Boston Strong

Good bye September, Hello October!  Temperature at race start: 50 degrees - WooHoo!

 September was by far my highest mileage month ever & the first time I broke 200 miles (224).  No taper for this race!

This weekend races conclude my ramped up mileage marathon training, taper starts Monday.

The goal for today (and my half marathon tomorrow) is simple, marathon pace miles at 6:50.

I spent the first 3 miles telling myself to slow down, but 6:30 pace felt very comfortable.

At the halfway point I knew I was on pace to PR & would, as I was not pushing hard.

I decided to just hold pace, and then kicked it up a notch the last 1.2, but still not to an all out race effort.  I took a minute off my PR & easily would have broken 40, if I had pushed harder.  Very pleased with my effort/time, tomorrow I won't get carried away ... 6:50 pace is the target ... and there will be some big hills that will test me on that.

Anyway, today was a big boost to my confidence, and confirmed 'Trust your Training'

Oh, how I wish I were racing St. George today, hope all fared well that did!!

I am not sure why I am not getting accurate splits on my Garmin, it used to almost always be right on.  Alot of this course was on pathways, and there really were not too many tangents to run, and I thought I was running them well.  Timp from the blog also ran today, and his Garmin read 6.24, which is about what I expect in a 10k.  When it gets off as far as it was in my last 2 races, you really can't use the 'Avg. pace' as a guide ... as the watch said I was running a 6:22 pace,  but my actual 10k pace was 6:33 - that is a huge difference!

Ran 2 easy cool down miles with Tim, before awards, where I got a ATC travel mug ... which is actually not a bad deal because the race was free to members!

 PM  1.5mile shakeout jog

No race today!  Long story/short ... I was short on sleep, feeling an onset of a cold, and the race start temp was 40 degrees.  It would not have been wise to run 13 miles fast under those conditions with stiff legs ... so I rolled over & went back to sleep.

In the afternoon, I headed out to run some faster miles, being warmer, more rested and loosened up.  Fast miles were really not what my legs were feeling, so I ran a 48 minute 10k pace with a short warmup & cooldown, this was about all I had in me.  Time to taper!

Sims Lake Park, 1.2mile loop, no Garmin.  7 laps, 68 minutes.  legs felt beter each lap.

Wow, my second bail out in 2 days because my body said 'no', and I listened!  Thank God I should be in taper mode anyway!

This morning I was going to meet a couple friends at 7:45, they were doing hill repeats of about 0.67 miles on a cool path at Little Mulberry Park.  I figured this could be one last good hill workout.  Since they had an ongoing bet about whether one of them would complete 5, it was clear that would be the minimum I would run, which is 7 miles without any warmup or cool down.

Anyway, I awoke at 6 to go, and felt like I was fighting off the onset of a cold ... so I texted my friend and bailed!  Is supposed to be a light day anyway.

Last night I did sit down and write a 20 day plan, inspired to do so by a RW link I had clicked on, 'It's Taper Time'

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--5958-F,00.html

Following those guidelines, plan is 36 miles this week, 24 next, and 12 race week.  This is more than I usually do, by my mileage is also a lot higher than it usually is, so I think it is appropriate.  Most of the miles are easy, with the exception of a couple GMP miles ... and throwing in a few strides whenever and wherever I want!

I think I am taking today as one of my 2 off days, as I am taking a friend to the airport late afternoon.  I must say, it is really hard not to be out there running right now, awesome fall day!

I have not run my mile yet, but promise to before midnight!

Easy pace, 9:00, legs very stiff first mile

7:57, 6:47, 6:46, 6:52, 6:46, half mile cool down.

7:49, 7:49, 7:49, 7:41, 7:35.  Legs are starting to feel fresher and better.  Ran first half of last mile at 6:40 & then went into cooldown mode for last 0.8 mile.

I awoke to the excrutiating pain of a severe calf cramp in my right leg. I am concerned! am supposed to run 10 today.... heading to Spin class now instead.

 Update:  Took an epson salt soak & a friend recommended I take some Endurolyte capsule by hammer ... anyone tried them?  Interesting article:

http://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledge/electrolyte-replenishment-why-it-146-s-so-important-and-how-to-do-it-right.1274.html

Anyway, took 3, and ran my 10 miles ... without any problems.  Will stay on a steady diet of these thru the marathon, if there are no other effects.  Taking 2 more now & going to bed!

After a couple days of rest & battling a cold, this run was encouraging to me.  Taper plan called for 6 miles at easy pace (which I have determined to be 8:30).  A half mile into the run, looked at watch & was running a 7:30 pace, so I slowed down a little.  For the first time in a long time, my legs felt fresh & ready to roll.  I decided to let them go a little, as long as things felt easy.

