nicer to run faster.
Come marathon weekend, I was feeling great from a solid taper and not over training in the last month. The weather was ideal and my girlfriend Emily's sister Angela, who lives in Chicago, was an awesome tour guide. I was able to keep my mind off the race and enjoy myself during the weekend.
Race day morning I made it to the tent at 6:50 without incident. I figured this would give me plenty of time, since the race info made it clear that we were to get to our corrals by 7:15, and it's not like I wanted to do a long warmup before a marathon. Of course, as soon as I got to the tent, the guy in charge said that we were heading over at 7:00. Thus I jogged 5 minutes around the tent city and hurried into my racing gear.
So there we were, in the corral 25 minutes early and we passed the time standing around, shivering, talking and surreptitiously peeing. The gun went off and the first five miles went by in a blur. I felt great, as I should have, and I was mostly focused on getting into a good rhythm, not going out too fast, and saving as much energy as possible by running economically and drafting off others. I momentarily considered running with the top women (Jeptoo ran 2:18:57 the year before) but I was running 2:20 pace and they were nowhere to be seen. I decided to stick to the pace I had thought of before (~1:10 at halfway was the goal) and on the way to that pace, see who I could work together with.
The pace was very easy through about 8 miles. Then we turned south, into the wind, which was a big annoyance for certain stretches. Afterwards, reading the writeups, all anyone talked about was how the wind slowed down the times. Personally I didn't think it had a huge impact, but that's also because it was early in the race when I was relatively fresh.
I started to feel the pace around this time as well. Not that it was getting hard, just that it was less than effortless like it was for the first could miles. Through about 15k I was right on pace, then I slipped a little and had to overcorrect through halfway. This is when I had to start focusing a little harder; the crowds of spectators were thinning out, company was gone and the grind was slowly becoming more and more tiring.
Mentally, I broke the race into chunks. "Get through the first 10, get through half, get through 15, get through 30k, get through 20, get through 35k, get through 40k, just finish" was how my internal monologue generally went, with mile markers sprinkled throughout as needed. The most challenging thing to me was that I was effectively alone after about halfway. Occasionally I would pass someone blowing up, but they provided no help and as far as pacing and drafting went I had nothing. Just me following the blue dashed line that marked the shortest possible route.
Somewhere between 15 miles and 30k, it became a real race effort. I say "somewhere between" because, for me, there was no "wall" that I hit. It was a slow, steady progressive grind that just got harder and harder to maintain. You can see how my splits inexorably slipped slower after halfway as the effort increased:
I set the goal of running this race after the spring "season" I had. After Swarthmore, I didn't know what direction I wanted to go for the fall. I knew I wanted to race the Philly RNR half, but besides that I wasn't sure. I was in danger of falling into the same old patterns and routines as other years. I was talking about this with my roommate Dan Feeney and he suggested I look at fall marathons. My knee-jerk reaction "hell no," because I felt that I wasn't in good enough shape and didn't have enough fitness to consider a big jump to that distance. After I thought about it, I reconsidered. I decided on Chicago because it is a fast course at a good time of the year for marathons. Furthermore, after sitting down and considering how much time I should give myself to prepare, Chicago seemed to be the best choice. Philly was a bit too far away to stay focused, and anything earlier would have been too close. It also fell 3 weeks after the half marathon that I already planned on doing, making the half an excellent prep race.
My training went well all summer, except for the typical East Coast heat and humidity slowing the times down. I'll discuss this more later, but this probably had more of an negative effect on the workouts than had I been training for something shorter. Besides that, I stayed away from any injury worries and was able to train about as well as I could expect considering work.
I began summer training aiming for Chicago, of course, but without a clear indication of any time goals to set. Since I needed some sort of target to hit to base my workouts off of, I started with the goal of a 2:24 (~5:30 pace). I figured this would be a solid, conservative goal that I could always change as I got fitter and closer to race time, and had better indications of where I was at.
Moving into the late summer, I adjusted the time goal from a conservative 2:24 to a more optimistic 2:20 (~5:20 pace). I like round numbers so that the math is easier within workouts and races. As the weather started to improve and I got in better shape, I was able to get closer to 5:20 than 5:30s in workouts.
