Boston Strong

As the wind blows ... but it really wasn't blowing!  Set out to do a 9 mile run in 90 degree heat.  At 2.5 miles, I turned down an access road to the lake that provided a little shade cover.  Hit the lake at 5k (22:38), took a short break and thought about doing a 3 x 5k at same pace.  One mile into the second one, I hit pace in the first mile but had to struggle up a long hill at the end to do it.  I looked up at the running gods, and I am pretty sure I heard them say it was time for a 2 mile cool down ... so I eased up, made it back to the car & called it a day!  Not sure why I did not do the out and back starting parked at the lake ... the water sure would have felt good when I was done.

7:20, 7:24, 7:11, 7:17, 8:25, 8:19

I think I need to go see a shrink. I used to think getting fast was cool ... I have now reached the point where I am intimidated by my own race paces.  Maybe it is just the heat having effects on me, but I definitely am not comfortable running under 7 minute miles, and I have to crush that pace if my race times are going to improve anymore!

Pretty hot and hilly ... 90/50% ... was going to run 10 ... thought I was going to throw up around 5, so took a short walk break & took the direct route back to car.

went to spin class, then was going to do some speedwork on treadmill.  I dont like treadmills, so decided a half mile at 8:30pace was good, and went to Cracker Barrel for a big breakfast.  may hit a track later, but since I don't like heat either, I may opt for college football and beer!

 Felt guilty, so went on a really slow, hot trail run with a half mile downhill sprint at 4:51 pace.  OAP: 9:56/mi 

Just a quick tune-up for tomorrow.  (6) 400's at race pace with 400 recoveries.  This felt easy, which I guess 10k pace should feel easy when you are only going 400 meters!  Doning that 25 consecutive times ... that will not be so easy.  Hoping for a bunch of race day mojo ... high probability of running in torrential rains!  At least I won't be hot!

Nothing too exciting to report here, 72 deg with 90+% humidity and some light rain.  Running fast in humidity makes me want to throw up.   Started out right on target pace first 2 miles, started getting hard in Mile 3, by Mile 4 stomach was not feeling so good, so switched modes to just trying to hang on to sub 7's.

Although I did not hit my time goal, I will never complain about running 6 sub 7's, and I did finish with a strong 1/4 mile kick at the end.  On a positive note, I felt like I could have maintained sub 7's for a long time, but I just did not have it in me today to crank out faster miles.  I believe a big part of racing is mental, and i just did not have the mental strength to push my limits today.

 I was pleased with my effort, but a little disappointed when I heard the results ... I finished 5th, but 3 people beat me by 12 seconds ... and I was not pushing hard until the last quarter mile ... so mental weakness cost me 2nd place in AG & a nice picture frame with digital time & temp. Well, at least it was not a gift certificate or cash!

It was a pt to pt race, so I got a 2 mile warm-up in before at 8:00 pace, probably a little faster than I should have, but cut it close on getting to the start line on time!  3 mile cooldown at 8:30 pace to get to car and head for a big breakfast!

Cool weather ... still a little humid, but cant complain!

1/2 mile hill intervals on pavement with focus on downhill speed, then a 3.5 mile cooldown on trail.  Wanted to do a few more, but opted for colldown miles on trail.  Downhill intervals are fun, but getting back to the top is brutal, I might need to hire a driver for this workout!  :)

1/2 mile hill intervals, 6 down, 5 up, 1 mile cool down.  Planned on a little longer cool down, but legs were pretty spent.  2 more intervals than yesterday, but shorter cool down.  Also backed off down hill pace a tad, but increased up hill a tad.  About 30 second rest recoveries at both top & bottom.

 Time for beer & Football!

Marathon training should have been 10miles, 5k race tomorrow should have been day of rest.  Split the difference and settled on 5easy trail miles.  Guess i will be running long on Sunday to make up for it!

