Career recap - High school

Being that I'm in a big, big running slump and after this weekend's race I can't see any races in the foreseeable future, I decided to do a career recap on my first 14 years of running. This is going to hit the highs and lows, but I remember pretty much everything in between as well and this blog actually goes back to my college days so there's some good stuff in here too. If anyone looks back that far...

August 2004 - as a 14 year old kid I joined the Wilmington Charter XC team because my buddies Jeff Camp and Matt Cerro from summer swim team, both a year older than me, were on it and I wanted to have something to make friends as I was not popular in middle school. I remember those first days of practice vaguely and considered myself a back of the pack guy that was just happy to be there and have friends. At one of those early pre-season practices at Brandywine Creek, I met my future best man Luke Brady when we got paired up for partner stretching before the run.

XC, 2004 season - at my first race at the Lake Forest invitational, I ran 19:30. A month later at the Bellevue Invitational, I ran 18:10 and considered it a breakout race. A month after that, I snuck on to the state meet roster (two guys ahead of me had gotten sick the week of the race) and kicked my way into 3rd on the team and 13th overall running 17:42 on a slow day. This was the race that showed I could compete actively rather than just participate passively. Among non-racing memories I have of this season: running 8 miles with the team as an out and back for my longest run ever and learning how to push myself in races more and more to find the red line.

Indoor, 2004-05 - I ran the 1600 in every meet this season. Back in those days we ran on Tower Hill's 160m flat track, no spikes allowed, every race in-state except for the state meet which was on a 200m flat synthetic track at UD (since covered by a football practice field). My first race was a 5:03, then 5:00 and I can remember the agonizing feel of coming so close two weeks in a row to breaking 5 minutes. The next few races I kept cutting down by 3-4 seconds until I ran 4:50 at the state meet. I clearly remember in one of the indoor races in which I ran just under 5 coming through 1200m in 3:43 and thinking "how did someone run a full mile this fast?"

Outdoor, 2005 - Some of my most important moments as a young runner happened this season. A midseason 3200m saw myself and Jeff running together in a duel meet against William Penn, a terrible distance team, with the goal of just running under 10:50 to qualify for the state meet. I had never run a 3200m before, and as a kid I assumed that a state qualifying mark necessarily must be hard to run. We traded off leads and were on pace with 2 laps to go. I can remember feeling like it was extremely easy, and so I decided to run a little faster to see what happened. I finished in 10:32 and Jeff faded to 10:59. I didn't think much of it, but being able to close the last 2 laps of a distance race hard would become my best asset on the track. A few weeks later, I ran the county meet 1600m and got pulled to 4:37. This would be the fastest freshman time in the state, only 3 seconds off the class record. Luke was right behind me in 4:39 to be the second-fastest. A week later, Coach Schuder put me in the 3200m for the state meet. I was confused, thinking after the fast 1600m that was the clear choice, but Coach was and is much smarter than I am and saw my untapped potential in the 3200m might surprise some people. With a lap to go in a slowly run state meet, I found myself somehow in the lead. I held off the field except one guy, Dom Dellapelle, who would be one of the best ever in Delaware history by the time he graduated two years later. I ran 9:56.18 for a freshman class record, closing the last laps in 67/2:20 and getting second place at the state meet. 4 days later I improved that time, albeit in a tough positive splitting race, to run 9:54.77. These four races showed that not only could I compete in the state, I was one of the best guys entering my sophomore year.

XC, 2005 - It was a long summer of running the backroads of Hockessin and around Delaware with my parents driving me to people's houses. Night runs with Luke, Jeff and David Appleby got me to love running as a social activity, and my parents allowing me the freedom to go off on my own gave me independence and a sense of ownership of the world that I think is hard to get without exploration. Putting in probably 40-50 mpw (I hadn't started a running log yet) to get ready for the season, I was nervous with the pressure of someone who'd never been good at something before. My best time this season was 16:23 at Bellevue, and it wasn't until the state meet that I really came good with a 4th place overall in what I still consider one of the hardest run races of my life. This race was the first time I ever ran seriously scared - for the last half guys were sitting on me and I ran my heart out to drop them. I still remember getting outkicked on the last short hill to the finish. I developed a reputation for consistency this season, having very solid (but not great) races every time out and even time equivalencies across the different courses.

Indoor, 2005-06 - This season was my first real letdown. Up until this, I had basically been on an upward trajectory. I remember the first race, a 3200m at Tower Hill and barely snuck under the state meet qualifying time of 10:40. And it was hard! At the state meet, someone caught the heel of my left shoe and ripped it off. I panicked and dropped out, with Coach yelling at me to put it back on. I was a kid, in a high pressure situation, faced with an on the spot emergency, so I choked. I can still remember getting home and writing a mopey, pissed off, emo AIM away message about it to the gist of "watch out next season, I'll be back with a vengeance".

Outdoor, 2006 - This was again a pretty boring season by my high standards at the time. Freshman year I went from zero to hero, and I was naively expecting to make the same level of gains every year. I did improve from 4:37 to 4:30 at the county meet, but got DQ'd for something I still believe was the wrong call of passing inside another guy (Pierce Conlon, specifically) and running inside the rail. I had a forgetful state meet and improved my 9:54 PR from last year to 9:51 or something. I tried to forget this season as it was overall a disappointment and hit to my 15-16 year old ego.

XC, 2006 - Back with something to prove. Another disappointing year until the big races; I never PR'd from my 16:23 the year before. The Bellevue course was sloppy and muddy, and no other race was as fast, so no PR's but I did manage to get 3rd at the state meet ahead of Dom Dellapelle, the first time I'd ever beaten him.

Indoor, 2006-07 - I honestly don't remember anything of note happening this season. This was probably when I developed my hatred for indoors and overwhelming emphasis on outdoor over indoor.

Outdoor, 2007 - After a couple years of consistent training, I started really reaping the rewards and was able to apply whatever training benefits I had gained to the talent I had. An early season 3200m at Lake Forest had me hit a big PR of 9:42 to barely miss the school record (set during my 9:54 freshman class record race) and win big. At Twilight Relays, which was always right around my birthday, I split 4:25.9 to run an unofficial PR in the 1600m running right behind Pierce Conlon the entire way. The next week I ran probably the best-executed and most surprising race of my high school career, running 4:48/4:36 with a 64/68 last two laps to win the county 3200m (the most competitive 3200m in the state) by almost a straightaway. The two best guys in the state, Dom Dellapelle and Brian Sklodowski, both seniors, were in this race but coming off a great contest in the 1600m. I was able to win the state 3200m the next weekend over Dellapelle, who was probably tripling that day, and run a faster 9:24 behind Brian's 9:16 state record and Pierce's 9:22 at the meet of champs. I can still remember the thrill, the pain and the announcer's call as I came around with 200m to go in that county 3200m, and the incredible feeling of impending death that always comes a second after you cross the line. This time it was coupled with immeasurable satisfaction and gratification - the feeling when you knock a race out of the park, beyond your own expectations and everyone else's. Winning state and improving the time at MOC was just gravy. One of the team parents video'd that county race and watching it still gives me chills.

XC, 2007 - After getting 13th, 4th and 3rd, this was my year to go for the win at states. I started off this year with an overall PR in the heat, on a slower course than Bellevue and a 16:19 at Lake Forest. At Bellevue I ran a high school 5k PR of 15:58 for the win. George Vernon crushed me at the conference and county meet, my only "bad" race of the season, but I came back to run 16:09 to win the state meet and run the fastest time of the day in all divisions. I remember feeling very in control of that race, moving with half a mile to go and winning by 8 seconds or so.

Indoor, 2007-08 - Another pretty laid back indoor season. I ran two races this year, both 3200m in about 9:50 on 200m flat tracks. No more Tower Hill for me! Lost the state meet to George Vernon, but I knew that I was going to be much more capable outdoors when I really cared.