My prep races didn't go that well because I ran slower than I ran in them last year. In the back of my mind, I knew the weather was much worse for both (summer hung around) and I was focusing on marathon-based work than the half marathon focus I had last fall. The slower times didn't really affect my confidence, but it would have been nicer to run faster.
Come marathon weekend, I was feeling great from a solid taper and not over training in the last month. The weather was ideal and my girlfriend Emily's sister Angela, who lives in Chicago, was an awesome tour guide. I was able to keep my mind off the race and enjoy myself during the weekend.
Race day morning I made it to the tent at 6:50 without incident. I figured this would give me plenty of time, since the race info made it clear that we were to get to our corrals by 7:15, and it's not like I wanted to do a long warmup before a marathon. Of course, as soon as I got to the tent, the guy in charge said that we were heading over at 7:00. Thus I jogged 5 minutes around the tent city and hurried into my racing gear.
So there we were, in the corral 25 minutes early and we passed the time standing around, shivering, talking and surreptitiously peeing. The gun went off and the first five miles went by in a blur. I felt great, as I should have, and I was mostly focused on getting into a good rhythm, not going out too fast, and saving as much energy as possible by running economically and drafting off others. I momentarily considered running with the top women (Jeptoo ran 2:18:57 the year before) but I was running 2:20 pace and they were nowhere to be seen. I decided to stick to the pace I had thought of before (~1:10 at halfway was the goal) and on the way to that pace, see who I could work together with.
The pace was very easy through about 8 miles. Then we turned south, into the wind, which was a big annoyance for certain stretches. Afterwards, reading the writeups, all anyone talked about was how the wind slowed down the times. Personally I didn't think it had a huge impact, but that's also because it was early in the race when I was relatively fresh.
I started to feel the pace around this time as well. Not that it was getting hard, just that it was less than effortless like it was for the first could miles. Through about 15k I was right on pace, then I slipped a little and had to overcorrect through halfway. This is when I had to start focusing a little harder; the crowds of spectators were thinning out, company was gone and the grind was slowly becoming more and more tiring.
Mentally, I broke the race into chunks. "Get through the first 10, get through half, get through 15, get through 30k, get through 20, get through 35k, get through 40k, just finish" was how my internal monologue generally went, with mile markers sprinkled throughout as needed. The most challenging thing to me was that I was effectively alone after about halfway. Occasionally I would pass someone blowing up, but they provided no help and as far as pacing and drafting went I had nothing. Just me following the blue dashed line that marked the shortest possible route.
Somewhere between 15 miles and 30k, it became a real race effort. I say "somewhere between" because, for me, there was no "wall" that I hit. It was a slow, steady progressive grind that just got harder and harder to maintain. You can see how my splits inexorably slipped slower after halfway as the effort increased:
| Split | Time Of Day | Time | Diff | min/mile | miles/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05K | 07:46:44AM | 00:16:42 | 16:42 | 05:23 | 11.17 |
| 10K | 08:03:09AM | 00:33:08 | 16:26 | 05:18 | 11.35 |
| 15K | 08:20:04AM | 00:50:03 | 16:55 | 05:27 | 11.02 |
| 20K | 08:37:11AM | 01:07:09 | 17:06 | 05:31 | 10.89 |
| HALF | 08:40:44AM | 01:10:43 | 03:34 | 05:14 | 11.49 |
| 25K | 08:53:52AM | 01:23:51 | 13:08 | 05:25 | 11.08 |
| 30K | 09:10:54AM | 01:40:52 | 17:01 | 05:29 | 10.96 |
| 35K | 09:28:10AM | 01:58:08 | 17:16 | 05:34 | 10.80 |
| 40K | 09:45:30AM | 02:15:29 | 17:21 | 05:35 | 10.75 |
| Finish | 09:52:51AM | 02:22:50 | 07:21 | 05:24 | 11.14 |
My hamstrings and glutes got more and more tired and closer and closer to cramping as the race wore on. Maintaining the effort and focusing on the run fatigued me mentally, and in tandem with my legs, so that my total fatigue was mounting my willpower to keep driving was slipping. The hardest part of the race was probably the last long straight stretch. From mile ~23.25 to just before mile 26 is a straight stretch of road, but with an "S" bend at the end so that you can't see the finish and aren't sure how much farther to go. I hit the 26 mile mark (on a bridge, no less) and if it had been any other race I would have been able to outkick the guy just ahead but I was mentally and physically maxed out. I finished up and just kept walking through the finish area.