A great day! Fast course, but Mile 2 was tough!  My son was running this race too, and he wanted to go for a sub  20, with his backup goal of sub 20:15, as that is what is needed to be subseeded at Peachtree next July 4.  I knew this should be a PR race for me, but with all the hill work I did this week, I tried to do the noble thing and asked Alex if he wanted me to pace him to a sub 20 on the drive to the race.  My legs cringed when he said 'no, I got it, go for your PR'

We got there about 15minutes early, did some stretching and downhill strides to warmup.  The race starts off with a big downhill to wake your legs up, or should I say put them in a state of shock! I gave him the best pacing advice I could offer and wished him well.   

My stretch goal was sub 18, but did not honestly think that was possible on tired legs, that is a 5:45 pace.  My secondary goal was to try to hold under a 6:00 avg pace, which would also insure i got a PR.

First mile was fast, i took advantage of the big hill, and hit the Mile mark at  5:40.  This is pretty much where I wanted to be, but I immediately knew a sub 18was out of the question, as that was the biggest downhill, and shortly into Mile 2 there was a big uphill and then a long flat section.  My Mile 2 split was 6:22, i was very happy with this.  Mile 3 started with another decent size uphill, but the last 0.8 miles of the race was pretty much downhill.  I started pushing harder at start of Mile 3, knowing that when I crested the hill it would be smooth going from there.  

Just before Mile 3 I was able to pass the runner I had been trying to reel in.  Unfortunately, after him there was no one close enough to set my sights on, but the thought of not getting passed by anyone helped me keep pushing.  Mile 3 split was 5:50, it had lots of downhill! i finished the last 0.14at a 5:09 pace, which is pretty strong, but my legs really never felt like they had another gear, which usually they do in the last 1/4mile.  I was pleased with 18:34 &a new PR.

I ran back about 100 yards from the finish where I could still see the clock &look for Alex.  Right on cue at about 19:45he came into sight and was looking strong.  I started yelling for him to put the hammer down and get the sub 20.  He was cruising past people and making me really proud! My yelling got louder!!

He finished in 19:55! He was totally psyched ... and considering he has only been ruuning 4 months, so a pretty awesome time for a inexperienced 14 year old!   

Something tells me that by next year we will be racing each other! Today, we both won 1st in Age Group   :)

 Ran a mile cool down after the race & then 9.6 miles at a 9:30 pace in the afternoon.

I looked at my Garmin activities page, and realized that after my since my 18 mile run on August 12, I have only done 1 run over 10 miles, that was 12 a couple weeks ago.  So I decided to mix it up today with some more miles.  I also biked 16.6 miles today.

 I biked 8.3 miles to Lake Lanier Islands at 15 mph.  I decided to explore a little to try to make the run more interesting ... I ran a couple miles of boat docks, on the golf course, roads, trails, through a campground, along the rocky shore line, and on some horse trails.  Variety kept me distracted, and sure enough I got in my planned 15.  I then rode 8.3 miles back at 15.7 mph.

Pretty good workout, I am tired!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/113665903

80 deg/50% ... not too bad.  I think we have next 3 days hitting 90 & that will be it for the year!  Forecast high of 72 for Saturday, hope that is accurate, as I have a super hilly trail Half with close to 5,000' of climb & descent.

My legs are feeling the higher mileage, but they felt a little better as the run progressed.  As a mens of measuring my improvement, I decided to look at my St. George splits from last fall where I got my BQ with a 3:20:49 .... my fastest split was 7:05 & I only had 8 miles where I went under 7:20 pace.  I am pretty excited about this, as 6:30 miles downhill have become relatively easy for me ... so I conclude I am light years ahead of where I was.  The only question now is how my legs are going to respond the last 8 miles after cranking out 18 faster miles ... and that is something I guess we never know until race day!

Was happy with today's run, just wanted 8 minute miles.  I saw a friend walking there dog at the 3 mile mark and walked about half a mile with her ... and got to refresh my water bottle from her fridge!  Every couple miles from there I took about a 30 second breather to hydrate.  This helped my pace to be a little higher while staying relatively comfortable.

