Of Mice and Marathons

Am/Lunch: 11.25 mile moderate but slow. HR 155.

Did 4 x 200 hard on the track in 34.9, 33.1, 32.7, 32.2 after 15k. Was hoping to pop off at least one 31 but no luck.

Weight is finally getting somewhat back down after many months. Most of my peak racing has been at 170-173 and I can never quite seem to blast though that 170 barrier. After reviewing some training from 3 years ago I saw that I was in the 164-168 range and I have no idea how or why. I must have been dehydrated all the time or something. A constant sore subject for me, but I'm still trying to get to 165 in peak shape. I think that will be a good weight if I can ever reach it. Need a job that doesn't have me working from home most of the time. I don't eat anything when I'm not here but the refirgirator and cupboard are pretty much visible from the computer. </end semi-annual weight complaints/whinning>

AM: 12+ miles total.

Since it was a hard effort I'm giving it a race report and calling it, based on Leo's naming, the Pfitzinger Invitational (he follows Pfitzinger who has half marathon plans that use 10k time trials if you can't find a race)

Leo was looking for someone to do a time trial with, so I figured why not. I was going to do some 800s or 400s today to sharpen up for next week. This time trial sounded less fun and likely not my smartest idea given that it's 8 days out from a key race but I'm tapering quite a bit so I figure I'll be fine.

Yesterday was warm and windy, today was cool, rainy and mostly calm. A perfect day for a time trial as far as I am concerned. If you are going to do a time trial. I'm not much for time trials and I don't run hard tempos more than 4-5 miles as a general rule. Anyway.

Warmed up to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, but they were having a meet. We drove to Springfield (a lack of diversity in the names of schools it would seem). We warmed up 2 miles in the neighborhood and did just a few strides. I had asked Leo what he wanted last night and he wanted sub-36, which was faster than I was planning to run for the full distance but thought I might take him through 5k-5 miles depending on feel. This left my 400-800-1200 pacing around 1:26-2:52-4:19 once we got going. I wasn't quite able to get down to 5:45 pace as my legs just weren't turning over. However, I did have sole pacing duties for almost 9200 meters of 10000, so I think I did okay.

Leo and Jonathan pulled out around me just before 800 meters to go. Jonathan looked strong as he always does even after 8 weeks of low mileage and injury. Leo stuck with it and picked up the pace as well. He's done some of these time trials solo, which I find impressive. He runs well off of 55-60 miles a week. I've only broken 36 for a stand-alone 10k a few times and that was off much higher mileage.

1600 splits + the 400 split

5:50.1, 5:47.3, 5:49.1, 5:49.6, 5:50.6, 5:50.3, 1:24 (174 avg. HR)

3 mile easy back home and uphill.

PM: 40 minutes on the elliptical (audio book pace). Stretching and core.

PM: 10 miles slow. HR 127.

Got out late as I was up late being stupid. It was cold and windy but I enjoyed my run.

PM: 10 miles easy. HR monitor wonky. ~132-134.

Had bit of trouble getting out of bed this morning, so I ran after Megan and I got home. Cool and light rain. Nice run.

AM/Lunch: 10 miles quite easy. HR 135. Did some strides.

Spoke too soon on the racing weight #mustberaceweek Quite chilly outside for this time of year (hat, gloves, and baselayer). Nice run though.

AM: 9.5 miles. HR 142.

Pre-Race Sharpening Workout: 2 x 1600 (400) + 4 x 200 (200)

5:44, 5:46.8
35.7, 35.3, 34.1, 32.7

PM: 6.25 miles easy. Tapering.

Went out after teaching and a nap. Feeling okay. Trying to keep stress levels down so I can focus on running something respectable on Sunday and not embarrass myself like last spring. I've not had much luck running halfs when not in marathon training (though I guess I haven't run too many stand-alone half marathon since I started putting up real mileage in 2013). Except Philadelphia Rock and Roll 2013. I had magic in my flats that today.

PM: 6.25 miles. Did 8 x 200 descending on the track.

Starting at 5k pace and working down, averaged about mile pace. Short and easy tomorrow.

+ Stretching, core, and pushups

Bib #15. I checked some other low bibs. Some are sub-55:00 10 milers, others have posted some pretty pokey times so I have no idea what I am seeded.

Wind looks like it shouldn't be terrible Sunday morning. It will, however be very cold 28-30 degrees. I should probably have some arm bands or something. That's a touch cold for a singlet but I've done it fairly often.

AM/Lunch: 4 miles. Did a few strides.