The finish is cruelly located about 0.3 miles away from the tent city near the start, so it was a long, painful walk with 6" steps through the beer garden, the goodies bags, the mountains of bananas and water bottles back to meet up with Angela. Meeting up was easy and we slowly got back to my stuff. After much whining I eventually got a free massage (better than nothing) and a slower-than-usual bus trip back to her place to recover all day (no nap, too tired to sleep) before heading to the airport and home.
I got back home at 1 am. I woke up just after 5 am (Chicago time). All told, I had been awake for almost 20 hours, complete with an all-out marathon. What a day. On the whole I thought I had a pretty good marathon debut. I didn't run what I wanted, but that was a rough goal anyway and it would have been exceedingly arrogant and presumptuous to set a serious time goal for a first marathon. I was just happy to not positive split too much, especially compared to some of the other guys that I was with at 10 miles. Now I need to sit down and plan out what I want to aim for thru the spring.
As far as more marathons go, I believe that with 1 under my belt I can definitely improve. I don't want to rush it and do another one in the spring, maybe next fall I'll plan out a second try. Until then, I won't even think about it and I'll stay occupied with the next 6 months. I don't want to get stuck on any one distance, so I think I want to go back to the track and try the 5k/10k again. I've never run a good 10k and I haven't run a good 5k since 2012, so I'm overdue for that.
So that's my next task in running: make some plans. I'll put them up here once I do.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Two weeks til Chicago
Well, it's finally taper time before the big race. I realized that this might be the part of the training cycle that I'm the most unsure about how to do, especially for a marathon. Formulating everything else throughout this cycle has been pretty simple, because the philosophy of all training is basically the same, regardless of what distance you're training for. Now, I need to consider the physical demands of the marathon and taper from a little farther out than I'm used to. This will probably bring some anxiety and insecurity, but I know that it's much easier to overtrain the last 2 weeks before any big race than undertrain.
One big update that I haven't said anything about here is how I raced at Philly. The answer, as I suspect for pretty much everyone not named Deena, is "frustratingly." The weather did not cooperate, and within a two week stretch that had great weather every day that Sunday just happened to be warm and foggy. 67 degree dewpoint was the official data at race time on the nearest weather station to the Art Museum that I could find online. As a result the race was pretty miserable and disappointing. After being immediately upset after finishing, I asked other guys how they felt in the race and no one was very pleased with it. I also did some perusing of the results of the guys around me and pretty much everyone ran well off their PRs.
I estimated that I had a good shot at PRing and thought that low 1:05s was a distinct possibility, assuming an ideal day. I ran 1:07:16, which was 95 seconds slower than I ran last year. That was pretty consistent with other results that I found so I can pretty safely rationalize that result and chalk it up to the weather. Besides the disappointing time, I felt that it was a great workout for Chicago.
Back to Chicago prep. My last hard workout went very well on Sunday (exactly 2 weeks before) so now it's all easier workouts from here on in. I am not sure exactly what I'll do for the next couple hard days but now it's all about keeping my body in tune and avoiding that sluggish feeling that a lot of people tend to get with tapering. I don't plan to drop mileage drastically or completely stop working out, but the workouts themselves will get easier. I will try to maintain the same frequency and schedule of running just to maintain some routine and not through my body off. Finally, the last few days will be very easy light jogging and the final variable to hope for is good weather the morning of the race. Chicago can be iffy, but it has had a pretty good track record the last few marathons so hopefully it all works out.