 PM  -  Went to Alex's cc meet  and did 14 strides of about 115meters each on the football field, totaling 1mile, OAP: 4:53

Also ran some around tghe course to cheer Alex on, but not counting that!  Course ended with about  350 meters on the track, so I met him at 400 meters to go, clock read about 18:50, so I told him to put the hammer down and go for the sub 20, and then proceeded to chase him around the track egging him on.  probably the most obnoxiour (or supportive)parent there depending how you look at it.  He has a relatively good kick & finished strong , but crossed in 20:01.  Guess i should have met him 20meters earlier!  lol  Still  a great race for him, much tougher course than last Saturday, and alot hotter.  He was mad he missed by a second, but i told him he got an A for effort in my book, being only 6seconds off his Saturday time.  Meeta are fun, makes me wish I was in high school again!

Minor Details!

Well, I excitedly went to register for Boston this morning as it opened up to those who beat their qualification time by 10 minutes ... unfortunately they updated the requirements to state, 

"Important Note:  the 59 seconds allowed for qualifying times aren't applicable for those registering before Monday, September 19."

Yep, that excludes me!  Guess I get to try again Friday, when it opens up to those who beat their time by 5 minutes!  It will be interesting to see at what point it sells out, and if they will provide any statistics as to what percentage full the race capacity is at the close of each wave.  I am positive I will get in as I will be one of the faster ones registering in the BQ minus 5 minute registration window, but I am sure there are thousands of people that did not qualify by more than 5 minutes, that are anxiously awaiting to see if they will be granted entry!

Another day of rest ... Yea!

Will be rested for my trail Half this weekend ... and the cooler temps!  :-)

Going to Roger Daltry concert tonight.

I have been offered the opportunity to be a pace leader for the 3:45 group (8:30 pace) for the Soldiers Marathon in Columbus, GA in November.   I think this would be a fun experience and a great way to get a long training run in ... although I am not too sure how I feel about running 26.2 three weeks after racing a downhill marathon at all out speed. 

 I have a day to think on it.

Went out for an easy run for lunch ... 2.5 miles to a 6" Subway Italian value meal ... took a little detour on the way back to get a couple more miles.  Low battery popped up at Mile 6, so I threw down a faster last mile just in hopes of recording the whole run ... which it did.

Boston registration submitted!  Read an interesting article that projects that reg is already over half full.  Based on submission confirmation numbers, which are issued in chronological order, they were up to over 9,000 registrations just a couple hours after opening up to those who beat there times by 10 minutes.  This morning it opened up to the 5 minute group, my submission number, which was issued at precisely 10 AM, was 10,968 ... there are approximately 20,000 slots issued to qualified runners.  Of course, this could be a farce, because I don't think anyone can confirm the first submission granted was number 1 ... but they are definitely progressively going up in number, one at a time!  lol  I think it may sell out today .... but if it does not ... there will not be many slots left when it opens to all qualifiers next week.  I wish this was not the case, and hope that all that got a BQ and wish to get in ... do!

 Still debating if I will run today ... cool weather in the low 70's ... but I am doing a super hilly trail Half in the morning.  Probably a few miles later just to loosen things up.

Fun trail Half Marathon, basically a training run for Oct. marathon.  Started out in 5th and held that for the first 4 miles, when I was joined/passed by a good friend who was also running.  He really helped me out pushing the pace from Miles 4-8, where I had to do frequent 'bursts of speed' to stick with him.  We chatted some, but that was killing me going up the hills!  Had I been out there alone through this section, there is no way I would have maintained the pace he carried us to.  We passed one guy in this section ... the other 3 were never in my sight after Mile 2 of the race.

At Mile 8, he briefly stopped for water, and I continued figuring he would be right behind me, as he only stopped a few seconds, surely he was no more than 10 yards behind me ... this happened to be on a brief downhill pavement section, which I strided out, figuring it was my turn to pull the load for a bit.  I realized he was slowly dropping back, and at about 8.5 the trail took a looping turn, so when I saw him about 50 back, I yelled out for him to keep pace with me!  I was just about to slow down a little and wait for him, when I saw another runner only about 20 yards behind him running strong.  I felt bad because I really wanted to wait and run with him, but by the time he would have caught me, the other guy would have been out in front and off to the races.  I figured if he had it in him, he would pace with the guy passing him in pursuit of me.  I held pace and continued on.

