It's all relative

AM: Run with a few new people and Celia.  Our last mile was at 7:20 pace for no good reason.  Felt good.  Ready for tomorrow.

Fort DeSoto 15k Race, St. Petersburg, FL Race Report

This was the second annual 15k on the island.  It's popularity has gone up quite a bit, but that's a good thing.  I won this race last year and had the best race I've ever done (50:40ish) and I knew I couldn't come anywhere near that this year- but it at least helped my confidence by knowing how to run the course.  The temperature was much hotter and more humid this year, so that didn't help.  

The race:  Really there were only three of us from the moment the gun went off: Chris T., Sean G. and myself.  They are former college runners and I train with one (Sean) semi-regularly so I knew what I had racing next to me.  The three of us were all even through 2 miles when Sean (who was clearly feeling good) lowered us down to about 5:36 for mile 2 and then low 5:30s thereafter, so I backed off both of them.  I know Sean's racing style and I'm familiar with his current fitness, so I didn't feel he could keep that, and for me personally I know I wouldn't negative split if I got into the low/mid 5:30s for multiple miles.  I knew a negative split would be the best racing strategy as it has always worked for me in these situations as long as the gap didn't grow too large.  I let a 20 second lead build over the next two and a half miles by Sean and about a 3 second gap behind Chris and then just lowered the pace ever-so-slightly.  Chris gassed first and I caught him around the beggining of mile 4.  Sean followed, but his breathing was much calmer than Chris'.  I made sure to pass them both swiftly and calmly.  I had a ton in the tank so when I caught Sean with about 4.5 miles left to go I knew I had it.  I pressed evenly on miles 6 and 7 to solidify, then relaxed a bit on 8 and 9 after looking back and seeing nobody behind me.  I cruised from there and finished over a minute ahead of Sean and a couple minutes over Chris who got third.

Fun race, and I'm happy and thankful I won- as I really had no business winning that.  Then again, it's all about who shows up, and who the hell wants to run a 15k in the middle of Florida at the end of summer?  The time I ran leaves a lot to be desired as it was 3 minutes behind where I was a year ago, but it's a step in the right direction and I do feel I am overcoming this tribulation.  Now I've earned my 4 comped half marathons which is exciting, and also it's now time to focus on the Chicago Marathon in less than a week!

Splits- 5:45, 5:36, 5:45, 5:45, 5:40, 5:38, 5:39, 5:50, 6:03, Finish (1:48)

PM: 2 miles then gym- chest, tris, quads, abs, shoulders, then 3 more miles.  Felt good.

AM: Track in Safety Harbor.  Standard 5-mile tempo at marathon pace.  Went a little over just because I felt like it, and the pace felt entirely too easy.  All miles were between 6:50 and 6:55.  

It's a weird feeling to know I'll be "taking it easy" for the Chicago Marathon on Sunday as opposed to going for a PR.  I suppose I set this in stone by racing the 15k pretty hard two days ago, but I still feel odd about it.  Fortunately, it just means the party can start the moment I cross the line.

PM: 5 miles with Anthony in East Lake and a couple runs around the track with the team in Safety Harbor.

No running- taper.

No running- taper.

AM: Slow run just to loosen the legs up.  A couple of striders at the end.

Late AM: Flight to Chicago. 

PM: Lots of walking... But that certainly doesn't count as running :)

Chicago Marathon Race Report

Well, here it is.  The race is finally here.  Just six days removed from a hard 15k race, why not fly up and race a marathon?  I’m an idiot.

Goals: “A” goal- Sub 2:59:00, “B” goal- 2:59:59, “D-“ goal- finish.

Actual finish time: 2:51:20.

Training: Admittedly I’m in much worse shape than last year, have modest long runs to my name leading up to this marathon, have trained only in crappy Florida weather, and have raced a lot the past month (two 5k’s a 10k, and the 15k on Sunday).  As a result, I had a mindset of going out with my running friends and enjoying the race.  I didn’t really do much over 75mpw, but was pretty consistent hitting runs over 10 miles.  The biking injury two months ago is really the lingering factor for the lower fitness.  Nothing really marathon specific other than mileage for training at all in the past couple of months.  I didn’t really set myself up for success, but who cares!  It’s the Chicago Marathon!