7:52, 7:35, 7:32, 7:09, 6:36.followed by a 1,6 mile cooldown @ 9:20 pace.

Since I was feeling good, I decided to let it go a little the last mile.  Even the 6:36 pace felt comfortable and I did not feel like I was pushing things at all.  I was tempted to keep going a few faster miles and see how I held up ... but quickly reminded myself I was resting my legs to run faster/longer ... not training them to do that!  Felt good, and by keeping the mileage down, I think this still classifies as a recovery run ... tomorrow is another day of rest, but might do an easy 3, as I skipped that on Monday due to weather, having a cold, and a general lack of desire to go out and run 3 measly miles in miserable weather.

Easy run, mixed in a few strides, calf felt a little tight at end.

 8:27, 7:45, 8:24, 7:21, 8:21 ... 8:05 AP

1 mile on tm, spin class, 2 miles on tm ... exciting

Went out for an adventurous run along shores of Lake Lanier ... water level is way down, we need rain, but it does open up new terrain!  One year I would like to run the entire shorline around the lake when it is low, but that will require some support and getting wet ... there are 692 miles of shoreline ... but I will do it!  maybe  :)

Other than navigating rocks with agility training, powering through quicksand, hurdling and ducking dock cables, and navigating water inlets ... this was a peaceful soft surface run on a beautiful fall day.  There was a nice cabin cruiser anchored in a secluded cove, no one was visible, but it was creating a nice gentle wake ... Wonder what was going on in there!  Lol

 After the first 3 miles, the remaining 5 that were out and back, were definitely less runnable!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/121526104

 Running an ATC cross country 5k in the morning with Alex, hoping to pace him to a new PR, I am sure we will be racing each other the last tenth of a mile ... I am a little nervous about that!
 

Nice flat course on a beautiful fall day! Plan was to pace Alex to a pr of 19:30, was 19:55.  First 2 were 6:15, 6:25, he was 2steps ahead of me the whole way.  At Mile 2, my calf was feeling a little tight, so I told him to finish strong, I might not go with him.  He told me to toughen up! I stayed close, but let him go, the last thing I needed to do was find myself on the losing end of an all out sprint the last tenth.  I had told him last night we would race the last tenth, and he told me to 'bring it on!'

His pace slowed a little the last mile, but he looked over his shoulder a couple times to see how close I was.  I honestly believe that no matter how fast I would have run, he had no intentions of letting me pass him! He finished in 19:35, I was 10 seconds behind him, probably 5 at the 3 mile mark.  I refrained from a finishing kick, but he already had me beat.

I am proud of him, and actually am glad he just had a 20 second pr, the more times he gets a new pr will only motivate him to keep working harder, versus having an A+performance and having a let down in his next race.  Slow and steady is improvement is best.  His mind was mostly on his homecoming dance tonight anyway ... a much more exciting event!  Just being right behind him made him push a little harder ... the first of many times I will be chasing him I am sure!

I had a chat with the female masters winner after the race, he was listening pretty intently, she is also a trainer/running coach.  I think the conversation inspired him, because when we got in the car, he asked  me to put a training plan together for him for the winter to take him to the next level.  Good stuff, I hope he follows through with the commitment ... it will help us both improve if we are doing several key workouts a week together. 

5 miles medium effort with some 1/4 mile intervals. Then went to Spin Class, got off bike after 30 min & did 2 mile progression run on TM, starting at 8:30 down to 6:30, AP 7:30

More miles than planned today, but I guess I would attribute that to nervous energy. Workout felt good & not too strenuous, which I guess is a good thing. Tomorrow rest, Wed 3 miles, Thur 2, Fri 1 ...

Sat 2:XX:XX ... God willing!

Dist Avg Pace

1 7:49

0.25 6:14

1 7:56

0.25 6:09

1 8:01

0.25 5:41

1 7:59

0.25 10:10

AP 7:46

30 min spin class, 1 mile on tm

Saturday forecast: Sunny

Temp @ start, 3,900' el: 37

Temp @ finish, 1,100' el: 51

Temp of river for post race soak: Cold

Temp of beer for celebration: Ice cold!

Ran about a mile around cross country course to cheer Alex on at difft points.  In my pep talk before the race, I told him I wanted him to dig deep and run a fast time to inspire me for my marathon this weekend.  He just smiled and said 'ok'.

