Doing What I Can

another 9 tonight, 1:06:33, 7;24 avg pace or thereabouts

tried to run a little shorter today in prep for a 20 miler attempt tomorrow

long run tonight of 18.35, felt kinda crappy at the start but slowly morphed into a good run, had to stop several times for traffic, to jump a fence, and to give a lady directions, kind of irritating to break up the rythym, but it happens, my trail was blocked with construction (hence the fence jump), so i had to improvise, otherwise I probably would have got my 20 miles, but i will take almost 18 and a half, time was 2:13:35, 7:17 pace, the way out was a lot quicker cuz of net downhill and wind at my back, it was pretty chilly tonight, mid-40s with 25 mph winds pushing the wc into the mid-30s, tried to eek out a few strides afterwards but I was pretty beat, took an ice bath, will probably rest tomorrow, 57 miles in 5 days this week is wearing on me

later evening run tonight after the sun had gone down, pretty cool evening, in the low 40s, kind of weird because i ran a new course tonight and just guessed where I thought 6.5 was and i measaured it out to 6.55 which makes my week an even 63 miles. On another note, 63 miles in a 6 day week is a personal best for me, my all time record for weekly mileage is 64, but that was in a week where i ran all 7 days, this week would have easily been 70+ if i ran a 7 day week, regardless, i'll take the PR for a 6 day weekly mileage run. tonight's mileage was slow, aound 7:25-7:30 pace, just recovery run, did 8 strides after, starting a precipitous taper as my marathon is 2 weeks from tomorrow

9 on a beautiful early october evening in 1:03:57, 7;06 avg pace

On a side note, in the last 7 days, i have run 72 miles, a new 7 day personal best for me and an average of slightly over 10 per day. Not even feeling it a whole lot, a little sore in places, but pleasantly suprised with my body's resiliency. taper starts tomorrow with a needed rest day before a 47-51 mile cut week, followed by a 28-34 mile pre-race week.

treadmill tonight in lafayette, LA as it is really hot here this time of year still

treadmill.....

GI issues, from the treadmill no doubt, im so ready to head back to iowa tomorrow where the weather is conducive to running

morning treadmill sweatfest, blah

Beautiful weather tonight, cool and sunny, nice to get out on a real run after all week on the treadmill, i couldn't hold back, just felt too good to actually be running, ran the 13.25 miles on the trail in 1:33:11, 7:02 avg pace, did strides and ice bath afterwards, felt very easy tonight, which is a good sign for next weeks marathon

new shoes tonight, trying to get them broken in before the marathon, went pretty quick tonight, 53 and change, according to the map it was 7.7 total

marathon taper week, 6.5 on a beautiful evening in 46:35, 7:10 pace, strides after, last night of weights, very easy at that

easy run tonight with strides after

felt pretty easy tonight

pre race systems check

Finished my 2nd ever marathon this morning in des moines. Perfect weather, awesome course as usual. Here is the report.

Pre-race:

Woke up at 4:30 and had a white bread sandwich with a little turkey. Drove down to the race early to get a parking spot close to the start/finish. Given this is my hometown, I succeeded in finding a great, close parking spot. warm up was light, bout a half a mile of easy running. Wore a singlet, blue shorts and bright green arm warmers. Made exec. decision to go with my trainers, another oversight on my part was not getting a lighter pair of shoes beforehand and i realized i had done all my long runs in my trainers, so since I had foot issues on my first marathon, i figured i'd play it safe here, probably a smart choice. I Gu'd twice, at time instead of a mile, at 1:06:00 and 2:10:00.

Race:

Got started with a pack of people, perfect weather of 40 degrees and light winds. Was surprised to see the 3:05 pacer pass me in the first 2 miles, turns out he was booking it and probably dropped a lot of other runners. Here are my splits:

1-6:48.3

2- 6:47.6

3- 7:13.8 (all the hills are in the first half of this race)

4- 7:11.0

5- 6:52.1

6- 7:03.3 (41:56, 6:59 pace)

7- 6:58.3

8 &9- 13:37, missed the marker

10- 6:46.3 (1:09:18, 6:56 avg pace)

11- 6:44.4

12- 6:41.3

13- 7:01.8

HALF--1:30:31, 6:55 pace, felt amazing the first half, just easy running and the increase in pace was not accompanied with an increase in effort, I will make a side note to say that I had some GI issues early, just everything I took water, which i was at a lot of the early stations, good hydration was key this race, the water was upsetting my stomach, so at mile 7 i grabbed some gatorade and that actually seemed to calm down my stomach, something to note for future races