Before the race: Chicago is amazing.  I’d move here.  Took 2 days off of running on Thursday and Friday, then ran 3-4 miles on Saturday morning and walked around the city and the expo quite a bit with Drew.  I wanted to walk a lot, so I wasn’t annoyed walking 7 miles the afternoon before at the expo and around the city.  Seeing Chicago was worth it.  I was thankful that Drew was willing to spend time with me.  Drew is an amazing runner so I tried to pick his brain a lot over the course of the weekend now that I had a venue to talk specifically about running.  It was nice to shoot the shit with him as well.  As a group, we decided to shoot for a 2:59, but only two of us actually committed on going for that pace on the day of- Drew and myself. 

Race day: Slept fine, woke up and had cereal and coffee.  No jitters.  It was an odd experience staying with a group of marathoners the night before (there were 6 of us).  Everyone has a different prep method, so it was interesting to see what made them all “tick” the night before/morning of.  I slept on the couch and so I noticed all of their wake-ups, jitters, and bathroom breaks through the night.  The weather was great- mid 50s, light breeze, no humidity.  40,000+ runners is an incredibly amount, so getting to the start line which was a mere mile away took about 35 minutes.  Finding a bathroom was hilarious.  We just decided to make our own bathrooms- oh well, so is the life of a runner.  Drew and I lined up right in front of the 3 hour pacer which was about 22 seconds behind the pros/start line.  We were shooting for a 2:59 @ 6:49-6:50 pace.  I wanted to put a little pressure on myself to finally run a negative split for a marathon so I wanted to hit as close as possible to that pace for the first half.  I’ve never come close to a negative split on a marathon, so I was playing with fire a bit here in my honest opinion.

Fueling: I decided to switch it up a bit.  I cramp a ton in the marathon, so I decided to not do any GUs or Gatorade for this one, but instead stop and walk every mile or two for water and then eat gummies throughout the race (totalling about the energy from 2 GUs).  I’d say I had about 12 gummies, one every mile or two starting at mile 8 and then just water from mile 22 onward.  This was a good choice and worked very well.

Miles 1-13.1: What a blur.  As everyone states, your GPS just doesn’t work well in the city, so I manually logged the miles and ran by feel for the pace.  Incredible scenery, great spectators, easy running, focused on form (knees up, smooth knee drive, eyes forward, relaxed and tall form) and just enjoyed it.  The sights were incredible and consuming, the buildings towered above, and the feel of the city was all-encompassing.  I wanted to interact with the crowd like in Boston, but this wasn’t that type of crowd it seemed.  They were friendly and motivational, but that’s about it, but that’s okay as I could easily find a million other things to focus on.  Drew and I passed the time trying to hit splits and talking every now and again.  We hit the half 16 seconds off our goal split which is pretty impressive.

1^st Half splits- 6:54, 7:01, 6:46, 6:42, 6:48, 6:49, 6:39, 6:43, 6:48, 6:50, 6:51, 6:47, 7:01, Half @ 1:29:14. 

Mile 14: Here I asked Drew if he wanted to drop the pace down to 6:45, and he said yes, so I lowered it.  I saw Christina and sped up in front of a large group to say “hi” and spoke with her for a bit.  I suppose I kind of let it go from here.  Drew had mentioned for me to go if I felt good, so I reassessed from there and then just decided to run what felt right from there.

~6:42

Miles 15-26.2:  I have never passed so many runners in my life.  It was a cool feeling.  I felt almost giddy for the next 10+ miles. Egocentrically, it was nice to not be one of the walking dead shuffling/walking along like the majority of runners around me.  It was the first time out of the 4 marathons I’ve done where I didn’t fall apart by mile 15, let alone be gliding along faster than the first half.  Mile 24 was the only weird blip.  I’m not sure what happened there other than I just let my form get sloppy and/or fell into the pace of those around me.  Either way, I recollected myself and was able to drop the pace back down without an issue for the end and was flying the last mile.  I was sad to see the marathon end and kept running for a bit through the finish line.  The announcer even singled me out and said, “Wow!  Number 760 coming through looks like he’s ready to run another marathon!”  Selfishly, I really appreciated that comment, as I felt I could keep going and had hoped I actually looked the part.

2^nd Half Splits- 6:34, 6:19, 6:11, 6:11, 5:55, 6:10, 6:06, 6:06, 6:10, 6:27, 6:10, 5:40, Finish (1:10ish).  2^nd Half @ 1:22:06 (minus 7:08). 

Finish time: 2:51:20.