He proceeded to go out and run another pr ... 18:52!  Mile 1was 6:00, 2 was 6:12.  Race finished with 350 meters on track, so i had measured off 50 meters, so I could give him a split with 400 meters to go, he hit this point at 17:35, so I yelled to him he had a sub 19in him, & to take it home strong!

He ran the last 400 meters in 77 seconds, a 5:08 pace! Wow, I was proud, i guess we will officially be racing each other at a 5k in 2weeks.  He may think he has me beat ... but I will throw surges at him and try to beat him mentally ... as I think that is the only chance I have!

As we said goodbye after the race, he looked at me and said, "I held up my end of the deal, I expect you to go sub 3, good luck Dad!" 

There is a reason we have back up goals, woohoo, I did it.

Struggled from the start, never felt good.  First 5miles were right on pace plan, 7min/miles ... but they were supposed to be easy, they were hard, and I knew it was going to be a long day! Marathon is a long distance, but it is really long when you are mentally broken 5 miles into the race.

I hung on for a 3:06:23 ... best summarized as a really crappy run, but a good time with a 14minute pr.  Not much cell service up here, but as I sit perched on a cliff overlooking a colorful valley, had a chance to check in.  Will add more later when I get back home, enjoying a beautiful day for now!

Report Update:

Warning!  Sorry, this is way long … I am still trying to wrap my arms around what went wrong … and why I should feel positive about this race and not be disappointed!

I had a pretty simple pace plan, which I followed pretty much to a T the first 9 miles, but this was way harder than it should have been, so the inevitable happened, my pace plan blew up!

Miles 1-6:  These are at the top of the course, rolling hills, up and down & lot of them.  The plan was a 7:00 pace, which I hit, but by the end of this section I knew my sub 3 was out the window.  I was aerobically winded & my legs were really tight, feeling achy, and not wanting to move fast.  So basically, my ‘6 mile warmup’ at a conservative effort, was taking all I had to maintain … not good!  The temp at the start was 32, and I think my legs were rejecting that & extremely slow to warm-up.  I also think the 4,000’ elevation is what was hurting me aerobically, but I was less concerned about breathing heavy, as I knew that I would get that under control.  The problem was, my legs were mot loosening up, and I was about to start 8-9 miles of downhill mega-drop … my legs had to be loose going into this, they were not.  I was not born yesterday, I knew my pace plan was toast at this point, with 20 miles to go.

6:56, 7:04, 6:49, 6:56, 7:00, 7:04

The first 2.4 miles of the course are identical to my Half marathon in July.  In July, I ran that section 34 seconds faster, and felt great … compared to the way I felt yesterday.  On the half, this is where you turned onto the forest service road, which quickly takes you to the descent … for the full, we ran 1.6 miles of hills, turned around and rant them the opposite direction, before rejoining the half course.

Miles 7-14:  Steep, steep downhill!  On stiff hurting legs … uh oh!!  Pace plan was 6:15/mile.  More or less managed this the first 3, but it was hard … I did alot of half mile repeats in the low 5’s in training for this race, 6:15 should have been easy!

7- 6:16, 8 – 6:15, 9 – 6:20

Mile 10 has some uphill, I knew I would not manage a 6:15, but figured I would run a few faster in my planning  … but that was not in the cards yesterday … I ran 3 of the downhill miles in sub 6 in July, with a lot less training.  The first 9 miles I had been just behind a group of 5 guys running together all going for sub 3 … and I think we all basically had the same pace plan as I was only about 30 yards behind them & running the same pace the first 3 downhill miles.  At Mile 10, I was done, and they disappeared, 4 of the 5 hit their goal.  Mile 11 and 12 & 13 were not any better.  Mile 14 I heard footsteps behind me & figured I had to get back on track, so I really pushed and got back down to my goal pace for that mile, but it killed me!  My legs never felt good, and the downhill was only making things worse.   Running mile 14 as fast as I did the way my legs felt was probably pretty stupid … but I was making one last attempt at jump starting my legs.

10 – 7:03, 11 – 6:52, 12 – 6:32, 13 – 7:03, 14 – 6:11

Over the identical 8.2 miles that have 2,000’ of drop, my time in July was 51:13 (6:14 pace), yesterday it was 53:53 (6:34 pace).  To put this in perspective, I ran a 10k 2 weeks ago at a 6:22 pace, which felt comfortable … on rolling hills with no net elevation change!  WTF, I was 12 seconds per mile slower than that, on the section of course that was supposed to be screaming fast, and it was anything but comfortable … when I had done ½ mile downhill intervals at a 5:15 pace that felt comfortable!!

