That cold of mine turned out to be a bitch. Nothing like hacking my lungs out and having my head feeling like a punching bag for 3-4 days. After some heavy doses of nyquil and theraflu, I'm feeling better... I don't get sick often, but when I do, it sucks.
My hip is still a mess. I've been stretching, digging at it, and trying to massage it on my own quite a bit, and I'm not seeing much improvement.
Friday Nite Fight: an 18mile a blood bath. I ran with Chris after work, and whatever is going on in my hip started flaring up about 1/2 way into the run and got progressively worse the further we went. We really weren't pushing the pace at all... 7-7:15's. Maybe a couple 6:50's, at best. Whoopie. It was never completely unbearable, but all I could think was, "How the hell am I going to race/tempo 13 miles on Sunday?... How am I going to peak next week?" I finished that 18mi pig with a death march to the door. Probably my worst run of the training season. Saturday's 5 filled out 70 miles for the week. I spent a good part of Saturday massaging and icing.
---------------
March Madness Cary 1/2 Marathon
My hip is still a mess. I've been stretching, digging at it, and trying to massage it on my own quite a bit, and I'm not seeing much improvement.
Friday Nite Fight: an 18mile a blood bath. I ran with Chris after work, and whatever is going on in my hip started flaring up about 1/2 way into the run and got progressively worse the further we went. We really weren't pushing the pace at all... 7-7:15's. Maybe a couple 6:50's, at best. Whoopie. It was never completely unbearable, but all I could think was, "How the hell am I going to race/tempo 13 miles on Sunday?... How am I going to peak next week?" I finished that 18mi pig with a death march to the door. Probably my worst run of the training season. Saturday's 5 filled out 70 miles for the week. I spent a good part of Saturday massaging and icing.
---------------
March Madness Cary 1/2 Marathon
Course map (see elevation)
After feeling like garbage this past week, I was fearful of this morning's race. Cary is/was my first chance to test my fitness for the year and how much this training has helped me. My fears were a DNF because of my newly acquired hip pains. Feeling sick during the week wasn't going to help the cause either. It's amazing how quickly some aches and pains can become problems!
Cary is dubbed as the most difficult 1/2 Marathon in Illinois. It's a great predictor race for the Boston Marathon - many of us are convinced the course is even slightly more difficult than Boston.
My goal was basically to go out and treat the thing as a long tempo run - and if by some miracle I was feeling good, I'd start to roll. I was assuming I would PR my half even if I only ran it as a "tempo." My previous PR was 1:19:58. 6's get mid-1:18's. If I didn't PR, it would've been a disappointment.
The weather was perfect. High 30's at the start, w/ light wind and clear skies. Singlet and shorts weather (a rarity considering the last 4 months of arctic training).
At the start, we had Dave Strubbe (FF'er and a possible winner if lo-teens were good enough)... Moster Mike, Chris Woods, Pflipper Kepler, Kfan, Shooter Ras... and Johnny Lance Romance starred as "The Bandit". For the most part, we were all looking to go out conservative and just run some hilly tempos.
I ran the first few miles with Monster... It was nice to have him there - almost calming and kept me from getting into too much trouble too early. Mile 1 has a slight up hill, then a steady down hill through 2.5.... this is one of the bigger down hills on the course and since it's early (like Boston), it was important to keep control. We went through 1 & 2 at right about 5:50's. It seemed like a relaxed tempo pace and I felt comfortable… obviously with some downhill help though. Things were setting up as a lead pack appeared to have about 10 guys (Dave included), then a large gap with a chase pack having another 10 guys. Mike and I kept about 20 meters off the back of the chase, and then another large gap to the runners behind us. I knew some of these douche bags in front of us weren't for real (they couldn't be, Chucky was leading them!)... road kills were gonna be for the taking.
After about 2.5 miles, we had reached one of the rarities on the course: fairly level ground for about a mile. At this point, I had to make a decision: maintain my effort and stick with mike (which really meant to stick with closer to 6's due to the early down hills), try to keep my pace even and hope to catch some guys as we went on, or make a move now. My hip wasn't bothering me (at least nothing to be concerned about)... that cold/cough wasn't an issue. Breathing was fine. Heart rate was fine. Plenty hydrated. Fuel in the tank. All systems go..... Mike said "Go gett'em".....