Final thoughts/takeaways: Even if it’s true that I’m not hitting my potential, negative-splitting just feels a million times better to be going the same or faster in the second half and/or end of a race.  I passed 1,020+ runners from mile 14 to the finish and didn’t get passed by a single one, moving from 1,430^th place to finishing 410^th overall and almost 8 minutes ahead of my “A” goal.  A 7+ minute negative split is obviously not racing correctly as a much more modest (or even) split is ideal, but it’s the concept and the confidence I will take from this to know that I can finish a marathon without cramps, pain, losing form, or slowing down that usually accompanies a marathon performance.  This marathon was a blast, I celebrated with friends and walked around the rest of the afternoon taking it all in.  

AM: Chicago.  Some slow miles hanging with Drew, enjoying the sights, the sunrise, and the running community.  Good times.  Felt okay, obviously nice and slow- 9:50s.

Noon: A couple of miles and then the gym- chest, shoulders, tris.  No core, but did a lot of dynamic stretching.

PM: Couple of miles with Anthony, mostly solo though, then a couple of laps with the team in Safety Harbor.

Also went to the gym: arms and back.

AM: "Track" in Safety Harbor.  Didn't run hard at all or do any pickups.  All around 8:30-9:00 pace.  

PM: 6 slow miles and the gym- chest, shoulders, tris, and abs. Also did a ton of body movements and dynamic stretching.

Running felt noticeably better today. 7:30 pace felt doable, but spent most around 8:00-8:15.

AM: 1 mile running very easy, plyos, and stretching.

PM: 5 miles and gym- arms, back, abs, quads, calves.

AM: 12+ slow, solo miles around  Tarpon Springs.  Wanted 13, but at the speed I was going (8:45/mile) I know it's meaningless to get to that number as the time on my feet was already over-doing it.

Saw a bunch of runners out today- over 10 on a normally quiet route- must be running season here in Florida.  80+ degrees makes it still a little surprising to see people out exercising, but it's good to see either way.  

No running- worked 7am to 7:30pm.  Yikes.

AM: Track in Safety Harbor.  Did 2x10:00 minutes, with a minute and a half rest in between.  Ran at a little faster than marathon pace and gained speed throughout.

PM: 6.5 miles, and the gym.  Chest, tris, shoulders, abs, quads, calves.  Lots of dynamic stretching too.

PM: 8 miles, most with Anthony. 

Late PM: about 2 miles- but very slow- with the group at track.

AM: Track in SH.  Ran with Alan for the whole thing- he killed it.

Workout was- 4x100 w/ 100 rec, 2x200, 2x300 w/ 100 rec, 2x400, 1x600, 2x400, 2x300 w/ 100 rec, 2x200, 4x100 w/ 100 recoveries.  All other recoveries were 200s.  All recoveries were quick jogs, which made it a more worthwhile workout.  Not sure if I'm doing a PM run- feeling pretty sore.

Off. working.

AM: run in Clearwater on the Marquis trail. Mostly solo, some with Brian.

AM: solo run in East Lake. Nice weather finally.

PM: 2 mile warmup and then gym: arms, back, quads, glutes, calves

PM: 2 miles and then the gym: chest, tris, shoulders, abs, quads, calves.  

Really killed it today lifting using  5x5s again with progression and have been for about a month now.  That seems to be a good way to mix it up with the 3x5 & 2x3s.  They're quick and easy, and the muscle build is fast considering the deterioration from running so many miles.Perfect timing to do this right around the marathon and the lower mileage.  I'll have to keep this in mind on the next taper.  

AM: Track in Safety Harbor.  5x1000 at sub 5k pace with quick 200 recoveries at MP+1:00.  Felt pretty awesome.  I did push myself in this workout, but nothing crazy.  

Splits- 3:28, 3:20, 3:21, 3:22, 3:16.  Recoveries were 1:04 to 1:14.

Also, I had reset my watch records and was pretty interested to see that even during a workout where I didn't plan to especially with the recoveries (and wasn't even running a 5k distance), I still logged a 17:21 5k as well as a 5:26 mile time.  Felt good especially since I was doing 1000s.

PM: 8+ miles solo.  Felt spry.

PM: Gym for arms, back, stretching & plyometrics, then 5 miles easy.

AM: Went to track, did not do anything very fast.  Had some striders and joined a couple of guys for their speedwork and called it a day.  