 Sure enough, next time I looked back, the guy was about 50 behind me & my friend about 20 behind him ... I kicked it up a notch as I did not want the guy getting closer!  For the next 4 miles I played a little game of cat and mouse with him ... every time he got within 50 yards, I would throw in a burst of speed after rounding a corner ... so by the time he saw me again, my lead would have increased.  This happened at least 6 times ... I know he had to be pushing hard as he was closing the gap on me ... but my spurts would just lengthen it back out.  Had to be frustrating for him, and I figured if he ever put down enough to catch me, I would crush him in the last half mile.  I fought off the urge to let him catch me just so I could race him at the end, and held the comfortable lead to the end.  His pursuit really helped me keep the effort up the last 4 miles, again ... if I had been out there alone, I would have run the same pace, but without all the surges ... which made it a more beneficial training run ... forcing me to maintain pace when I was more winded/fatigued from the sprints.

 All in all, I was pleased with the pace, effort, and result - and it was good race prep for my marathon.  The weather was totally awesome ... mid 50 at start, low 60's at finish.  I am happy when I am running in cooler weather!!

Perfect Recovery Day.  Met a friend at the Greenway at 7 am, who is a guy in his 60's, a Vietnam Vet with a foot disability, but a dedicated runner.  We ran 7 miles at a 12:30 pace.  Upon return to the parking lot, met another friend at 8:30, who is striving for a BQ, using the Galloway walk/run method.  She runs for 4 minutes, then walks for about 20 seconds.  We ran 14 miles at an average running pace of 8:30.  I just stopped my watch for the walk breaks. 

While I am not a big fan of the walk/run method, this was probably perfect recovery for me after racing 13.1 yesterday.  I was out on the path for almost 4 hours, and completed my first ever training run of over 18 miles, even if it was slow and a little unconventional.  I have read before that time on your feet running is more important than pace on long, slow runs.  Not sure how the walk/run affects the mileage value, but figure the distance had to be beneficial for me in preparation for my marathon.

 Afternoon recovery:  Football & Beer!

Dear JG,

This is to notify you that your entry into the 116th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 16, 2012 has been accepted, provided that the information you submitted is accurate.

Sincerely,

Boston Athletic Association 

 6 mile progressive run with 1 mile cooldown at 9:45 pace

5 @ 8:20 pace, 1.5 @ 9:40 cooldown

I am establishing a new pace, which I will call High Sensory Pace - dedicated for runs exploring new trails, enjoying scenery, and just reflecting on life with creative thinking.  Something like a 'slow down and smell the roses theme'! Or yes, otherwise known as a Recovery run!

 Today that pace was 9:25.  7 miles around the trails at George Peirce Park.  Looping asphalt trails evrywhere, mostly shaded through forest, around some ballfields, and some dirt trail offshoots for a couple miles.  It was a cool run, lots of path intersections, didn't know where I was half the time, but they all loop back together at some point.  Very convenient to having access to cooler, a good place for a 20 miler.

Tomorrow will be Hill repeats, rest Friday, 10 mile race Saturday ... then maybe a long slow run Sunday to cap off a good mileage week.  30 Days to go, and the last 14 won't involve much.

I was looking at my mileage and noticed that yesterday I passed double the miles I ran all last year.  I ran  a Garmin report and realized that I have run over 3 times the distance ytd, as last January to October I only ran 400 miles.  I still struggle with higher miles, last week was the first time I put together 50+ mile back to back weeks.  I hope to make that a string of 4 weeks, before starting the taper for my marathon ... so at least they should be coming at a good time.

It will be interesting to see how this 'triple' the mileage pays off in my marathon.  It better pay off big in the last 6 miles, or I may never run over 30 mpw again!  Oh well, as they say, "trust your training" ... so I guess I am off to do some suicidal hill repeats.    