Outdoor, 2008 - Last chance to prove myself as the top dog. To some extent I was; having won the county and state 3200m, I was clearly the best returner from the year before. But now I had a new top rival in George Vernon, with a younger Greg Morrin just behind. My rivalry with George was hot all through XC and he won our only meeting indoors, so outdoors was shaping up to be a big shootout. It ended up fizzling out; I focused on the 3200m, as I had done all four years, and he never ran a good one and focused more on the mile and getting points for his team. I ended up repeating the same pattern as the year before but this time finally winning the MOC 3200m. I remember very well the feeling of coming down the homestraight of that race, with a huge lead, and telling myself to soak it all in and never forget the feeling. It was more than just the feeling of winning a race; it was winning the last race of my high school career, with enough margin to relax a bit and soak it in, and the culmination of four years of mostly improvement from nothing to the best in my little pond.Ccollege and beyond became more and more competitive and unless I made some huge gains there was never going to be the feeling of supremacy within my own sphere. I knew that it would likely never be the same again.

Depressing read ahead - what's wrong with me?

Two years ago, I was at the high water mark of my running career. Now as I sit here, feeling generally crappy, unmotivated, frustrated and in a bit of an existential crisis re: running, I looked back and wonder where and how it went wrong. Something I'll probably never know the answer to, but all the same, it's worth taking a look back to see if the puzzle pieces can be fitted together in a way that makes sense in hindsight.

January 2016: I came off a career year in 2015, PRing in the 5k, 10k, and running my second-best ever 1500 and half marathon. Missing the OTQ on Halloween 2015 pushed me towards greater heights, capped off by running 1:04 in Jacksonville on Jan 3. That truly was the best race of my life both in the quality of the performance and how it felt. To be able to coach myself, working full time, to that level is something special that I'll treasure for the rest of my life.

February 2016: DNF at the OT marathon. Not a big deal - making it here was the surprise. Unprepared both for the conditions and for the distance itself, I bailed when it became obvious a death march was coming up fast. A week after I won MD Club Challenge.

Spring 2016: Ran a few good races here, basically just maintaining fitness from January/February. Cherry Blossom and Broad Street were the big ones, and I PR'd at BSR by six seconds which was nice. Still though, in hindsight I can already see that I'm just hanging on to fitness, even as I kept racing I was unable to achieve the level I was at late 2015-Jax Bank.

Summer-Fall 2016: This is where I really started to pay back the debts I incurred on my body throughout the previous 18 months, starting in September. I was training probably the hardest I've ever training for the marathon throughout the summer, and then was struck down with a series of fevers over a two month span that crippled my training. I still have no scientific explanation of these; my best guess is a kooky holistic one that amounts to "my body had enough and I was overdoing it, so this was its way of forcing me to stop". With no other symptoms of sickness besides a wacky all-over-the-place core temp I do not think it was actual illness from a pathogen or virus. A similar thing happened in fall 2013 when my thyroid freaked out for 6 weeks for seemingly no reason.

Winter 2016: I started building back up and was soon training well. Good volume, decent and consistent workouts and overall good feelings motivated me to sign up for some big spring races. I thought I was back on track and ready to resume high-level racing.

Spring 2017: My three big races did not go as planned. NYC Half, Cherry Blossom and Pittsburgh half all sucked and were well below my expectation. Worse, I was training well leading up and had no real explanation why I wasn't able to race better. Worse still, I was actually getting slower in each race. After Pittsburgh I was bitterly disappointed and unsure how to get back on track. At least at this point, I was still enjoying running and looking forward to a bit of a break before refocusing and getting back into it in the fall.

Fall 2017: After an easy summer, I set a goal to try and run decently well at Philly half in November. That was plenty of time to get back in good shape, and I found myself putting in typical workouts all fall with good volume backing them up. Alas another shitty race and disappointment at Philly, objectively an even worse performance than in the spring.

Winter 2017-18: Back to training well, but early in 2018 I got sick and have been having an awful time running ever since. It's been about 6 weeks now that I have felt bad on basically every run, in a way that I've never had before. If burnout is a real thing, this is it. I feel bad physically, but much worse is that I just want to quit all the time when I'm running. I just don't care about it at all and know it makes no difference, because I'm stuck in such a rut it doesn't matter if I run a little harder or longer. Once this club challenge is done with - if I can even force myself through it - I'll need to do a pattern break. Maybe join a gym for a trial membership and start hitting the weights. Maybe I'll keep up casually running 50 miles a week or something. Regardless, something's got to change because I am so deep in a rut I can't even see out of it right now.

Fall 2017 look ahead

This entry will be a boring, deep dive into my training and what I believe were my mistakes over the past year or so that led to poor performances in the spring and fall of 2017. It will also be an exploration of what I can do to improve in the future.

Looking at this calendar year, I've 4 big name races at 10-13.1 miles. All of them have been disappointing and below expectations considering the amount of training behind them. However, when I look at my career and my best races over these distances, I see a clear pattern.

2011: I spent all of the previous winter and spring focusing on track. I ran 1:07 in September 2011.
2013: I spent all of the previous winter and spring focusing on track. I ran 1:05 in September 2013.
2014: I spent all of the previous winter and spring focusing on Broad Street. I ran 1:07 in September 2014 and a 2:22 marathon.
2015: I spent all of the previous spring focusing on track. I ran 1:05 in October 2015. and 1:04 in January 2016.
2017: I did not spend any time training for shorter races, and ran a best of 1:07 in the spring of 2017 and 1:09 in the fall.

Like I said, clear pattern. Each time I've spent a good chunk of time, typically 4 months or so, really focusing on a shorter distance and the next season focusing on a longer distance, I've raced well over the latter. It seems that I'm able to carry my speed over to the next season quite well and build on it with the endurance for the longer race, but just training for endurance does nothing to build speed for me.

2011: I spent all of the winter and spring training very hard. It was the second training cycle I really committed myself to serious, twice a day every day, 100+ mpw training. I went from running 14:46 in 2010 to running under 14:30 three times, with a best of 14:22, in the spring of 2011 and getting second place to Eric Jenkins at my conference meet. Because our team got cut in January 2011, I was open to trying out anything in the 2011-2012 school year. I ran Philly Half in September 2011 and ran 1:07:32 after really only starting to train seriously with specific workouts about 6 weeks before.

2013: Since I was at OU during the 2012-2013 school year, I was being focused on the 1500-5k starting in December 2012 and going through early May 2013. This paid off with a lifetime PR of 4:06 for the mile indoors. I trained hard for Philly that summer, ran two road 5ks just before in 14:25 and 14:19 and then ran 1:05:40 for the half. This tells me I need to be able to hit those 5k marks to indicate a good half marathon.

2014: I had a thyroid virus in the winter of 2013, so I had to take a month or so off and resumed training very early 2014. I focused on running Broad Street and pulled myself together well enough to run just under 50 minutes. I was then able to carry that speed into the Chicago marathon and ran 2:22, running 1:07 in a warm and humid half marathon three weeks ahead of that.

2015: I focused hard on running the 1500-5k for the winter and spring. That paid off with a 3:50 1500 (2nd lifetime), 14:05 5k (lifetime PR) and 30:14 10k (lifetime PR). I then specifically trained with the intent of an OTQ at Philly on Halloween. I ran 1:05:59 there, missing my goal by a minute, but kept at it and ran 1:04:27 just after New Years 2016.

Looking back at these cycles, what I gather is that I need to focus hard on running well over shorter distances and work on maintaining that speed while gaining endurance for the longer races. Examples of workouts to follow later. 

Summer/Fall 2017

Big update here, more a life update than a running update. That's because I took the summer easy, got married August 4th, honeymooned with basically no running until August 18 and started back into real training after that.

After Pittsburgh in May, I was done for the spring both based on the schedule I had set out and because I was so disappointed in how poorly I had raced all spring, especially because there was a clear downward trend after the first big race in NYC. Since I was also getting married and going on a nearly two week long honeymoon in August, it made zero sense to try and train hard through a hot, humid summer only to take 2 weeks off. I trained very easily, running once a day for about 70 miles a week with no workouts. We had a pretty rough summer, so even that was plenty hard some days. With no running over the honeymoon I jumped back into running normally and started training with no real goal. In late September I decided to get serious and shoot for Philly Half in November. I got to work with much the same program as I had in the spring, even though that didn't go well. Obviously in hindsight this was in error - the old definition of insanity saying, right?