Stepping back from my running... The health benefits I've been getting from watching my diet intently, focusing on my macros/protein intake and sticking to raw food are pretty profound.  My weight is not too low- 142 pounds- but my musculature is up and I'm very lean right now.  It's evident that they 5x5s & 5x3s with maxing have had a direct effect on my musculature in my upper body.  I'm around a 49% muscle mass percentage which is quite good for my size.  I wanted to get down to 138, so I think I still have a little work to do, but I'm around 7.5% body fat which doesn't leave much room.  A cut to 5.5-6% leaves me a pound short of that, and that's entering essential BF% area, so I think a safer number is 139-140 hydrated for my current level of fitness.  That being said, I'm happy with the 142 hydrated, and it's a good weight to enter a race week at.  The extra muscle is likely detrimental, but man does it feel good to have.  

My race Sunday- half marathon and the first of the halfathon series.  I didn't plan on doing anything special at it time-wise other than hanging on to a 5:45 and praying, however, this lower race weight creates an issue where I may be able to shoot for a higher goal such as a 1:13:30 at 5:39 pace and a PR.  It'll be a tough call and likely a game-time decision.  If I'm feeling relaxed and energetic, I may just go for it.  The more than likely scenario though is I'll stick to the lead pack and conserve energy and shut my brain off for as long as possible.  Either way, I'm elated I'm further along than I should be considering all of the setbacks.  Even if Sunday doesn't go as planned, I know I'm making proactive moves for my fitness overall.

Planned day off. 

AM: 4 miles solo in East Lake.  I am amazed my foot is still swollen from last Saturday's twisted ankle which was clearly actually a sprain.  Still feel it, but the pain didn't seem to affect my running at all this week, so it shouldn't be an issue other than swelling and making my shoe a little tighter.

St. Petersburg Halloween Half Marathon Race Report

Before: Well, I didn't know what to expect a couple weeks out from the marathon, but the legs just weren't there.  Did taper a bit, but had a good, hard workout on Tuesday which couldn't have helped.  The wind was 8-10+mph throughout, which I suppose should be expected on an unsheltered island.  Humidity was average for Florida.  Temperatures were favorable, ~72 degrees.

Miles 1-2 Took it out shooting for 5:35-5:40 pace for the entirety.  Mile one I was worried.  I felt like I lacked strength in my legs.  Usually, I gear up pretty well for a race and don't notice anything body-wise in the beginning other than excitement.  Not today I thought... Our lead group seemed to be five: 4 regular faces (Sean, Lee, Chris M, and myself) and 1 new face (Anthony, who I've trained with on easy runs the last couple months).  I wanted to just stick to the pace as I was interested to see if I could PR, so I dictated the pace for a lot of it and mostly led.  

Miles 3-10: The group dropped to Anthony, Chris, and I.  From here all the way to the turnaround I was leading (shooting at about 5:40s or faster) or Anthony would take over (and slow us down to about 5:50).  I didn't enjoy the slowing, but I let it happen, and then try to compensate with 5:35 pace which as it turns out was a bad idea.  I did sincerely appreciate someone trading off the lead though and sharing the responsibility of blocking the wind.  Both were still on my heels entering the final stretch.

Mile 11: Wheels fell off.  I wasn't gassed, I was just... tired.  I told myself to speed up, and I just wouldn't.  It was an odd feeling.  I got passed emphatically here by Anthony and Chris.  I did not like that, but I sincerely just couldn't keep up.  They flew away.

Mile 12: Well, somehow, more wheels fell off the vehicular device.  I didn't know the car I was driving had so many wheels.  Chris and Anthony were already out of reach.

Mile 13:  I think the axle broke here at this point.  Rear view mirror shattered.  The hood of the car flew up to catch the wind.  You know the deal.  I looked at my watch and almost laughed a bit.  I was trying hard to pick up that pace.  There was still no sign of 4th place behind me, which didn't help my slowing.

Finish: Ugly.  Managed to regain some form and dignity.  All of a sudden, my legs knew how to move fast again.  Thank you fast twitch muscles at the end.

      1    Chris          1 Overall           1:15:00.3       5:44/M
      2    Anthony        2 Overall           1:15:36.5       5:46/M
      3    Me             3 Overall           1:16:32.2       5:51/M
      4    Sean           4 Overall           1:18:43.1       6:01/M
      5    Lee            5 Overall           1:18:55.1       6:01/M

Splits: 5:40, 5:39, 5:43, 5:36, 5:36, 5:49, 5:53, 5:50, 5:47, 5:44, 5:58 (ouch), 6:24 (ouch), 6:54 (6:07 pace- ouch)

Takeaways: I will use this as motivation.  I can do better.  Still had fun and enjoyed hanging with the group afterward.

Did not run.  Busy day.