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Goal was to keep overall avg pace under 7:00.  This made me keep pushing on the uphills.  At the end of 5 down/5 up half mile inervals with approx. 190' elevation change, my overall AP was 6:57, so mission accomplished.  The two mile cooldown skews the data that mattered to me.

This is the identical workout I did Sept 8, except I did a longer cooldown, so I added a column with the splits from 9/8 ... overall I ran stronger ... unfortunately did not wear HR monitor on 9/8.

I purposely ran my 5th downhill interval at an easier pace, trying to find a pace I was comfortable at sustaining for a much longer period of time.  I was probably still a little fast, but my goal in the marathon is to be able to run about 7 of the steeper downhill miles around 6:00 to 6:10/mile.  I ran the last interval for my fastest time - 4:48  woohoo, time to cooldown!

Timing was perfect, after last downhill interval the sirens started going off advising people on river they were doing a water release from the dam ... which is a couple miles from where I stand, because I do this workout on a road that goes from the road at top of dam down to a parking lot at the base of the dam.  Why is this significant?  Because when tey release the water from the depths of Lake Lanier into the Chattahoochee river the water rises very quickly, and with that the temperature by the river colls down like 10 degrees ... you feel like you are in air conditioning!  So I ran on a trail along the river for a mile, before starting my mile journey back up the trail to my car at the top.

Easy 3 @ 8:45 to shake things out & loosen legs up for tomorrow.  Hopefully legs will have some more life in them in the morning, as I don't think they would have given me much more tonight if I asked!

This was a great 5/10 mile race put on by ATC, 2 loops for 10 miler.  This was pretty much designed to be a solid training run for me, and it served that purpose well.  My goal was to run 10 sub 7 miles ... and I accomplished that for the most part.

Alex ran the 5 mile, so we paced each other the first loop.  He had two classic lines ... first at 3.2 miles he said he was dying (he is used to cross country 5ks & has never raced over 5k ... I thought the timing of that comment was funny.  Second, at about 4.5 miles, he said, "I gotta take a crap, gotta go" ... at which point he proceeded to drop me!  He finished in 33:59, avg pace of 6:47, and won 1st in his Age Group.

Mile 6 was lonesome, lost my running buddy & no one else around, alot more people do the 5 miler.  Pace dropped off a little here.  Got passed somewhere in Mile 7, so picked it up a little.  My legs were really stiff from Thursdays hill workout, I kinda checked out mentally at the 7 mile mark & figured I would take an easy mile so I could finish strong ... I was really surprised I actually held onto a 7 minute pace here for Mile 8, as I was not really in the game & concerned about my legs.  Mile 9 I got passed by an ATC competitive team female, so I went stride for stride with her for a 1/4 mile.  Maybe she did not like that, as she quickened the pace & I fell in behind.  I knew she was an experienced runner that would finish strong, so I just tried to stay within 20 yards. 

In Mile 10, she passed a runner, who I drafted behind for a while.  He looked back and told me drafting was free.  I told him to just keep in striking distance of the girl, and I would repay the favor at the end.  About a 100 yards later, he said she was pulling away, so I passed him and told him to cmon ... he was hurting ... he didn't.  I gradually closed the gap from 20 to 10 to 5 strides ... then waited to see my son, to turn it on.  He was about 200 meters from the finish & told me it was time to sprint.  Well, I did not actually sprint cuz this was a training run, but I did make the pass and lengthen the lead to the finish. 

I forgot I had turned Autolap off on my last training run, so had to use the Garmin player to record my split times.  My Garmin said I ran a 6:50 pace & covered 10.15 miles, for purposes of my mile splits I just spread the extra distance over each mile, based on where I had a data point.

1.02     6:55     6:55

2.03     7:09     14:04

3.03     6:46     20:50

4.05     6:52     27:42

5.09     6:53     34:35

6.10     7:16     41:51

7.09     6:56     48:47

8.10     7:03     55:50

9.14      6:51   1:02:41

10.15    6:41   1:09:22

Glad I ran the 10 miler, but there were times I was thinking why didn't I just do the 5!  Well, obviously I need the mileage ... but I think it is also a good thing I did not have to race my son the last 1/2 mile, not sure I would have liked the result, and never would have heard the end of it!  It was great to be able to run the first half of my run with him though!