I ran about 100-110 mpw as much as I could, with my standard tempo and longer interval workouts. Even put in some real long runs of 17-19 miles with harder finishes. Unfortunately this never really addressed my main weakness, but the silver lining is that it gives me great base on which to build for the spring.

On the schedule still I've got the DEXC open this coming weekend, a low-key actual XC 5k. Later in December I've got a 5 miler in Baltimore (Celtic Solstice) which should also be pretty low-key.

Next entry will be a separate training analysis doing a deep dive in what I believe I need to alter for success in the coming seasons.

Spring 2017 recap

Well I suppose it’s about time I wrote up a spring 2017 recap. I have been putting this off for a month and the excuse I’ve been telling myself is that I need some time to get away from it and get some perspective, but in truth it’s because I just don’t like recalling experiences like this. The essence of why this is going to be hard to write is not only because the season went poorly, but because I can’t really understand why it went poorly. That means that it will be hard to correct for the next time around. I’ll pick up on where I left off after NYC half.

Cherry Blossom 10 miler – 4/2/2017

Looking at the NYC half, I saw a couple highlights. I thought I had competed well and raced my nuts off, which was very good considering I had not raced in a long time and was a little worried I would have forgotten how to execute correctly. My only complaint was that I just didn’t run as fast as I wanted. I figured that maybe I just wasn’t quite as fit as my workouts had indicated and that with this race under my belt as a rust-buster and really hard effort it would open the door to running better at future races. With that in mind, I went to DC with the hope, as always, of running as close to 50 flat as possible. It ended up being a perfect weather day with no excuses but I managed to only run about the same pace that I ran at NYC. 5:08 pace for 10 miles frankly should have been a hard workout, not an all-out race, but unfortunately it was the best I could do and I was pretty disappointed.

Pittsburgh half marathon – 5/7/17

I had a couple low key races in the month between Cherry Blossom and Pittsburgh in which I was able to win a little bit of cash. These races were encouraging as I ran about the same times that I ran at the same races in years past, when I was in pretty good shape. For instance, I ran the pikes peek 10k in about 5 seconds slower than last year, when I ran a PR at Broad Street the next week. Again, with higher expectations I went to Pittsburgh with the hope of competing well and in the running for a little bit of money. The race did not go well at all and I had a pretty miserable time in the race. From the gun I was alone, passing 1 guy and getting passed by 1 guy over the entire course. The course was fair, a little more difficult than the very fast courses I’ve run on in the past, but definitely not unreasonable. I ran a shit time, something over 1:09 I think, I can’t even be bothered to look it up. The fitness just wasn’t there and had never been there for the entire cycle but I tried to push through it and keep working towards a performance I could be proud of. Unfortunately that never came.

Why did this season turn out badly?

This is the part of this write up I was dreading the most. I just don’t have a great answer here and exploring the reasons for my shortcomings is never fun. I’ll start with a zoomed out view of the season starting from where I was before. Last summer and fall I had big plans to go to Chicago and run fast. I got sick a few times in the summer and fall, probably due to overtraining and having a weird physical response to forcing myself too hard in high heat, and bailed on that race plan because I didn’t feel as though I was getting in good or consistent training when it mattered. I took about a month completely off, something that I had never done, and built up very slowly with an eye towards a spring season. I knew it would be far enough away to rebuild my fitness so I took it slow because I was afraid of having those fevers flare up again.  I made a logical, progressive plan towards building fitness for races between 50-70 minutes in length. I was getting in good mileage with 2-3 workouts per week. I was doing a dedicated hill workout for probably 2 months, getting in good work without timing anything just to get solid conditioning in. After a couple months, I ran some low key distance races (club challenge, Tim Kennard) in late winter/early spring. Coupled with the interval workouts, tempos and mileage, I was pretty confident. But somehow it just never came together.

Why didn’t this season come together despite months of solid work? Well, I really don’t know for sure. I think a big part was that I broke the chain of compounding cycles with the time off and bad training last fall. I also think I’ve lost a lot of the under distance fitness I had when I ran well in late 2015 off of easier training than this year. Back then I was coming off a great track season and I think I carried that speed into the longer road races. This spring I had zero background of that nature under my belt so I just had no speed endurance or comfort at that level of racing, even with all of the pace work I had done in training. Thinking about training at this point is really just speculation; I still cannot find a true weakpoint that I didn’t try to address. That’s what made the season, and even looking back on it now, so frustrating. This is a first for me – I’ve never had such a helpless feeling in which I just can’t diagnose what went wrong and why my racing didn’t meet my expectations. Sure, I’ve had bad races before or races that weren’t home runs, but in hindsight it was always pretty clear why they turned out that way or why my expectations were unrealistic. This time I can’t figure it out and it’s maddening.

This summer is going to be an extended layoff. I hate training hard during the East Coast summer with 70+ degree dewpoints and with a 2 week honeymoon in August I won’t try to force training through that. Once that’s done and the weather breaks a little I’ll think about race scheduling but until then I’ll take it easy and more laid back. Still might train a little but with no serious aspirations.

NYC Half

This past weekend was the first of three big races for me planned this spring, the NYC half marathon. The other two are Cherry Blossom 10 miler (2 weeks) and Pittsburgh Half (6 weeks). This was my first road race in NYC, and while I’ve spectated a couple of Emily’s races in the last year, this was a new experience for me. Also a new experience was getting into the elite field of a big NYRR road race. I cannot say enough about their operation there; Dave Monti, Sam Grotewold and their crew really run a tight ship and at the risk of too many metaphors it ran like a Swiss watch as far as I could tell. This will be a recap of most of our experience over the weekend as well as a detailed race report.

Race Report

The weather race morning was cold and a noticeable north wind. This would likely help the times out, since the back half of the course runs straight down the west side highway and would be helped by the tailwind. I put myself near the back of the elite field at the start. Broadly speaking, the course was a 10k counter clockwise loop (or almost loop) around the main ring road of central park, down 7^th avenue through Times Square, west out to the West Side Highway, and south down the highway, through the Battery Park tunnel, up to the finish. The miles in Central Park were mostly rolling hills and I linked up with a decently sized group for much of this. Myself and a local Ethiopian ran side by side through miles 3-6 when we were joined by a couple more guys, including Chris Bendtsen who I remembered from racing against Princeton. Once we got out of the park and into the city streets, we packed up and worked together to combat the headwind on the stretch getting to the WSH. Once we got to the highway and turned south, it became a real race with the tailwind and everybody just ran to their fitness level. I got dropped by the group around mile 9. A few minutes later the Ethiopian pulled up with what looked like a side stitch and I went by him. That would be the last guy I would pass. For the rest of the race it was just about running right on the ragged edge. Coming out of the tunnel was the 400m to go sign and two turns later there was the finish.

Positives: I was very nervous going into this race that I wouldn’t have “the right stuff” anymore when it came to digging deep and getting 100% out of my body during the race when it counted. It had been so long since I last ran truly flat-out on a good day (Broad Street of last year) that I was worried I might have forgotten what it was like. I also believe I managed my effort pretty much perfectly throughout the race and was always in a good spot. The first 10k in the park was hard but controlled, working the hills and trying to relax and maintain focus on the downhills. Once we got onto the WSH with the exposed tailwind and hit mile 9 the hammer was down for everyone and we just ran as hard as we could. This good effort management is reflected in my splits:

1^st 5k: 5:14 pace (slowest segment, with rolling hills into the wind)

2^nd 5k: 5:13 pace (still rolling hills, but mostly with the tailwind)

3^rd 5k: 5:04 pace (fastest segment of the race; net downhill from the park to the WSH)

4^th 5k: 5:06 pace (straight down the WSH running on the redline)

Last 1.1K: 5:05 pace (whatever was left)

I was also happy with my taper for this race. I felt very good in the 3 days before, and part of that was probably due to nerves and general jumpiness but also due to a slightly longer and more gradual taper. I trust in the background of work over the last 3-4 months that I won’t “lose fitness” by taking training a little easier for the 7-10 days before a really big race. This kind of insecurity is something I’ve always struggled with and is one of the main reasons I think top athletes need coaches.