It was snowing. Individual Snowflakes, the size of snowballs, falling at snowglobe pace.

Should be ready to go for tomorrow. Plan is to keep most of the race in the 5:40s except for mile 7-8, which looks a bit nasty, until mile 8 and then pick it up, giving it heck the last 5k, which is basically the same as the last 5k of the Rock and Roll. I dropped about 20 seconds off from my time on that last fall.

A- goal <1:16:02 (a PR)

A goal <1:15:30

A++ goal <1:15 (unless I am underestimating my fitness this might take a few more cracks)

I hope I have a good race. I really need it.

AM: 17 miles. Philadelphia Love Run

I had a rough day. The half is my best distance and it didn't show that today. I ran better than my embarrassing 1:20 time last spring but this was not great. And I'm a bit embarrassed that I was so far off goal and what I've been able to run in good shape in the past. I'm not quite sure what happened. Did I overestimate my fitness? I don't think so. sub-75 was a stretch I knew but I though a PR chance was a reasonable goal. A few things here and there that I should have been better about and an off day I guess.

I picked Megan up from the airport at 12:00AM or so and got to bed late around 1:00 and couldn't fall alseep. I rarely go to bed before midnight before a race. This is something that needs to change.

It was a chilly and deceptively still morning. I warmed up 2 miles and felt really good. I never feel good on a warmup for any workouts or races. Not that good. Met Jonathan in the corral and told him what I was shooting for.

We got out in 5:46, which was maybe 2-4 seconds ahead of plan but managable. The next mile was a 5:33. I have no idea how. This seems off but both my Garmin and Strava have it down as such (must be true, right?). I forgot to turn my autolap off so the rest of the splits were junk given the issues in the city with the buildings and early splits.

Miles 1-4 in the city. Felt pretty good. Well, normal.

Miles 5-7 had a headwind that wasn't bad but it took my drive from me

Mile 8 was a nasty, twisty, uphill grinder with turns and some rough pavement.

Mile 9 I got back a bit after coming back down the hill. I hit about 5:45 here and knew my day was done. It was done by mile 6 really.

Mile 10 I got to final turn around and headed back down MLK Drive (more or less the final miles of the RnR course) and I got side stitches. This happens rarely to me and almost always in a marathon. Only once in a half and it was 70-75 degrees and humid (and I ran 1:18:30 that day).

The final miles I was trying to get rid of the stitch. Two guys passed me and then two more and I didn't really care; I wanted to jump in the Schuylkill. I lost my top ten finish right then, which is what I should have been focusing on as my time went out the window. I tried to get those guys but they ran the last 5k @ 5:35 pace after a 60-minute 10 mile split.

I was sucking air when I hit the finish but the overall effort didn't feel that hard. I just couldn't move. I pouted for a while then cooled down 2 miles. Cut it short as I wasn't feeling it and my stomach was going south. Felt pretty ill for a while this afternoon.

I want to pore over my training and find out what I did wrong, but I don't think I'll find it. I thought for sure with good workouts and a decent 5k PR I would have the speed to carry me through to a PR. I felt like I was running in sand and tried to surge to get my legs to fire faster than 5:50-6:00 put it wasn't working.

I'm tempted to take a day or two off and just run whatver feels right and run Broad Street with Megan and decide what to do from there and scrap an pre-determined summer plans for Beach to Beacon.

PM: 5 miles easy. HR 134. Fairly sore.

Off.

Still sore. Not quite marathon sore, but pretty close. Very odd. Too short a cool down and bad hydration mostly likely. I had a lot of work to do today and I am still at it. Might run tomorrow, might not. Likely in the afternoon if I do.
 

Off.

I'm coming down with a cold. I didn't feel like running in general.

PM: 10 easy.

Nice afternoon. Felt like crap from the race and a mild cold. Trying to decide what direction my running is going to take.

PM: 10 miles or a little more (forgot to restart GPS). Did some strides.

Still feeling like crap mentally, physically, and existentially. Not sure if I'd calling TOD on the spring racing season or not. I am also trying to decide if I want to just do a long base training period going into a fall marathon. Summer training in Philadelphia is pretty rough when you are carrying around a 175 lb frame.

AM/Lunch: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 14.5 miles, averaged 7:04

8-Mile AT/SS Tempo in 49:47

6:20, 6:16, 6:16, 6:14, 6:09, 6:08, 6:11, 6:10

Effort was definitely crossing the zone but I felt pretty good until the last mile, at which time I was ready to be done. It's been a while, far too long, since my last aerobic tempo. I thought I would do this one today whether or not it really does anything for Broad Street. It was fairly warm but dry and with a breeze it felt cool when I was cooling down.