14- 6:47

15- 6:02.4-- Marker was off, likely a long one in the last 5 but i couldn't tell given my deterioration in pace

16- 6:40.7

17- 6:38.5-- on a beautiful, quiet trail here, was very positive and mentally and physically amazed at how good i felt

18- 7:15.8

19- 7:01.6

20- 6:59.9 (2:17:11, 6:52 avg pace, everything was going so well here...but this is where i crashed into the wall) it was intense how quickly things went from great both physically and mentally to bad. I ran the last 5-6 miles in a walk/run alternating, just couldn't avoid the stopping, just had to walk the aid stations and was in a lot of pain, miles 21-26 were this: 7:30, 7:40, 9:10, 9:03, 9:27, 8:52, 1:51 last .2, last 10k was 53:36, 10 min slower than my opening 10k, very, very disappointed in this outcome for the last 10k as i was feeling so good and was on pace to break 3 with ease, never underestimate the marathon

Final time: 3:10:47, 7:17 avg pace, not what I wanted, but a 15 minute PR given the issues in my first ever marathon, which was actually a more spectacular collapse than this one.

Post race-- pretty painful for a few days, but I am recovering faster than the first time, better nutrition, in better shape, overall more prepared this time, I need to learn how to run the last 10k of a marathon, I attribute this marathon collapse to my lack of long runs, i had a 16, a few 12-15s, but only one 18.5, just no time with work to get in longer, but that is when things started to go south, next time I will get at least 2 20s in. very key. Regardless, I am very proud to have finished #2 and i still set a PR for the marathon and probably for the 20 mile as well as I was very much intact at that point, may try to turn around and get another marathon in in a few weeks to see if i can capitalize on my "long run" of 26 being completed. really want to get this BQ past me.

in Baltimore for a conference, planes the day after a marathon can be rough..got on the mill early in the morning and it was pretty touch and go as i was in some pain, but loosened up ok to get in 4 miles very easy paced

morning treadmill again, still sore up in the quads, 5 very easy

8 miles easy this morning in a little over 58 minutes

started off with 6:58, then 6:31, then 6:19, then 5:51. Had some struggles on the way back with major GI issues, got out a long way and had to walk/run back with stomach pain, 7.5 probably total

another day with GI issues, not good at all, 5 miles barely

good run today between work and catching my plane to Phoenix, i called 3 of the miles tempo, but they were high end, overall a good workout. splits:

1- 6:47.5

2- 6:55.4

3- 6:45.0

4- 6:41:3 (27:09, downhill first half)

5- 6:29.8

6- 6:32.1

7- 6:40.5

8- 6:26.1 (26:10, uphill 2nd half, 1:00 negative split)

total--53:17, 6:40 avg pace

treadmill here in phoenix, got 9 in while watching the royals whoop up on the giants in game 6 of the world series, good workout with weights after, felt really easy, locked the treadmill into 7:13 pace

Decided to run a local 5k today as I am in Phoenix and wanted to get some faster stuff in. 2 mile warmup, then go started a good 5 minutes late. started with a small pack, but I led from pretty much 400 meters in. I settled into my pace and just rolled the rest of the race. Had no mile markers so i had no idea where I was at any point. I just set cruise on a hard pace and worked on my stride. I was amazed at how smooth and easy the run felt. I am in pretty good shape because it felt like a hard tempo effort and nothing more. I forgot how much I missed leading and winnignr aces, even small local ones. I came through the finish and clocked at 17:20 on my watch. I won by a little less than 2 minutes, which is suprising given this race is the ASU homecoming race and I figured some good local runners would show up. Regardless, phoenix did not dissapoint. Weather was great--sun just set almost right as the gun went off and the 90 degree heat of the day quickly cooled and you could feel the cooling coming in as night fell, very comfortable 85 or so for most of the race with low humidity, which made it feel cooler. Afterwards, I ran all the way around the ASU west campus, which was a little over 3 miles, 8.3 total today. This was a nice check of where I am because I havent done any speed and I figured under 18 would be good, but I will take 17:20 all day and i hope to keep improving. Not sure if I won anything for winning, i bolted after the race so I could watch game 7 of the world series.

drove up to flagstaff tonight to get a workout in at elevation, i figured it would be tough but important to at least do a day at elevation--flagstaff is at 7000 feet. found some trails and just ran by feel, had a total time of a little over 1 hour, came back and measured my route online and it came out to about 8.35. good workout, but certainly tough as well as hilly

morning treadmill run today, gutted out 6.5,

221 for the month, making October an all-time PB for mileage for me, ran on 27 of the 31 days, so just 4 rest days, but still that averages to somewhere at or near 9 miles per day