I chose to hunt rabbits.
In the next mile, the chase pack started to split up as guys either realized they went out too fast, or purposely tried to blow the group up. This is one of the coolest parts about racing that spectators or back of the packers never get to experience.... once people start getting comfortable - someone goes and makes things uncomfortable for everyone else.... an opening comes, and runners start messing with the pace a little, and they blow things up to widdle away the competition. I knew that some of these hacks were gonna be easy to kill, especially since I could see Chucky leading the way of 10 guys.
.....I closed the gap pretty quick with a few of the guys in front of me. Mile 3: 5:45. By 3.5, 2 runners were gone. Now the hills started bumping. The term "shredding" comes to mind for the next 4-5 miles....
Barrington in negative degrees.... Barrington in freezing rain.... Barrington in 6 inches of fresh snow.... No water... no gu... Just the Tip... Chris Woods' Hill... Verdo's Hill... The Hill with No Name.... Tempos progressing during snow storms and 20mph winds..... a steady base of 60-70miles a week w/ inter-week spikes into the 80's... all of them fresh on my legs and in my memory...
I literally shredded the chase pack between the 2.5 and the 4.5, and now the adrenaline was flowing. Nobody even put up a fight! Honestly, I was a little confused by their tactics... either I was too fast or they screwed up big time with an overly aggressive early pace! The first hill was at about 4 miles... I swear I was going faster up it than down it.... I mean I wasn't, but it was like taking candy from babies!! I put in a few surges on the hill and 4 guys just let me go. Mile 4: 5:52. On the back side of 4's rolling hill, I took a few more. We round a turn, and nobody even cares!? I hammer further to get away from them. Mile 5: 5:34!! The chase was officially smoked. Chucky and his followers were all dead. I felt strong and they were my fuel. Those tempo runs and hills were paying major dividends.
At this point, there was a large gap between anyone in front of me (200+ meters)... the lead pack had gone around a turn and blown itself to pieces. Obviously I wasn't going to win this thing, but there was still a chance I could take a few more guys. I was just thinking maintain, maintain, and surge when I got near someone slower than me. I had no idea how many were actually ahead of me... I was guessing still 10+? Each of them would probably pose a much better challenge than the last few.
Miles 6-8 were basically all up hill. The top of the course was at about 7.5... 6 was 6:06, 7 was 5:52, 8 was 5:49. I probably had another 4 road kills over those miles - two would come back to bite me in the butt at around 10, but at the time they didn't pose any major challenge.... they were running together and I'm guessing just hung off my back far enough to reel me in later. The only entertaining part of this hilly stretch was a guy from Universal Sole (a main competitor to Fleet Feet). Those hills were annoying and I could tell he was starting to fall apart... I passed him like 3 times over a ½ mile, and he'd always come back with a surge and put 10 feet on me. I was even nice about it one time and told him just to "hang on, man." Then on the incline at about 7.5, I buried him and the next guy in front of us. It's a pisser of a hill, but I knew that I'd be able to relax on the back side of it for the next 1-1/2 miles.
Mile 9 is my favorite mile on this course. It's goes down hill and then flattens out. Nothing up. Hammer time! It's really the only chance on the course to open it up. If you've still got it at this point, throw down. I could see 1 guy probably 200 meters ahead of me, then a few more maybe a quarter mile ahead. Slim pickings from here on. I put it into high gear... I went for Mr. 200. Mile 9: 5:33.
That was a gutsy move and maybe it would hurt me in the end, but at the time I had no idea I was being followed. Mile 10 has a bitch of hill - basically retracing part of 3's downhill, which then turns and spikes up again at 11 and a last hill before 12 finishes.
I passed Mr 200 meters with a solid surge going up the hill on 10, but by the top of it, two of my former road kills came back and passed me. At the time, I was toasted and needed something flat to bring my heart rate back down. I needed to save something for the last hills. I couldn't do much about it. They put about 10-20 meters on me over the next series of hills as we advanced through 12, but they weren't too strong to get too far away. Mile 10: 6:02, 11: 5:53, 12: 6:02.