Negatives: Put simply, I’m not in the kind of shape I hoped I was in. In hindsight this should have been pretty clear; despite running good mileage and having a good workout progression since December, the background of shorter speed (two springs ago, I was coming off of 3:50 1500m/14:05 5000m fitness) and overall uninterrupted quality and quantity hasn’t been there in the long term. More importantly in the only real test race I had at Club Challenge I ran slower in a losing effort this year. I had hoped that I would come around in a big-time race and that on the day with a good taper I might have something special, but like pretty much my entire career it’s very predictable to a trained eye looking at the training. Looking at the splits and remembering how the race felt, I don’t think there is any single aspect of fitness that I’m lacking relative to anything else. I just need to keep working on overall specific fitness, both underdistance and overdistance work to keep getting in better 50-65 minute racing shape. Hopefully this race will be a big stimulus for the next few weeks and I can have a solid outing at Cherry Blossom and Pittsburgh, but for now the focus is on recovery and getting back into training smartly and with an eye towards Cherry Blossom, less than 2 weeks away.

For the immediate future, I’ll probably get in a workout this week, maybe Thursday, which will be by feel and definitely without pushing too hard. Something longer on Sunday, but again not anything super strenuous, then the usual taper routine and midweek workout on Wednesday.

Overall Trip Experience…Report

Emily and I left Baltimore on the train around 5 pm Friday afternoon. We arrived at Penn station and, thanks to the race’s elite director Dave Monti, got to the hotel easily on a short subway ride. We dropped off our bags and got a quick dinner spot from the front desk. Dinner was a Ramen place, a typical tiny NYC basement eatery where we sat at the bar and watched two young Asian guys crank out bowls of meat-and-noodle based soups.

The next day we got up, had breakfast in the hospitality suite (penthouse of the hotel with great views) and went for our runs in Central Park. This hotel had a great location just three short blocks away from the park, so even with the snow still on the sidewalks it was an easy jog over. Apparently it was a popular time for the elites to get in their pre-race runs because I saw guys like Callum Hawkins, Chris Derrick, Amy Cragg and others I didn’t recognize out there.

After an easy run and strides we hung out in the hotel and watched some March Madness until lunch. Emily and I both went up and while I checked in and got my finances straightened out she had lunch and headed out to meet her sister and brother in law at the movies. I went to the bank, came back and went to the USADA meeting followed by the race technical meeting. We all had to sit through lots of lecturing and talking about the race details.  After I got out of there, I met Emily, her sister and husband for dinner at a place near Central Park. Pretty good spot, could have been a really expensive dinner but we stuck to burgers. By the time we got out of there it was getting late and we just headed back to the hotel and tried to get to sleep early.

I never sleep well before races and I was especially nervous for this one, so I tossed and turned all night and finally woke up 1 minute before my 5 am alarm. I headed up to the suite to get some breakfast and got my stuff together for the 6 am bus departure. Short bus ride but long walk through security to get to the elite staging area. Hung around for not too long before we had to go warm up; even though our race started at 7:30 we were to be at the line (with our warmups on, thank God) just after 7. I warmed up with Jared Ward and Noah Droddy and had a funny exchange in which Noah told us he wasn’t even getting free shoes so he had to wear old, beat-up flats. Jared told him he should at least be getting free gear…this proved especially prescient after the race was over.

I wrote a detailed race report above, so I’ll skip that here. After the race, Emily found me immediately and we made our way to the India House, a restaurant near the finish that served as the VIP area. I got some coffee and food here and went for a short, pretty painful cooldown with a few other guys from the elite field. We got on the first bus back to the hotel, which took seemingly forever due to the combination of race fatigue and Manhattan traffic. I had a rough period of feeling really sore and drained once we got back to the hotel but after Emily we walked to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for church at noon, which was a pretty amazing building inside and out. We got back to the hotel, packed up all our stuff and eventually left from the lobby as a big group to the post-race lunch.

This lunch was one of the most surreal and fun race-related social events I have ever been to. Surreal in that Emily and I got to rub elbows with some of the elite athletes in our sport and talk to them as regular people, and fun because the food and wine was never ending and was all comped. Sitting at a table with Olympians and record holders from around the world was fun and cool, I’ll leave it at that.

After lunch Emily and I headed for Penn Station, just a few blocks away, and went home our separate ways. She was going to her parent’s house and I was headed back to Baltimore so I had a 2.5 hour train ride to sink back into fatigue and enjoy some quiet before being back in the real world. 

Pre-Spring 2017 season

After wrapping up what I consider to be a distinct training block this past weekend, I wanted to consolidate my thoughts on the past three months as well as the upcoming spring season. 

The last 12 weeks of training have been at least as good, if not better than, any 12 weeks of base training have ever been in my career. I averaged over 100 mpw, with workouts gradually building up from short and easy in the beginning to race-specific by the end. Most importantly, I still feel mostly on top of the training, instead of buried under it. I consider this to be a wrap to the base phase because of the impending 10 mile race at Club Challenge this weekend, which in my mind kicks off my spring season. The races I have on my calendar currently are: 

2/26: Club Challenge (10 mile)

3/5: Tim Kennard (10 mile)

3/19: NYC half

4/2: Cherry Blossom

4/23: Pikes Peek 10k

4/29: Race against Racism (5k)

5/6: Pittsburgh Half

Races in bold are peak races. 

In my mind, the key difference between this base phase and last summer is that I did all workouts and runs by effort rather than putting a watch to anything. Last summer, I feel I overtrained because I was pushing too hard every workout to hit some arbitrary goal I made up for myself. This cycle, until about 2 weeks ago, I never wore a watch or took splits in a workout. I did everything on a course that I knew the distance beforehand, such as a track or the PP loops, which made it easy. In the last 2 weeks I have started timing workouts as the races get closer and I want to be more specific in the training. 

Another aspect I added back in during the last 4-5 weeks is dedicated hill workouts. I have never really been a big fan of serious hill workouts having a long-term place in a training cycle, because I have always considered other workouts more valuable. However because this was a base phase fairly far away from the big races, I decided to add them in for variety. It's hard to put my finger on any clear changes or improvements that I might have derived from these workouts, but I feel stronger and like my stride has had small changes made that make me more powerful and efficient at speed. Again, sounds kooky and hard to nail down, and maybe it's all in my head, but the placebo effect is still an effect. 

With such a good base under my belt, I am cautiously optimistic for the 10 miler this weekend. I say cautiously because I always try to keep my expectations in check before a race, because I know it will still be a hard effort on that course, but I haven't raced in a long long time so it'll be nice at least to get a reliable fitness check. To that end I am taking the week before easy and dropping mileage a bit to not go into the race tired. Should be a good effort and a very good workout as well for the big races yet to come. 

Overdue fall 2016 update

It's been a while since I wrote down anything in here. August twenty-eighth, in fact, was my last entry, and that's because I don't like writing (or reading, or talking) about running when I'm pissed off at it. I had what was, for me, the worst season ever, which really isn't saying that much because I've been #blessed to have an almost injury- and sickness-free career up to this point. Unfortunately the weird sickness, or reaction, or full-body freak-out, or whatever it was, showed up a total of three times this summer and fall and basically trashed any chance of me putting together any good training and racing, so after the third time it happened I threw in the towel and took a total of 5 weeks either off or very easy. I think I actually took 2 weeks off and ran like 30-50-60 for the next 3 weeks.

Once those three weeks were up it was late November, and I figured I might as well see how I was doing. I bumped the mileage hard and for the next three weeks (up until now) I ran a lot and gradually increased the workouts systematically as follows:

Intervals once a week, starting with 8 x 200 and adding 100m to the length each week. So it went 8 x 200, 8 x 300, 8 x 400, etc. Recovery was adjusted to be reasonable.

Tempo once a week, starting at 4 loops around the park (4 miles) and adding 1 loop each week.

This worked fine at first until I went to Boulder to visit Feeney (who I'n sure I mention in the early entries of this log) and was on his schedule. We did a hard half marathon workout of 3 x 2 miles for him, because he is in good shape and racing Houston in a few weeks. Then we ran almost 2 hours the next  day and an "easy" 10 miles the day after. This trip was fun, but wrecked me because of the cumulative effect of fatigue brought on by altitude and hard training.