My plan for the race: I think I'll try to start at 5:20-5:25s and see how that goes. Ideally I would like to have a group to run with so I can reserve mental energy for the last 10 miles or so, get in the draft and settle in to that pace without having to push at all. I expect the first 10 miles to go by pretty quickly, but somewhere between 10-15 I'll start to get a little tired. Between 15-20 I need to be mentally prepared for a bad patch or two, and somewhere in that stretch I'll need to start pushing hard. The last 10k, of course, is all about running as hard as possible. If I can run smartly and evenly through halfway in 1:10 I think that will set me up for a good 2nd half. This is all uncharted territory for me though, so all of this in most definitely conjecture. Looking back, I can confidently say that I have prepared to the best of my ability. I've put in the long efforts a bit slower than goal pace, I've put in good speedwork, and gotten in two runs of almost 3 hours. Mileage has been relatively low for me, and doubling regularly has been out of the question, but judging by the workouts I think that I have a good base of marathon-specific work behind me. Next Sunday I'll find out exactly how prepared I am.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Getting into the racing season
After training seriously since June for Philly half and the Chicago marathon, it's almost that time. Philly is next weekend and Chicago is three weeks later. What that means for training is that all of the hard work is basically done and there just isn't much more fitness to be gained.
Philly will function as a serious, all-out race, as a final blow-it-out workout before Chicago and as a marker to see where I'm at. I am very curious to see what I am able to run at Philly, because it will be my third time there. Since I've done it before, and last year ran well, I can compare this year's performance against last year. Hopefully the weather is comparable so that I can eliminate as many variables as possible to really see where I'm at.
Speaking of comparing Philly to past races, I really can't make an accurate prediction of what kind of shape I'm in. On the one hand, my workouts have gone well, probably better than ever as far as half marathon and longer specific fitness is concerned. The workout I did two nights ago (5 x 2 mile @ 10:10 w/ 400 jog/2' rest) is something I have never been able to do, and even though I did it on a slightly faster course than the bike path (where I have always done that workout) I believe it is still better than what I have done in the past. For reference, last fall before Philly I ran 4 x 2 mile w/ 3' rest @ 10:10 and that was very difficult for me, even though I ended up running 5:00 miles for the half.
With all that positive talk out of the way, the one variable that I am a little worried about is overall mileage. Last fall I was putting in 105-110 a week consistently in training for Philly. Now that I'm working full time, I have time commitments from 7 am when I leave for work to 6 pm when I get home. I just don't have the time to train as much as I did when I was just bumming around. I am still able to get in 80-90 a week (athleticore tells me I've run 347 miles in the last month). This is where the analysis of how mileage affects fitness gets tricky in my opinion.
Benefits of higher mileage: Undeniably, there is some more fitness to be gained just from putting more easy mileage. Particularly running doubles often; two stimuli a day are great for keeping metabolism high, keeping your racing weight low, producing beneficial adaptations via hormones and other stuff. Another good side effect from higher mileage is that it gets you used to training and working out (and racing, if you choose to train through) on tired legs, which allows for a more dramatic gain in racing ability during a taper.
Costs of higher mileage: One thing about training that a lot of people gloss over is that mileage is important, but only as a support system for the race specific workouts. What that means practically speaking is that people should run as much mileage as they can handle without it affecting the real training that is directly related to the goal race. To be even more blunt: too many miles is when you are too tired to hit the paces in workouts that you need to run to race well. I definitely fell victim to this in college and I believe I would have run better had I not gone overboard with mileage my junior and senior years. Too many miles = too tired in workouts = not getting the designed benefit from the workouts, especially when you're trying to hit paces. Hard-core lydiard disciples disagree with this, saying that effort is the only thing that matters when you're working out and that the taper will allow you to race well if you've put in the big base beforehand. I believe that a good amount of race specific training is necessary to do well (well is defined as meeting your ultimate potential, not just running fast), and if you're tired from easy mileage you just can't work out well enough to get enough specific work in.