After 12, any significant hills were basically done. I wasn't losing ground to the guys that passed me... nobody was gaining on me (there was a now big gap at this point)... and the couple other guys that were once about a quarter mile ahead of me were now for the taking. So we had 5 runners within 50 meters of each other, and about a mile to go. 1 went easy, and without a fight. Actually we all just blew by him. (turns out, he was pacing a legally blind guy that finished in 1:15!! Dang!!).
Now it's myself and 3 others. The odd man out was passed by the other two guys... and put a few surges on me as I came up to him. That fucker… I even told him we needed to work together to catch those other fuckers... I suggested we work together, and then he surges on me....??? Reeallly??.... I mean really!!?? Well lookie-looo, what do I see....? A turn with another slight hill after it. Then it would be 1 last turn and the final ½ mile on the home stretch. We round the first turn, I scoot from around the back of him and get on the inside, and on that ever so slightly upward slope... bu-bye! He's dead. Mile 13 passes: 5:41.
At this point, it was pretty much set. The targets in front were still about 20 meters ahead, and I had run out of chances to catch them... I just didn’t have enough flat spots to catch them, and they stayed strong on the hills. They didn't seem to be racing each other either (for all I know just out for a jog in the park)... so as I saw the finish line in the distance, I guessed any surge I threw at them would be met and probably crushed, and leave me out of gas. After 3 miles of coursing them, I opted to play defense to the previously dropped soul (this way I could still out kick the last 100 if I had to). The last .1 mi was in 33 seconds (about a 5:30 pace).
Finish: 1:16:28.... 8th place over all, 1st place age group, 5:50 average.... basically evenly split... a 3:30 PR..... my 10 mile PR.... and 75 miles over the last 7 hard days of running …all on the hilliest 1/2 Marathon course in Illinois, on the Ides of March.
Split recap:
1 - 05:51.6
2 - 05:50.2
3 - 05:45.9
4 - 05:52.6
5 - 05:34.2
6 - 06:06.3
7 - 05:52.7
8 - 05:49.1
9 - 05:33.7
10 - 06:02.0
11 - 05:53.0
12 - 06:02.2
13 - 05:41.1
13.1 - 00:33.8
Finish - 1:16:28
On the cool down, my hip was flaring up again. Sore within minutes of racing. My adrenaline clearly shut off any thoughts of pain during the race and gave me the chance to pound out a solid run... even if it was "unintentional."
I'll take it easy for a few days, but I should still have high mileage this week. This week should be my peak week for Boston. Next week I'm planning a solid 50% cut back into the Shamrock Shuffle. Per McMillanRunning.com, his predictors suggest I should get a more aggressive in the Shamrock on March 29th. I was going to shoot for 27:30. Now I have some cushion. I just need to recover and get the wheels turning by then!!
For now.... I'm just enjoying the moment. It was a great day. Congrats to all of my friends that ran! Even if you weren't racing, you all had great tempo runs. (ok, well welcome back to the hills, Pflipper!) Happy Birthday, Monster!
After feeling like garbage this past week, I was fearful of this morning's race. Cary is/was my first chance to test my fitness for the year and how much this training has helped me. My fears were a DNF because of my newly acquired hip pains. Feeling sick during the week wasn't going to help the cause either. It's amazing how quickly some aches and pains can become problems!
Cary is dubbed as the most difficult 1/2 Marathon in Illinois. It's a great predictor race for the Boston Marathon - many of us are convinced the course is even slightly more difficult than Boston.
My goal was basically to go out and treat the thing as a long tempo run - and if by some miracle I was feeling good, I'd start to roll. I was assuming I would PR my half even if I only ran it as a "tempo." My previous PR was 1:19:58. 6's get mid-1:18's. If I didn't PR, it would've been a disappointment.
The weather was perfect. High 30's at the start, w/ light wind and clear skies. Singlet and shorts weather (a rarity considering the last 4 months of arctic training).
At the start, we had Dave Strubbe (FF'er and a possible winner if lo-teens were good enough)... Moster Mike, Chris Woods, Pflipper Kepler, Kfan, Shooter Ras... and Johnny Lance Romance starred as "The Bandit". For the most part, we were all looking to go out conservative and just run some hilly tempos.