Once I got back to Baltimore, I got back into training and plan to continue on that above schedule for some time until racing starts. This was I think I can get into shape without forcing it too quickly.

The most important change I have made since getting back into it for real has been not timing anything. Since the intervals are on the track at PP high school and the tempos are around a 1 mile loop, I know all the distances and don't need to time anything to know how far I've gone. So far I've been working out 100% by feel and have been feeling pretty damn good. I know myself pretty well, and I know that if I start timing the workouts I'll start inching the pace down too hard to try and hit splits I think I "should be" hitting, or racing previous versions of myself from last year when I was in the best shape of my life. I know that that's dumb, but I also know that so much of my self-confidence and ego is based on running fitness that even despite my best intentions I'll still be stupid about it. So, I haven't been timing anything and as a result I really don't have a clue what kind of shape I'm in. But who cares? It's December, and the first really big race I care about isn't until April 2nd (Cherry Blossom). So I've got basically three months plus to get into great shape.

Great segue there into the racing schedule. I just applied for the Saucony Hurricane team, and one of the questions on the application was a tentative spring schedule so I was forced to look up races I want to do. Since those are fresh in my mind I figured I would add them here.

Big races: Cherry Blossom, Pittsburgh half marathon. These are two races about a month apart that I really want to knock out of the park.

Other races added in around: club challenge, Tim Kennard, Pikes Peek, Shamrock 5k? Delaware half?? I originally assumed that Pitt and DE were the same weekend but turns around it's a weekend apart. Even so doing two half marathons on back to back weekends is a very tall order, but I might still do it...for the scrilla.

I've never done Shamrock, but if I can get those goobers at CCR to comp my entry I would like to do it. It's the most competitive Baltimore City race so I think I would be remiss not to do it when I'm in good shape.

That's it for now, I hope to continue logging high mileage, moderate workouts and feel good doing it.

Can't catch a break

Up until about 2.5 weeks ago, training was going as planned. I had resumed training in the beginning of June and gotten in some good work through most of that month and July, with two down weeks planned for vacation during which I still managed to get some running in. After getting in very good training back from those vacations, I ran probably the best workout of my life and immediately got sick. When I say immediately, I mean I jogged home from the workout in the park, showered and started getting chills and not wanting to eat. I was sick with fairly high fever for four days. I started running again, felt bad all week (not entirely unexpected, but very frustrating) and after a mediocre long run that following weekend picked up a muscular injury that has now bothered me for a week. 

I need to be rational here and take my own advice, which would be take a couple days OFF (no cross training bullshit, actually off) and treat the hell out of it and hope for the best. What frustrates me the most about this is the timing; this could not be worse unless it was right before the Big Race. Right when I want to really be crushing the specific workouts, I am hamstrung in my prep right now and can see a PR slipping away as I sit around unable to gain any fitness because I can't run. What's also frustrating is that it seems as though I can't run in the mornings but can run later in the day once whatever the problem is has warmed up/loosened up. Normally I wouldn't care and would power through, but considering the races are all in the mornings, if I don't get this sorted out ASAP I'm totally fucked for racing, even if I can work out just fine in the evening. Just trying to keep my head up and hope that this will go away quickly so I can get back to work before there's no point in even showing up to the races. 

Mid-cycle update, summer 2016

Currently I am about halfway through the Chicago 2016 training cycle.

Intermediate races planned, all hard training efforts:
8/20/16: Druid Hills 10k
9/11/16: Parks half marathon

Goal race:
10/9/16: Chicago marathon

Currently I am training well, barring a couple weeks of lower intensity/maintenance work due to two separate two week vacations. One of those I maintained well and got 80+ miles, the other I ran nearly every day but was also at high altitude (8000+) the entire time so it probably balances out.

Training from here on out barring any interruptions will be fairly straightforward. Almost all workouts will be marathon-specific or supportive, as best as I can manage in this east coast summer weather. The occasional shorter speed workout might creep in, but only if I have an awkward time gap between workouts and I haven't done something quicker in a while. The goal will be to run 14x every week and something near 120 mpw. I do not expect to do this week in and week out, but it is always the goal to shoot for.

Currently the fitness is right on track. This past week featured brutal heat and humidity with at least one day setting or tying a record. I still managed a solid long run workout both weekends and a 45 minute hill workout midweek. The bad weather ended up paying some acclimation dividends; during my long run this past weekend, the dewpoint was a normally intolerable 74, but during a long hard workout in which I took nothing in for over 2 hours I felt unaffected and smooth averaging 5:35 pace for a 17 mile workout, which converting to an ideal marathon race setting converts right to my goal pace. These consistent long workouts set the stage for the super specific workouts which will start in the coming weeks. I want to be able to get more miles in the fast long runs as well as getting some good volume in workouts faster than goal marathon pace.

I want to try and get at least 6 weeks of specific marathon work in, which ideally means 12 workouts. My goal pace for this cycle is 5:20s (2:20 marathon) so these workouts could be some of the following, with all kinds of possible permutations on these:

4 x [4 miles @ 5:20 / 1 mile @ 5:40-5:50]
6 x [2 miles @ 5:05 / 1 mile @ 5:40-5:50]
3 x [3 miles @ 5:10 / 1 mile @ 5:40-5:50]
10-13 miles @ 5:15-5:20
20 miles @ 5:30
24 miles @ 5:40

Obviously these are pretty lofty. If the summer weather keeps up at this level I doubt I'll be able to hit all of these, but I have no problem modifying them for weather because I know my goal pace of 5:20 wouldn't hold up if Chicago was hot and humid.

If I can fit anything else in, these workouts would be supported by some of the following:

50-60 minutes of hill repeats
7-10 mile repeats under 5:00 pace
overdistance runs (26-28 miles with no goal pace or time)
And an infinite variety of shorter speed workouts to work on running efficiency at speed and make 5:20 pace feel slow.

I believe one of the important concepts with long distance workouts, in my case half and full marathon training, is the importance of no true recovery periods in the workout. In classic interval training for track races, true recovery is necessary to many sessions because it's impossible to do, for example, 10 x 400 at mile pace without some amount of true recovery. Since the marathon is so much less intense in terms of heart rate and energy systems used (specifically lactate production and oxygen debt) it becomes both possible and practical to incorporate workouts in which the "recovery" between harder efforts is only 30s a mile slower or so than the pace of the hard segments. I first started working out like this when training for my first serious half marathon in the fall of 2013 and felt that it made a huge difference in my fitness and ability to handle a hard, fast pace for a long time. That's my rationale for all of those interval workouts listed above.

Spring 2016 recap

Now that I've wrapped the spring season, taken 2 weeks off and started back up again, I can look back and evaluate how the last few months of running and racing played out. The most important thing for me to remember is the context of this season. The roots go all the way back to June 2015, when I decided to go for an OTQ at Philly RNR on 10/31. That plan failed, but carried over into a successful race at Jacksonville, which carried over to the Trials in February, which set the tone for the entire spring. To summarize, everything after the trials was gravy. If I had gotten into a car accident and broken my legs I would have still called 2016 a success after February.

After the OT, I did not have a clear path to take. I had basically gotten partway towards being in good marathon shape, and was in very good overall distance shape. The problem I had was that, in my estimation, I didn't have enough time or motivation to refocus and get in good track shape. I also didn't really want to force the mental and physical recovery after the Trials by rushing together a serious spring plan. So, I decided to compromise and race some spring races, but not trying to put together a 100% top-notch performance at any of them. Spring was to be a period of active racing, but not shooting for a lifetime PR in anything.

Because I was in good long-distance shape, I decided to target Cherry Blossom and Broad Street as my two major races. These had the advantage of being relatively local and being a month apart, which gave me flexibility on the remaining weekend. I also like to race that distance. Besides those two races, along the way I put other lower-key races on the schedule that would be good places to win some money.

In the end, the spring season was a successful one by my analysis. I won more money at races than I ever have, ran some new races, met some other runners at my level, even PR'd at 10 miles. I never felt like I was not enjoying myself, but I was glad when it was over and I had the novelty of time off (which I hated). I still haven't come up with a satisfying goal for Fall 2016 yet but I have the luxury of not having to sign up for races 8 months ahead of time. This gives me plenty of time to plan something. Maybe even another marathon? I do know that I want to get back on the track next spring. Sub 14 in the 5k would be a great lifetime PR, and after last spring I promised myself that if I ever got into as good or better shape again, I would go out west to chase a big PR.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, one day at a time.