I think last fall I found my sweet spot in training was just over 100 mpw to be able to work out well and still accumulate mileage. However, that was in training for the half and I recall the longest workout I did was 11 miles as a tempo run. Now that I'm doing more marathon-specific work, the workouts can be even longer and more intense, so they require more recovery before and after (geeks would call this "modulation"). In this regard I think doing less mileage helps, because it allows me to hit the workouts very hard and try to get big adaptations. But like I said, there is going to be some fitness lost from not putting in those extra mileage. The elusive sweet spot in training, that is different for everyone, is where you personally are able to work out hard while maintaining as much easy mileage as you can fit in without sacrificing the serious work.
So basically, I don't really know where my fitness is because a few variables have changed since last year when I raced a half. I'll find out in black and white where I stand in two weekends.
Philly will function as a serious, all-out race, as a final blow-it-out workout before Chicago and as a marker to see where I'm at. I am very curious to see what I am able to run at Philly, because it will be my third time there. Since I've done it before, and last year ran well, I can compare this year's performance against last year. Hopefully the weather is comparable so that I can eliminate as many variables as possible to really see where I'm at.
Speaking of comparing Philly to past races, I really can't make an accurate prediction of what kind of shape I'm in. On the one hand, my workouts have gone well, probably better than ever as far as half marathon and longer specific fitness is concerned. The workout I did two nights ago (5 x 2 mile @ 10:10 w/ 400 jog/2' rest) is something I have never been able to do, and even though I did it on a slightly faster course than the bike path (where I have always done that workout) I believe it is still better than what I have done in the past. For reference, last fall before Philly I ran 4 x 2 mile w/ 3' rest @ 10:10 and that was very difficult for me, even though I ended up running 5:00 miles for the half.
With all that positive talk out of the way, the one variable that I am a little worried about is overall mileage. Last fall I was putting in 105-110 a week consistently in training for Philly. Now that I'm working full time, I have time commitments from 7 am when I leave for work to 6 pm when I get home. I just don't have the time to train as much as I did when I was just bumming around. I am still able to get in 80-90 a week (athleticore tells me I've run 347 miles in the last month). This is where the analysis of how mileage affects fitness gets tricky in my opinion.
Benefits of higher mileage: Undeniably, there is some more fitness to be gained just from putting more easy mileage. Particularly running doubles often; two stimuli a day are great for keeping metabolism high, keeping your racing weight low, producing beneficial adaptations via hormones and other stuff. Another good side effect from higher mileage is that it gets you used to training and working out (and racing, if you choose to train through) on tired legs, which allows for a more dramatic gain in racing ability during a taper.
Costs of higher mileage: One thing about training that a lot of people gloss over is that mileage is important, but only as a support system for the race specific workouts. What that means practically speaking is that people should run as much mileage as they can handle without it affecting the real training that is directly related to the goal race. To be even more blunt: too many miles is when you are too tired to hit the paces in workouts that you need to run to race well. I definitely fell victim to this in college and I believe I would have run better had I not gone overboard with mileage my junior and senior years. Too many miles = too tired in workouts = not getting the designed benefit from the workouts, especially when you're trying to hit paces. Hard-core lydiard disciples disagree with this, saying that effort is the only thing that matters when you're working out and that the taper will allow you to race well if you've put in the big base beforehand. I believe that a good amount of race specific training is necessary to do well (well is defined as meeting your ultimate potential, not just running fast), and if you're tired from easy mileage you just can't work out well enough to get enough specific work in.
I think last fall I found my sweet spot in training was just over 100 mpw to be able to work out well and still accumulate mileage. However, that was in training for the half and I recall the longest workout I did was 11 miles as a tempo run. Now that I'm doing more marathon-specific work, the workouts can be even longer and more intense, so they require more recovery before and after (geeks would call this "modulation"). In this regard I think doing less mileage helps, because it allows me to hit the workouts very hard and try to get big adaptations. But like I said, there is going to be some fitness lost from not putting in those extra mileage. The elusive sweet spot in training, that is different for everyone, is where you personally are able to work out hard while maintaining as much easy mileage as you can fit in without sacrificing the serious work.
So basically, I don't really know where my fitness is because a few variables have changed since last year when I raced a half. I'll find out in black and white where I stand in two weekends.
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