I ran the first few miles with Monster... It was nice to have him there - almost calming and kept me from getting into too much trouble too early. Mile 1 has a slight up hill, then a steady down hill through 2.5.... this is one of the bigger down hills on the course and since it's early (like Boston), it was important to keep control. We went through 1 & 2 at right about 5:50's. It seemed like a relaxed tempo pace and I felt comfortable… obviously with some downhill help though. Things were setting up as a lead pack appeared to have about 10 guys (Dave included), then a large gap with a chase pack having another 10 guys. Mike and I kept about 20 meters off the back of the chase, and then another large gap to the runners behind us. I knew some of these douche bags in front of us weren't for real (they couldn't be, Chucky was leading them!)... road kills were gonna be for the taking.
After about 2.5 miles, we had reached one of the rarities on the course: fairly level ground for about a mile. At this point, I had to make a decision: maintain my effort and stick with mike (which really meant to stick with closer to 6's due to the early down hills), try to keep my pace even and hope to catch some guys as we went on, or make a move now. My hip wasn't bothering me (at least nothing to be concerned about)... that cold/cough wasn't an issue. Breathing was fine. Heart rate was fine. Plenty hydrated. Fuel in the tank. All systems go..... Mike said "Go gett'em".....
I chose to hunt rabbits.
In the next mile, the chase pack started to split up as guys either realized they went out too fast, or purposely tried to blow the group up. This is one of the coolest parts about racing that spectators or back of the packers never get to experience.... once people start getting comfortable - someone goes and makes things uncomfortable for everyone else.... an opening comes, and runners start messing with the pace a little, and they blow things up to widdle away the competition. I knew that some of these hacks were gonna be easy to kill, especially since I could see Chucky leading the way of 10 guys.
.....I closed the gap pretty quick with a few of the guys in front of me. Mile 3: 5:45. By 3.5, 2 runners were gone. Now the hills started bumping. The term "shredding" comes to mind for the next 4-5 miles....
Barrington in negative degrees.... Barrington in freezing rain.... Barrington in 6 inches of fresh snow.... No water... no gu... Just the Tip... Chris Woods' Hill... Verdo's Hill... The Hill with No Name.... Tempos progressing during snow storms and 20mph winds..... a steady base of 60-70miles a week w/ inter-week spikes into the 80's... all of them fresh on my legs and in my memory...
I literally shredded the chase pack between the 2.5 and the 4.5, and now the adrenaline was flowing. Nobody even put up a fight! Honestly, I was a little confused by their tactics... either I was too fast or they screwed up big time with an overly aggressive early pace! The first hill was at about 4 miles... I swear I was going faster up it than down it.... I mean I wasn't, but it was like taking candy from babies!! I put in a few surges on the hill and 4 guys just let me go. Mile 4: 5:52. On the back side of 4's rolling hill, I took a few more. We round a turn, and nobody even cares!? I hammer further to get away from them. Mile 5: 5:34!! The chase was officially smoked. Chucky and his followers were all dead. I felt strong and they were my fuel. Those tempo runs and hills were paying major dividends.
At this point, there was a large gap between anyone in front of me (200+ meters)... the lead pack had gone around a turn and blown itself to pieces. Obviously I wasn't going to win this thing, but there was still a chance I could take a few more guys. I was just thinking maintain, maintain, and surge when I got near someone slower than me. I had no idea how many were actually ahead of me... I was guessing still 10+? Each of them would probably pose a much better challenge than the last few.
Miles 6-8 were basically all up hill. The top of the course was at about 7.5... 6 was 6:06, 7 was 5:52, 8 was 5:49. I probably had another 4 road kills over those miles - two would come back to bite me in the butt at around 10, but at the time they didn't pose any major challenge.... they were running together and I'm guessing just hung off my back far enough to reel me in later. The only entertaining part of this hilly stretch was a guy from Universal Sole (a main competitor to Fleet Feet). Those hills were annoying and I could tell he was starting to fall apart... I passed him like 3 times over a ½ mile, and he'd always come back with a surge and put 10 feet on me. I was even nice about it one time and told him just to "hang on, man." Then on the incline at about 7.5, I buried him and the next guy in front of us. It's a pisser of a hill, but I knew that I'd be able to relax on the back side of it for the next 1-1/2 miles.