Broad Street 2016 recap

This year was the second time I've run Broad Street. The first time I ran it, I surprised myself by placed 7th overall and 1st American running 49:56. I remember that as being a really tough race and that I was totally wiped out and well-peaked for that day. This year, I ran slightly better in both place (6th overall this year) and time (49:50), but unlike last time I felt that this spring was a bit more relaxed of a racing cycle, coming after the winter. Looking at it this way it's nice to see that, even at a slight depression in training and racing, I still was able to run better than I could in a perfect race 2 years ago here.

The race itself was overall a little slower than some other years. Perhaps this was due to the weather, or the lack of African depth up front - only 2 Africans in the top 8. The weather was about as bad as it gets in early May, with a cold rain lasting throughout the morning. This was fine with me during the race, but was obviously not ideal before and after.

The race itself played out pretty well. I had people to run with or to chase just ahead the entire time. My only regret is that I let a gap open up between me and a group of 4 ahead of me in the last few miles. I beat 2 out of 4, but with two guys less than 8 seconds ahead of me it leaves me thinking that if only I could have held on in that pack I could have placed 4th overall instead of 6th.

Some pictures from the helicopters. I'm in the bright green.
Early on in the race with a big group up front:


Later on after the big lead pack broke up:

Big update - mid-spring 2016

I haven't put anything up here in a while and am long overdue for an update because of a couple things.

First of all, I scheduled a pretty busy spring racing schedule for about 4-5 weeks racing nearly every weekend. My broad outline was to schedule two big 10 milers (Cherry Blossom and Broad Street) a month apart, being the first weekend of April and May respectively, and fill in the rest of the schedule with money races from there.

I caught the injury bug in mid-March after resuming hard training post-OT. I suspect that it was due to jumping into hard hill work, both up and down hills, that aggravated some tendinitis in my left foot. I was nervous about this because it hurt over the navicular, but after getting it examined it was determined to likely be soft tissue inflammation. Translation: train through it, ice and advil. I am still dealing with this, albeit in a controlled and slowly improving manner. It did however take me out for about a week, some of which was spent watching March Madness on the bike trainer.

After getting over that scare and back into trainers (and flats), I was hoping for a good run at Cherry Blossom. Coming up to the race, the weather was forecasted to be very bad for fast times, with temps in the mid-30s and high winds.

Before I discuss the race specifically, I do want to talk about the elite treatment, hospitality and accommodations. If you ever get a chance to run in the elite field at this race, DO IT. It was a phenomenal experience. The hotel was top-notch, the hospitality suite was open nearly all the time for food, drinks, whatever. All meals were comped. The staff was wonderful, very nice and seemed to really enjoy their jobs. Honestly coming off of the OT experience where the USATF staff treated us relatively badly, it was a real breath of fresh air. Emily was able to stay with me as a guest, and we made some new friends on the trip, which of course is one thing we all love about our sport.

Back to the race. The weather was actually not as terrible as it was forecasted to be. In the technical meeting the day before, the race director had taken cautious measures and removed most things on the course that could potentially turn into wind-borne missiles. Mile markers, most tents and the entire awards ceremony were removed and everyone was encouraged to finish the race and get out as soon as possible to keep problems to a minimum. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely windy, but no 50 mph gusts or 30 mph sustained winds as the predictions showed.

The start was conservative as people were worried about the wind. For about 2 miles I hung on the back of the lead group. Going over the Potomac bridge into Virginia, we were jogging along into the wind because no one up front wanted to sacrifice themselves. Suddenly someone got impatient and broke up the field. After that everyone split up into smaller groups. I linked up with a couple guys, one of whom I would run the rest of the race with.

The wind was intermittently a head and tail wind, but I think it was pretty fair out on the course. By that I mean it didn't seem like it was disproportionately a headwind, although the last 2 miles straight into it were pretty tough. I had grouped myself with 3 others by the time we turned into that so we took turns blocking it up the last stretch. My one tactical blunder was to try and break the group I was with with a mile to go with a hard surge. I ended up breaking myself and getting beat by one of the guys I was with, but was able to outkick another for 15th overall and (I believe) 8th American. This gave me the pleasant surprise of making $300, before taxes of course. Time didn't matter much to me on this day, but I ran 51:18 for the record and believe the time could have been somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes faster depending on the level of drafting being done.

Overall I had a good experience at this race, obviously colored by the excellent elite treatment, and would love to come back again. On a still-air day at 40 degrees this course is one of the world's fastest and a great place to PR for the distance.

The Olympic Trials: before, during and after

Training Recap between Jacksonville and the OT:

I think when considering training it’s very important to look at context. Looking at the marathon from my point of view, I was very much overtrained on the speed end of things – my overarching goal for months had been to run 4:55 pace for  as long as possible, after all. With that in mind I neglected all training that was significantly faster than goal marathon pace, which I estimated as 5:20 miles. In the four real training weeks between the two races, I got in the following:

• 3 moderate to high quality long runs:
• 20 miler including 7 miles at MP during the back half
• 21 miles steady pace, averaging 5:40s on a rolling paved loop
• 24 miles progressing throughout, averaging 6:00 with the last 4-5 miles being 5:30-5:40

4 specific marathon-pace tempo runs or alternating pace workouts:     

• 15 miles done as 3 x [4 miles @ 5:20 + 1 mile @ 5:40] for a total time of 1:21 (5:24 avg)
• 12 miles alternating miles faster and slower than MP
• 11 miles run by feel averaging 5:24
• 8 miles in 41 minutes 9 days out (last hard workout)

Obviously in a perfect world I would have been able to get in even higher volume workouts – I don’t count many of those as being truly marathon specific. However because I only had 4 weeks I knew that was the best I could do in the situation. I also ran twice a day essentially every day and got my highest volume weeks ever with a couple in the 120 range.

Olympic Trials Race Recap:

Obviously with dropping out at around 14 miles the race did not go well. This will more be about trying to explain my rationale than actually recapping the race, which I will do briefly:

I was thirsty from essentially the beginning despite drinking all morning consistently and about as much as I could without feeling bloated. The pace never felt comfortable and after coming through 5 miles at 5:20s I decided to slow down a bit and try to feel better. Despite backing off I felt worse every mile and after mile 11 I was running 6:00 pace and had been alone for some time. By mile 13 I had run a couple 6 minute miles in a row and was continuing to feel worse. Once I saw my friends I stopped to say hi and that I was stopping at the end of the current loop.

The race started at 10 am and the official weather readings do not tell the fully story. More telling are the finish times and the attrition rate:

• 166 men started, 105 finished
• 18 men broke 2:19, the qualifying standard to which all men should have been capable of

There is a long thread on Letsrun that started as one guy wondering how anyone could DNF the Trials and look themselves in the mirror after that. It turned into a fairly well balanced discussion, but reminded me a lot of when people argue about religious views – clearly no one was going to convince someone on the other side of their viewpoint and the endgame was guaranteed to be “agree to disagree.” I did not contribute, but since I DNF’d it should be clear that I side with the people who don’t think that it’s morally reprehensible to do so. The clear difference that I saw was that many of the people criticizing the choice to DNF were not elite, and qualified themselves as such. One guy who dropped out had this to say:

“A couple posters question the ethics of dropping out of a race, which seems strange to me as an elite runner. There's not "honor" in just finishing. No one really cares about what you're doing besides you. I could have walked the last 6 miles, but I didn't want to. I considered that more embarrassing than dropping out. Please don't apply your honorable code of ethics to a level of running you don't understand…I race marathons, you complete them. They are essentially different sports.”