Miles 15-26:  Pretty flat, gradual downhill (500’ drop over 10 miles), with a few small uphill sections, following a creek the whole way.  Pace plan was 7:00, but 7:10’s would have gotten me sub 3 … had I been on pace at that point, although as previous mentioned, I followed my plan the first 9 miles, but it had fallen apart the last 5.

Well, if my spirit was broken at Mile 5 (where I knew I was not having an ‘On day’ to achieve what I believe was a realistic goal … at Mile 15 my body was broken.  The first half of that mile was a continuation of the downhill, at which point the big downhill was behind us, and we had to make a left turn and run a half mile upstream, where we turned around and followed the creek downstream to the finish.  As we made the turn to head upstream, I told the guy who had been on my heels the last mile to pass, and he apologized if he had been ‘pushing’ me, I told him no worries, that was the pace I was supposed to be running to get my sub 3, but it was not my day.  He said he was going for the same, and I wished him well.  At that intersection, I had stashed a Gatorade in a mailbox, so I grabbed it and started walking so I could take a Gel and pour it into my handheld bottle.  This process took maybe 30 seconds which was not that big of a deal, but when I tried to start running again, my legs revolted.  I got passed by several people in this mile long out and back section, and was really struggling.  There was no intense pain, cramping, or major issues … my legs would just hurt all over & would not turnover fast!

Mile 16 was 8:06, (some walking to refuel) but this cannot be happening on a flat section of course with 10 miles to go!  I cannot even begin to describe the thoughts going through my head at this point, but I can say I was questioning if I could even pull out a 3:10, which was my backup, backup goal.  I will say I briefly considered throwing in the towel on my finishing time altogether, thinking it would be quite nice to enjoy an easy 10 mile jog along a beautiful scenic river.  After a mile of this nonsense, I snapped out of it at the 17 mile marker … with some quick math I calculated that if I could hold an 8:00 pace I would finish in 3:11 & surely I could shave a minute somewhere & get under 3:10 … my race was not over yet.  It was hard, but I made my legs turn over faster.

15-6:44, 16 – 8:06, 17 – 7:46, 18 – 7:27, 19 – 7:18, 20 – 7:37, 21 – 8:05

Other than passing a guy at Mile 18 who had ‘blown up’, miles 17 to 21 I was all alone, and I was getting passed in Mile 16.  While I had recovered some, I was struggling averaging about a 7:30 pace, and started falling apart again in Mile 21 …  I slowed at a water stop to take another GU and refill my handheld.  One of the volunteers said I was doing great & in 18^th place … little did he know I felt like burnt toast.  Typically, I never look behind me in a race, but I was really lonely (this in the middle of national forest, there are no fans & the only runner I had seen in 5 miles had blown up!) and hurting, so I glanced over my shoulder as I had slowed to take my gel.  About a 100 yards back & gaining fast were two runners, the eventual second overall female, and a guy I know who is 48 (my age group) & had won the Masters at the half in July with a 1:22 & run this course in 3:02 last year.  There is no question he is a stronger runner than me, but I also knew he had done a tough trail marathon the week before, he is one of those crazy nuts that has done like 140 marathons … so probably not a big deal to him … but I knew he would not have his ‘A’ game.  He had casually told me at the start line he just wanted to beat 3:10, but also knew he was not going to show his cards to me … we are casual friends … and when it comes to competing for an age group award if I was in his sights, I was a  target.  With 5 miles to go, I was a sitting duck in my current state.  I tried to pick up the pace, but it just was not happening.  By Mile 22, the girl passed me, and although I could not hear Bobby’s footsteps, I knew he was close behind her.

This was my saving grace!  When you are feeling miserable and you get passed by a beautiful  woman, how can you do anything other than try to latch on!  I dug deep and did everything I could to match her stride for stride, and refused to let myself fall back by more than 3 strides. I think she was trying to bury me, because the pace kept gradually getting faster, but I stayed with her stride for stride.  While it was not easy, for the first time in the race I felt like I was starting to hit my stride.  Imagine that, Mile 24 being the first mile where you finally feel like your legs are getting warmed up.  A lot of this had to be mental, where 4 miles earlier I was questioning if I could hang on and hit 3:10, and now I was thinking 3:05 might be possible, although a stretch of my imagination.  At Mile 24 I passed her, and honestly I kept hoping she would pass me back, but I could smell the finish at this point and just tried to maintain my new found pace.  I still had no idea where Bobby was, but I guessed he would be right behind me, figuring he could pick me off in the last mile … so I kicked it up another notch. 