Mile 9 is my favorite mile on this course. It's goes down hill and then flattens out. Nothing up. Hammer time! It's really the only chance on the course to open it up. If you've still got it at this point, throw down. I could see 1 guy probably 200 meters ahead of me, then a few more maybe a quarter mile ahead. Slim pickings from here on. I put it into high gear... I went for Mr. 200. Mile 9: 5:33.
That was a gutsy move and maybe it would hurt me in the end, but at the time I had no idea I was being followed. Mile 10 has a bitch of hill - basically retracing part of 3's downhill, which then turns and spikes up again at 11 and a last hill before 12 finishes.
I passed Mr 200 meters with a solid surge going up the hill on 10, but by the top of it, two of my former road kills came back and passed me. At the time, I was toasted and needed something flat to bring my heart rate back down. I needed to save something for the last hills. I couldn't do much about it. They put about 10-20 meters on me over the next series of hills as we advanced through 12, but they weren't too strong to get too far away. Mile 10: 6:02, 11: 5:53, 12: 6:02.
After 12, any significant hills were basically done. I wasn't losing ground to the guys that passed me... nobody was gaining on me (there was a now big gap at this point)... and the couple other guys that were once about a quarter mile ahead of me were now for the taking. So we had 5 runners within 50 meters of each other, and about a mile to go. 1 went easy, and without a fight. Actually we all just blew by him. (turns out, he was pacing a legally blind guy that finished in 1:15!! Dang!!).
Now it's myself and 3 others. The odd man out was passed by the other two guys... and put a few surges on me as I came up to him. That fucker… I even told him we needed to work together to catch those other fuckers... I suggested we work together, and then he surges on me....??? Reeallly??.... I mean really!!?? Well lookie-looo, what do I see....? A turn with another slight hill after it. Then it would be 1 last turn and the final ½ mile on the home stretch. We round the first turn, I scoot from around the back of him and get on the inside, and on that ever so slightly upward slope... bu-bye! He's dead. Mile 13 passes: 5:41.
At this point, it was pretty much set. The targets in front were still about 20 meters ahead, and I had run out of chances to catch them... I just didn’t have enough flat spots to catch them, and they stayed strong on the hills. They didn't seem to be racing each other either (for all I know just out for a jog in the park)... so as I saw the finish line in the distance, I guessed any surge I threw at them would be met and probably crushed, and leave me out of gas. After 3 miles of coursing them, I opted to play defense to the previously dropped soul (this way I could still out kick the last 100 if I had to). The last .1 mi was in 33 seconds (about a 5:30 pace).
Finish: 1:16:28.... 8th place over all, 1st place age group, 5:50 average.... basically evenly split... a 3:30 PR..... my 10 mile PR.... and 75 miles over the last 7 hard days of running …all on the hilliest 1/2 Marathon course in Illinois, on the Ides of March.
Split recap:
1 - 05:51.6
2 - 05:50.2
3 - 05:45.9
4 - 05:52.6
5 - 05:34.2
6 - 06:06.3
7 - 05:52.7
8 - 05:49.1
9 - 05:33.7
10 - 06:02.0
11 - 05:53.0
12 - 06:02.2
13 - 05:41.1
13.1 - 00:33.8
Finish - 1:16:28
On the cool down, my hip was flaring up again. Sore within minutes of racing. My adrenaline clearly shut off any thoughts of pain during the race and gave me the chance to pound out a solid run... even if it was "unintentional."
I'll take it easy for a few days, but I should still have high mileage this week. This week should be my peak week for Boston. Next week I'm planning a solid 50% cut back into the Shamrock Shuffle. Per McMillanRunning.com, his predictors suggest I should get a more aggressive in the Shamrock on March 29th. I was going to shoot for 27:30. Now I have some cushion. I just need to recover and get the wheels turning by then!!
For now.... I'm just enjoying the moment. It was a great day. Congrats to all of my friends that ran! Even if you weren't racing, you all had great tempo runs. (ok, well welcome back to the hills, Pflipper!) Happy Birthday, Monster!
I know I already e-mailed you about this, but after reading the recap and thinking of those times on that course all I can say is... DAMN!
ReplyDeleteI've gotta bust myself into shape so we can carve out another nice little pass fest on 4/20.