The knee-jerk reaction to that last bit is to call this guy “elitist.” Well you know what? In this case that is a correct label! By definition he is an elite who is in a different league than almost all of the people criticizing his decision. I agree with this logic and probably would try to soften the language if pressed to explain it in person. Another person had this to say:

“In a perfect world, a lot more than 20 years down the road, I would rather not have to tell my grandkids I dropped out. But I live in the real world and dropping out is a calculated decision. I'd rather drop out than do long term damage or get injured pursuing a crappy result. Especially if I can get a good result in a spring marathon that would not have been possible otherwise. The runners who dropped out don't take doing so lightly but understand a DNF does not show a character flaw or lack of commitment, toughness, whatever the uniformed on this thread are suggesting.”

To me it was a simple decision. There was no value or “face” to save by slogging out a 2:40 marathon or worse – just completing a marathon is not my goal. I can go run a 2:40 marathon any weekend I choose by myself – I essentially ran that or faster 2 weekends prior to this in training. My goal in running is to run fast and beat people. Neither of which I was going to be able to do. I am not a masochist and I have no desire to metaphorically kill myself just to be able to tell other people (who know nothing about running) that I finished a race miserably and took myself out of commission for who knows how long. My self-esteem does not depend on what hobby joggers or nonathletes think of my results – let them look down their noses at a DNF if they want.

I only went to this race because this was the Olympic Trials.I would not have signed up to seriously run the LA Marathon the next day. I know there are better opportunities to run fast and I am not in the business of training hard to throw it away because of weather or any other factor. If I were in the hunt of making money at this race it would have been a different story, but I am not in that league and, again, there was nothing to be gained from brute-forcing my way to a terrible time.

Where to go from here: spring 2016

Now that that’s over and I’m not too beat up by the experience, I can look ahead at some spring races. Emily already has some good races lined up, so for the sake of convenience I will likely piggyback on her schedule, while adding some money races when I find them:

•           Club Challenge (low-key 10 miler for the Falls Road group), 2/27
•           Tim Kennard 10 miler (low key race with the group, has a bit of money), 3/6
•           St. Patty’s day 5k in Baltimore (has a bit of money), 3/13
•           Cherry Blossom, 4/3
•           Broad Street, 5/1

In terms of the training, I want to get back to basics. More general fitness training and less super-specific work, although I will be generally focusing on the 10 miler distance because I know I can race well over shorter stuff while doing strength work. It will be a good opportunity to maintain the fitness I’ve gained from half- and full-marathon training while bringing back a bit of the speedwork I’ve neglected.

Because I've basically been training very hard for big races non-stop since June, I will take this spring as a time to back off a little and mentally recharge a bit. Cherry Blossom and Broad Street are big races, but compared to pushing for an OTQ and then actually going to the Trials, they will be more low key and less of a pressure environment. I think it will be a fun spring.

Jax Bank half recap (OTQ) and the next 6 weeks

Well I guess the time says it all: 1:04:27 to punch my ticket to LA for the Olympic Trials. It definitely hasn't sunk in that I ran a 70-something second PR to get under the standard with time to spare, but as the race recap below shows there has probably never been a better chance to run a OTQ race.

http://www.1stplacesports.com/jm15halfres.htm

Race Recap...

The race was January 3rd, 2016 at 7am in Jacksonville, FL. At first glace probably not the best spot to have a distance race - I know I assumed it wouldn't be great weather since it's Florida, after all. Vacation spots and beaches are what comes to mind. However the weather in Jax at that time of year is, on average, perfect for this kind of race. The days leading up to Sunday were awful for running, but a couple cold fronts rolled in just in time and the weather on the day was about 50 and showers. Perfect for us, bad for spectators.

With 60 guys in the elite field (15 had already qualified) and a more than qualified pacer in Tyler Pennel, we started off and ran to my recollection perfect pace. 4:55 was Tyler's goal pace which would give us a slight cushion as 4:57 is the required average for 1:05:00. I started off at the back of the pack and very gradually moved up throughout the race as allowed to stay a few meters behind Tyler and the rest of the spearhead. I recall seeing about 15:27 through 5k, 30:40 or so through 10k and 49:33 through 10 miles. Right on pace for the OTQ.

As for me and how my personal race was going, I felt good. I struggle to attach any adjective to that word, because no word I can think of really encapsulates just how I felt good. Nervously good? Worryingly good? I was relaxed and within myself, but at the same time apprehensive and bracing for when it was going to get tough. The effort crept upwards from about 3-7 miles, when I expected it to start to get really tough. Surprisingly, it leveled off there and I was still able to draft off of a pack that was slowly but surely getting smaller with each mile. The next few miles passed uneventfully (never a better word than that to use in a race) and I knew I had the OTQ in the bag at around 10 miles. I still felt strong and able to respond to a move if I had to, so I just sat in the pack and let the remaining guys pull me down the highway through the remaining miles. To be sure, the mile markers seemed farther apart now than before, but I was not turning myself inside out like it was at Philly. I was working quite hard and really feeling it, but knew I was not over the red line. At about mile 12 I decided to take a pull at the front and push a little harder to see what I could do, and held that effort all the way in to the finish. No big kicks once I could see the clock - I wanted to savor it a little bit, and there was a big group around me all finishing. Officially I was 10th, but the place was, for once, secondary to the time today.

The next 6 weeks...

...I have to work on totally change my body over to the marathon. To any outside observer or casual runner, this doesn't sound like a big deal. It's just going up one distance right? As anyone who has had success at shorter distances and then jumped in a full knows, going from the half to the full is not at all the same as moving up from the 5k to the 10k or from the 10k to the half. The biochemistry and physiological (not to mention psychological) demands of the event are totally different than the half, or any other shorter distance races. I fully realize that 6 weeks is not even close to enough time for me to successfully realize my potential going from the half to the full, especially because I have done almost zero marathon specific training. No long runs, only a couple long sustained tempo runs. Lots of mileage but broken into relatively little pieces.

Going to LA will be more of an experience than a race. Obviously I am going to do my best in the race and in the next 6 weeks to see if I can at least PR - the weather looks like it's typically pretty good and it IS the Olympic Trials - but I have no delusions of being able to run the "equivalent" performance as indicated by this last race. Getting near 2:20 would be an excellent mark.

The training will be more of a crash course in long runs and long workouts. I'll fit in as many long runs (20+ milers, hopefully) as my body will allow and the density of the training will suck. Mileage may drop to allow for quicker recovery from those workouts, but I'll have to feel out the training and see what my intuition tells me. It's going to be a rough next few weeks, but realistically it's only going to be 4 hard weeks of training. How bad can it be?

Overdue late-cycle update

I've been meaning to put my current thoughts and feelings down on how my preparation for Jacksonville is going for a while and have given it enough time to turn over in my head. Quite honestly I am confident but still not sure if I have what it takes to get the OTQ in just under 3 weeks. I am confident because I've been training as hard as I ever have in my life since Philly, but still, 60 seconds over 13.1 is a lot to gain in terms of fitness in 9 weeks. I hope that I will get a little bit better pacing this time around and not go out too hard - I'll be right on the edge, so this might be all the difference I need.

Anyway, the training: all summer and fall I was running 90-100 a week with typically 2-3 workouts per week of varying intensity, all focusing on different facets of the goal race. My philosophy is no different now, but I am running about 15 mpw more than I was before (higher frequency of runs + better weather than summer/early fall), and the workouts themselves are of at least the same quality if not better. I had a rough period of adjustment to the higher workload and was feeling a lot of muscular fatigue, but I've been in a good patch for the last week and have run two of the best workouts of my life. With 3 weeks to go, I will keep training hard for another 1-1.5 weeks, with a race this weekend (5 miles) that I will run hard but train through, and then it's taper time.

This race looks like a once in a lifetime opportunity. The director has put together a huge field full of guys like me on the bubble, a good pacing group and has a fast course at the right time of year, both for weather and relative to the OT marathon. I think the most important thing about this race, and what makes it unique for a road race, is that it is a big group of fast guys all coming in with the same goal. It's the Stanford Invitational of the roads. Hopefully the weather cooperates and the pacing is good, because if I can get to 10 miles in something between 49:30 and 50 flat and not dying I give myself a good shot at running the OTQ.