22 – 7:55, 23 – 7:24, 24 – 7:08, 25 – 7:09, 26 – 6:53

The last quarter mile was a loop in a cabin resort area that hosted the finish.  As I entered the grounds, 2 things became clear to me … I was not going to get 3:05 … and I had built enough a cushion that I was going to hang onto 18^th place overall, so I slowed down a little and just tried to enjoy the fact and I had made it to the finish and salvaged a good day/performance … no need to collapse to shave a little time.  In hindsight, I should have dug deep, a 6:20 pace the last ¼ mile would have gotten me a 3:05:59 … but does that really make a difference?  There was a 4 mile stretch at the end of the race where I was happy with the way I ran, and that made it a good day.

0.34 – 2:33 (7:28 pace)

Bobby finished 10 seconds behind me, and the gal that saved me was another 12 behind him.  The person in front of me beat me by almost three minutes … and the 3 males that finished behind me were all in my age group … with 5^th place in AG finishing in 3:08:01 … so my last 4 miles saved the day …  I would have been really bitter if I would have dropped from 2^nd to 5^th in the last few miles!

It was a tough day, but I hung in there and ran 85% of the race the best I could.  I think that the bad miles at 16 & 17 and 21 & 22 can in part be attributed to mental weakness, but those ‘recovery miles’ (which I will call them), probably allowed me to finish strong.  Mile 10-13 were really poor performance on the downhill , but that was all my legs would give me, it was not because I was not mentally in the game. 

There is one last thing that played a role in the huge difference between this run & my half on the course in July.  In July, it had rained the night before the race and there was some light rain during the race.  This made the packed gravel roads very forgiving and easy to run hard on.  Also, you could run in tire tracks that had pushed all the loose gravel down into the bed surface.  With the dry conditions we have had, the packed gravel road surface felt like running on concrete … with loose gravel scattered across the surface … throw in the hardened ruts & bumps … and this was nothing short of a miserable running surface.  It was like night & day from July, and when my legs hit this surface at Mile 6, all they wanted to do was cry … but they just laughed at me when I asked them to run fast.

On to Boston ... surely a couple easy recovery weeks ... but soon I will have to put my game face back on and try again.  It is easier when you are already registered for the biggest race of your life ... otherwise I would surely be questioning why I have an addiction to this sport!

Went to Spin class last night and pedaled real easy just to flush the legs out & get the blood flowing through them ... felt good & it helped.

Ran 6 miles with a friend this morning at Suwanee Greenway, 9:00 AP, couple mile around 8:30, with a few walk breaks sprinkled in.  Legs felt good, actually better than they did at Mile 5 in my marathon, so I guess that is a good sign for my recovery.

9 @ 8:45.  Felt good, not ready to run fast, but recovery going well.  Spin class tonight.

After 30 min all out effort on bike, decided to get on treadmill to recover!  Did 2 mile progression, faster every tenth of a mile.  Started at 8:57, ended at 6:49 -felt good to turn legs over faster for a brief time.  Got back on bike for cool down song, then stretching. 

 Met a guy after class who is training for his first marathon in Feb, last fall he weighed 320 lbs & could not run a mile - pretty cool.  The Spin instructor introduced me, as she was his personal trainer last fall.  I gave him some advice, mainly on the importance of getting to the starting line uninjured ... he is already experiencing some PF issues. 

Back to trails at Buford dam for a beautiful fall day, 6.2 easy hard hilly miles.  Those hills are hard even when you are moving slow ... 680' vert ... 1 hour.

Great time  volunteering as course monitor at Mile 16 of the Atlanta marathon.  I probably had the best section of the course, located in Piedmont Park with a view of Atlanta skyline.  Alex was with me and he had fun as well, we were also right by the basketball courts, so he got some practice in, as he made the 9th grade team last week.  2nd place Masters won $400with a 3:12, made me second guess my fall marathon choice! It his a hilly course, but I think I could have run a sub 3:10, as I did a 16 mile training tun on the same hills in March at a 3:05 pace, before I had established any type of mileage base.  Oh well, I dont run for money anyway, but sure would have been nice! lol

Since September was a high mileage month, and October was mostly taper and recover, I realized I have not done too much speed work recently, other than racing every weekend the last 8 weeks!  Decided to do some faster miles & wasn't sure how long I wanted to run, so I jumped right into them.  Did 3 more recovery miles @ 8:07 AP with some strides of varying lengths mixed into them randomly.

First 3 miles: 6:57, 6:37, 6:22

These felt harder than they should have aerobically, but that may be because I jumped right into them without any warm up.