Oh, and I also met fellow FRB blogger Timp, that was cool, and I think we are both doing the ATC 10k next weekend.  Maybe I will chase him for as many miles as I can! 

8 with Alex at 8:20 AP 

PM - 4.5 easy, agilty run, 3 miles around shoreline of lake and 1.5 on trail that loops around point.  AP -9:37.  Shoreline running involved lots of rocky sections which required lots of lateral movement.  This would be fun on fresher legs at a faster pace, a really good soccer crosstraining trek.  

Woke up this morning definitely feeling the effects of 87 miles in the last 9 days, including both a trail half marathon and a 10 mile races.  All though neither of theses were all out race efforts, they were definitely 23 miles of hard running at marathon pace effort.

I decided on a day of rest, but got in 3.8 miles of easy pace, soft surface running, hoping that effort might provide some recovery benefit without putting additional stress on my legs.  The jury is out on that one, but I am trying to include more light mileage, easy running days for recovery, to try to help keep my mileage up and eliminate having too many goose eggs.

I will probably go to evening Spin Class and put forth light to medium effort, just to help flush the legs out some more while giving the joints more rest.  I have been really slack on attending Spin class the last 4-5 months, and it played a huge role in getting me ready for St. George last year.  I am hoping I can ramp that back up in the last month before my marathon to work some different muscles while keeping my cardio up, while my legs get rested and stronger. 

This will be my last week of high mileage, ending with 19.3 miles of marathon pace running Saturday and Sunday.  I am already at the highest mileage in September that I have ever run in a month & will surpass the 200 mile mark.  Granted, it would have been nice to have 3 consecutive months of this mileage before my marathon ... but at least I got one and it concludes 9 months of the most consistent training I have ever done ... so finally I will get to run a marathon where I can't say I didn't really prepare for it ... I am still nervous about the last 10 miles though!

Weekend weather forecast, High of 68, Low of 45, both days! Could it be true?  :)

 Easy 9.7 at 9:40 AP, slowed down whenever I saw HR over 140, avg HR 126,

Legs felt like they were carrying 20 pund weights, felt better as run progressed.  Think I am going to keep them easy miles all week

PM - Spin Class followed by an easy 3 @ 9:10 pace

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Nice to seethe BAA release this detailed info in a timely manner, looks like 1:14 better than BQ is what was required this year.  With the time standard getting 5:59 faster next year, it would be cool to see it not sell out in the first two weeks, and allow people to run fall, winter marathons to get in on a first come, first serve basis ... as this is the way it worked traditionally up until 2 years ago!

 From the BAA Website

A few strides during Alex's cc meet, so I could see him at 7 different places.  It was a tough course, he ran a 20:28.  At  the 3 mile mark he was at the back of a pack of 6 runners when he started his move.  He passed all 5 and held them off in a sprint to the finish.  Good stuff, probably more fun than breaking 20

9 easy miles, at every mile split I threw in strides for a tenth of a mile, with no particular pace in mind ... just don't want to forget what it feels like running faster.

9 mile loop at Suwanee Creek Park with a friend, more easy miles, 8:45 pace.  Will be tough miles this weekend ... but weather is absolutely perfect!  weekend high of 67 & low of 41!  Should be 48 at race start tomorrow for 10k & 42 on Sunday for Half!  Sweet!!!  Would be sweeter if I had tapered & was actually racing all out, but these are just marathon pace runs, maybe a tad faster ... looking more for solid back to back workouts... than an all out effort that wipes me out.

 PM - I was feeling a little nervous about running 19.3 miles hard this weekend, so I went out for a little drive.  I purchased my sub 3 hr marathon shoes, then went to a nearby local park & ran a 1.5 mile paved loop around a lake @ 8:15 pace.  This weekend will be perfect for breaking them in, and since I know they are fast, I no longer have to worry about running fast this weekend!  :)