Probably my third fastest 8-mile tempo, but I am fairly rested if somewhat sick and still recovering. Definitely my fastest with a sizable hangover; that's for sure. I think I broke 50 minutes this past fall once and I broke it winter 2014 running with my former running partner, Patrick.

PM: 40 minutes on the elliptical. Stretching .

PM: 10 miles moderate.

Not good recovery. My HRM is all messed up and I'm off my leash. I'm in that state of thinking where I think I am running too slow on my easy days (7-7:30 is too fast for recovery as I did today obviously) but 9:15-9:45 might be too slow and trying to run under 130 BPM for most of the run is too easy. This is my "I'm still trying to figure out what happened two weeks ago" theory of the day.

PM: 10 miles. 

Unplanned day off.

A long day when running just isn't going to work unless I get on the treadmill at 9:30. Thankfully Broad Street is no longer a target race. I will move today's planned workout to Wednesday, leaving one regular workout left instead of two. Ready to move on to another period of training anyway.

PM: Treadmill - 4.4 miles in 30 minutes. Blown workout.

That was a dumb idea. Started a 4-5 mile tempo a bit too fast. Felt good but quickly went south. Slowed the pace then hated myself in my head and called it. After a long day 9:45 PM on the treadmill is just not a good time to do a workout. I thought I was going to be ok.

AM: 5.3 miles.

Started a workout and then pulled it. I didn't follow my advice that I adopted from Jake and have benefitted from greatly. In fact, I gave someone the same advice the other day: "Move on to the next workout as planned. Do NOT try to repeat the workout."

Plan was to run 10-15 x 1k starting around 3:35 or a little slower and cutting down. I got 3:36 on the first one and 3:39 on the second. Nope. You knew it was a really dumb idea. You did it anyway. Say what you what in your head, but wait until later to type your entry.

PM: 7.7 miles.

Good run other than a bunch of Swedish Fish trying to escape the whale's stomach.

PM: 10 miles.

Lower 70s, dry and pleasant. Next to fall, this is my favorite time of year to run. Warm enough that a pair of split shorts and shoes are the only requirements. Dry enough that 7:15-7:45 feels fast easy.

PM: 10 miles. Fairly moderate and hilly.

PM: 10.25 miles steady easy to fairly moderate.

Tired and hungover. Pleasant weather though.

PM: Flourtown Tempo Loop - 14.25 miles, averaged 7:14

8-Mile Aerobic Builder in 51:25 (6:26 average).

A bit slower than I would have liked (13 seconds slower than last week) but the effort was there. Warm and very dry. I was working a bit too hard in the last half mile. Too dehydrated most likely.

6:28, 6:33, 6:27, 6:24, 6:24. 6:23, 6:22, 6:20 

Unplanned day off.

Didn't run this morning and felt very lethargic this afternoon. Took a very long nap that required a few Inception-like kicks to get out of. The weather for Broad Street looks good. I don't expect a fast time, which is fine. It will be nice to run without any firm goals.

Night: Treadmill - 8.5 miles moderate. Did a few strides.

Did 10 minutes each at 8.5, 9.0, 9.5 for the faster portions. I was getting gassed at the 50 minute mark at 9.5. It was 8 of 11 when I got done. That's too late to run but I avoided another 0.

The weather for Broad Street looks ideal. My lofty goal of running low-5:40s is way out the window. I will likely run with Jonathan (whom I barely held off in the half) and Leo and just see what happens. The course is quite fast and about 150 feet of drop over 10 miles. You won't find a course in the world that is more point-to-point.

Unplanned day off.

Fairly hard depression coming on. Don't have the desire to do much of anything.

Evening: Treadmill - 7.1 miles easy. Incline increases per mile: 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 4.0, 3.0 + strides.

This week is looking like a rookie taper from the outside. Hoping for just "halfway decent" on Sunday then change gears and focus.

Lunch: 6.25 miles progression. Did some strides after.

Feeling pretty lousy. Hip is feeling imbalanced. No core work or stretching for what must be a couple weeks so I am not surprised. I should run Broad Street with Megan and enjoy it but I'm stupid enough to think I can surprise myself.

PM: 4 miles with Megan.

Quite enjoyed our 38 minutes together. I did a two brief strides.

This week was pretty much a marathon taper (maybe more severe) but for a 10 miler. The last four weeks did not go as planned. Trying to think that no matter what happens tomorrow I still got a 5k PR early, which hasn''t happened in probably three years.