Philly RnR 2015 recap

Obviously this run was not exactly what I was hoping for given that I ran exactly 60 seconds slower than the OTQ. After Army 10 miler a couple weeks back where I ran about a minute slower than I knew I needed to run to have a realistic shot at the OT, I knew right then it would take a miracle. But as the saying goes, there are no miracles in running. And I know there are especially no miracles with my running – I’ve always been the most consistent person I know since about 2005. I am also a little miffed that I didn’t even get  PR out of it – I ran 18 seconds faster 2 years ago. Comparing my training then, I was running slightly less fast in workouts but about 15 mpw more. I also ran that race in a style that suited me perfectly, rather than going out hard and minimizing blowing up like today.

I do want to say that, while I am disappointed with not getting the mark I wanted, I am NOT upset with the race. The effort was truly 100% all out. I am writing this two days later and I’ve been in a mental and emotional fog with the tank since the race, and physically quite sore in places I’ve never been sore in after a half (quads? shins? weird stuff).

Where to go from here? I have not finalized everything but my plan is to go to Houston and try for 1:05 again on 1/17. That will give me enough training time to make a difference and a race on what I think is the only faster half in the US than the one I just ran. As far as the training goes from here – I’ve been doing a lot of specific pace work and I know if I just keep hammering away at that under January I will get stale and in a rut, so I have to change something. Right now I plan to go longer and slower on the tempos and faster with a little more rest on the intervals – things like 60-90 minute tempos at 5:20-5:40 and 6 x mile @ 4:40-4:45 w/ 3:00 rest come to mind. This will be refined as I resume hard training, but this week will be very easy to recharge and then I’ll get back into it. I also want to start working out in the morning, both because of the time change and because I need to get better at hard efforts in the morning when all the races are.

About the race itself: Started off well and exactly where I wanted to be in the field - towards the back of the first big pack. Actually, next to Darryl Brown from PA, who I would run with for about half the race. I chose not to wear a watch, since in years past there were clocks at every mile and I don't like the additional mental strain that comes during a race from checking the watch and worrying about splits. This was a mistake. There was a clock at the mile mark that was about 25 seconds fast (went through that in 4:25 and I asked, aloud, whether that was right. Somebody laughed and said we were about 4:50) and no other clocks on the course, despite the miles being marked, timing mats out every 5k and even the mounting brackets for the clocks were set up. It wouldn't have made any difference to me even if there were clocks on course since I couldn't have run any faster, but it still would have been nice. 

After about 4 miles I began to fall off of the big OTQ pack. Darryl, two other guys and myself would form our own unit and work together until later. Around the spot where we went past the art museum and upriver, I hit a bad patch that lasted for about 10 minutes. I think this was where the too-fast pace of the early miles hit me and forced me to back off and regroup. The guys I was with were leading the pack now and I was just hanging on trying to get back under control. Around 7 miles I recovered enough to get back in my own rhythm and push the pace myself. Doing so dropped Darryl and the other guys started to slip off. Once we got to the turnaround bridge just before 9 miles I was dropping the last of my new friends and apart from catching maybe 2 guys who had blown up off the leader pack I would be alone to the finish. The last 4 miles was simply running as fast as possible. At 20k a pace car came by with a running clock on the back that said 1:03 something, so that's when I definitely knew it wasn't an OTQ day for me.  

Splits, as best as I can get them:

1 mile – about 4:50

10k – 30:58

10 mile – 50:14

13.1 miles – 1:05:59

Army 10 miler recap - 3 weeks to go until Philly

Yesterday I ran the Army 10 miler in DC. This is a fairly competitive race, about on par with the field I ran against in Broad Street two years ago. It was a perfect day and from what I knew about the race a fast, flat course. I was hoping for a new PR beating my (downhill) Broad Street time of 49:56 and my real goal was to run 49:30, the average mile pace I want to run in 3 weeks in Philly. I ended up not running nearly that well and came in at 50:25 for 8th overall.

Thing about the race I am happy with: It was a great training stimulus for Philly on 10/31, which is the real race that matters in the end. Even if I had run 45 minutes for this race if I can't put it together for the half it doesn't matter much. I was happy with my effort on the day and I think I put forth a good honest race effort. I was on the edge after about 5 miles and did a good job sitting right on the red line.

Things about the race I'm not happy with: I wanted to be running 5 seconds a mile faster with the same effort. Much of this was because I was alone for a lot of the race. I went out conservatively because I knew the top group was going out under 4:50s and I did not want to get caught up in that. Unfortunately for me there was a big gap between the top group and the rest of the field. I was pretty much the only guy in between the lead group and guys who finished 2+ minutes back. The only exceptions were the guys who tried to hang with the front pack and blew up, which happened to a few guys that I passed and one that I didn't. The effect this had on my race was that I went out slow in an attempt to run with a group (15:15 or so through 3 miles) and then struck out alone and started running ~5:00 pace after that. There was definitely some mental deflation that occurred after the first mile in 5:05 when I realized I wasn't going to have an amazing race. Perhaps that ended up slowing down by subconsciously not letting me push 100% in the tough, lonely middle stages of the race.

Overall I am not super happy with this, but I'm confident I can improve markedly on this in 3 week's time. I am assuming that there will be some guys shooting for the 1:05 mark just like I am and I'll have company for much of the race. I'll also see if I can fit in any last-minute speedwork to try and make 5:00 pace feel a little slower in the beginning stages - I know I'm strong, but I need to work on being a little smoother and confident in the beginning of the race.

Fitness checkpoint - Parks half marathon and training update

Yesterday (Sunday 9/13) was the first race in a while. I thought that with top 5 money and a sizable East African population nearby this race would be really competitive up front. Not this year. I came pretty ready to go but ended up having no competition and ran a controlled 1:08 to win. The weather was good but not perfect - much better than it has been for most of the summer. The course was net downhill by about 90 feet, judging by the course profile, but the first 11 miles (and very much the first 2 miles) are downhill and all of it is made up in the last 2 miles. Thus, I positive-split but my effort remained pretty level, maybe I ran a little harder in the last 5k but very controlled. 

This was a good hard workout that should not knock me out of normal training. I expect to be mostly recovered by Wednesday and I'll try to resume normal workouts then. Coupled with the good weather over the next week, I think this is a good time to really start getting after the workouts before 10/31. These last 6 weeks before Philly are when the specific work counts and I need to focus on maintaining the workouts that I've been doing lately and doing what I can to do my very best and see if I can get under 1:05. 

2015 Late Summer Update

This training cycle, my big goal (and I would say the biggest goal of my career so far) is to qualify for the 2016 OT marathon. Doing that requires one of two things: a half marathon under 1:05:00 or a marathon under 2:18 (B) or 2:15 (A). For me, deciding which is easier is a no-brainer. Also a no-brainer was the choice of what half to tackle - it's always Philly Rock n' Roll.

I've been training harder than I ever have during the summer in hopes of reaching this goal, despite the race being 5-6 weeks later this year. I've done my best to blend going by feel and smart planning together to strike balance of hard yet sustainable training.

As always in my running, I emphasize long aerobic endurance to go with race specific work. Maybe that's why I like the half - at this distance, those are synonymous. Lots of long tempos, lots of 5:00 pace work, with a little track and hill work sprinkled in to make the pace feel a little easier. Typical tried and true formula, on this year the mileage is a little higher because I can get in some doubles.

I've also got a few other races planned between now and Halloween (RnR).

8/29: Dread Druid Hills 10k - this is a race that my local running store puts on and for the first time it has money. $100 for the win, and while it's supposed to be a very hard course, I'll do anything for $100.

9/13: Parks half marathon - another race with money, and always draws in a few decent Kenyans. I hear it's not a super fast course, and never has gotten great people because of the races usually scheduled around it, but I think I'm in good shape and want to see what I can do for a half sooner rather than later.

10/11: Army 10 miler - Very very high quality race. 16 guys broke 50:00 last year, so this is the one I'm most excited about doing before Philly. This should be a great race.

I might get another one in between Parks and Army, but maybe not. Those are two big races that will take some time to recover from and I don't want to have to really sacrifice a lot of training time to constantly be ready to race before Philly.

On a completely different note: I figured out how to export my running logs since May 2010 on Athleticore into excel. I compiled a summary of 2010-2014 and deleted all the extra comments, leaving only the details of workouts and comments on races:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B34nWN0zJyCZLUJMeEI0MG9iakU/view?usp=sharing