COURSING

It has begun

2012-02-09T10:14:00.003-06:00

Up until this week, I've been struggling to pull together any reasonable miles this year. The last three weeks have been in the 40's. I keep finding excuses to take a couple extra days off each week, which means most of my miles are slammed into a couple days a week.

...It's amazing how easy it is to be motivated when you're running 90 miles a week. You don't even think about it. The routine just yanks you out the door. Cut that number in half though, and it becomes incredibly difficult to wanna do anything...

OK, so not all of my miles have been garbage recently. I have tried to get into the habit of running a 10 mile progression on Friday's, followed by a 15-17 mile progression on Saturday's. That's helping to fight my lack of fitness, now I just need to add more meat during the week.

That said - this week, I'm getting involved. I should be able to hit 60 miles and actually manage 6 days of running! Monday, I had my first tempo run in two and a half months. Five miles that averaged about 5:46's. And last night I ran 12x 400 that started at about 80 seconds and cranked it's way down to 71 seconds. Neither were easy, but they also weren't crushing... and I didn't fade in the workouts. That's a start.

From here, I'll try to assemble a solid month of basic training to get me into enough shape to not embarrass myself at Cary, Shamrock, and Oak Park. I think it'll require a 5 week streak of 60-75 miles per week. After that, I'll reassess what I need to (and want to) do for the spring racing season.

Dog Days of Winter

2012-01-23T14:37:00.002-06:00

The garbage weather and a lack of immediate need to pack on many miles (aka no marathon in sight) has me just muddling along through the past several weeks.

Hence, nothing fantastic to report with my running as of now. I'm just trying to maintain something in the 40-50 miles per week range. Sadly, that's not enough to keep me feeling fit. I have no speed at the moment, and oddly enough, I don't really even feel all that fresh.

Nonetheless, I need to kickstart some training soon. I'll slowly pick up my miles in the coming weeks as I roll up for some early spring races:

3/18 - Cary March Madness Half Marathon
3/25 - Shamrock Shuffle 8K
4/1 - Oak Park 5K

Good Riddance 2011

2011-12-30T15:35:00.001-06:00

My year can be summed up like this: Both personally and athletically, fantastic. Professionally, not so much. I'll spare you from the rants about the market, and how I feel like I've aged 3 years in the past 12 months due to my stress at work... But when all is told, I did have a solid year of running and I couldn't be happier with almost all other aspects of my life (again, minus the work bullshit). That said, I'll be happy to move on to greener ground in 2012.

Since CIM, I've been muddling along in a quasi- recovery and maintenance mode with one goal in mind: breach 2,500 miles for the year. I finally closed it out yesterday and hit 2,511.4 miles as of today (yeah, that's right, I'll claim those 2 extra 0.2's from Rotterdam and CIM). I don't need to run tomorrow, but if I can squeeze something, so be it. I'd have to go back to double check the numbers - but I believe that means every year since 2004 has been a PR in total mileage.

I can also mark PRs in my 5K, 8K, 10K, and twice in the marathon. The 16:16 Oak Park 5K, 2:38:46 Rotterdam, and 2:38:14 CIM were my most proud accomplishments.

Strangely, my 1:14:50 half-marathon from September-2010 still stands as my all-time most aggressive race (and that was even before any peak-NYC training). That needs to be rectified.

2011 Notable accomplishments:
March - 106 miles in 7 days PR
April - Oak Park 5K 16:16 PR
April - Rotterdam Marathon 2:38:46 PR
October - FLW 10K 34:38 PR (training run)
November - Streaked 5 consecutive days of maintaining 103 miles
November - Buffalo Turkey Trot 8K 27:16 PR (technically a disappointment)
December - California International Marathon 2:38:14 PR
Total Miles - 2,511.4 PR

Looking forward to 2012, I have some initial goals in mind:

On a broader scale, run healthy. I still have some lingering problems with my left hamstring yanking on my hip (most likely due to sitting all day at work, followed by running my ass off outside of the office). I haven't mentioned it much recently since it hasn't slowed me down, but it is notably weaker and/or restricted versus my right hamstring. That needs to get fixed. Otherwise I'm 100% healthy.
It should go without saying, but PR my total mileage again this year.
Roll a decent Shamrock Shuffle 8K. Should be sub 27min, which should be very doable. It'll also put me on solid ground for a nice spring racing season
PR my 1/2 marathon. I need to crush that 1:14:50.
Go all in on the marathon. And by all in, I mean a proper training session... like NYC-2010 minus blowing up in the peak... and none of this 12-15 week bullshit. A proper 1,500 mile, 20 week ordeal.

I'm not totally sure which half and full marathons yet... I'm likely going to defer any marathoning until the fall though. I could use a few months to more properly recover still and build my core back up. I'd love to gun Chicago, and then sandbag a 2:49 in NYC to get that monkey off my back... but we'll see. Chicago is early again this year, so we'll see (Dear Race Organizers: Pull your head out of your ass and switch to mid/late October already!!)

For now though... Good Riddance 2011! You won't be missed.

The Battle of Sacramento

2011-12-13T17:01:00.002-06:00

They dub the California International Marathon as a one of the fastest marathons of the country.

Indeed, with only about 5,500 participants and over 10% of the field running sub 3:10 races, it is pretty fast. (Though I would claim that it's competitive instead of fast). This year, the field was especially stacked as a number of men and women flooded the race in hopes of getting an Olympic Trails Qualifier for next month's Houston Trials. ...Sorry, I'm faaaar too old and late in life to consider even comprehending such an option, but it still makes for an exciting event!

As fast as they say, CIM isn't entirely easy. Many runners go out way too aggressively on the countless rolling and early net-down hills. Pretty much through about the first 13 miles, it's rolling down offset with lots of ups. Through 18 it rolls more but is net flat, then calms down 20 through the finish. Unfortunately, most runners are spent by the time they're supposed to gun it. Of the top 100 racers last year, only 7 runners had negative splits! About 15 wound up negative this year, but arguably because the field had more experienced elites.

CIM Course Map

Long story short: having that 7 out of 100 stat in the back of my mind certainly didn't help as I toed the line.

The weather was hairy the days before the race, but miraculously cleaned up by the time it started: 40's, sun, and very minimal winds.

I went to the starting line with plenty of sleep from the nights before, plenty of hydration. I wasn't feeling horribly nervous. Things were lined up for a decent run. All I needed was the confidence to execute.

Track and Trough Athletic Union fielded a team of 5 marathoners consisting of myself, Dan McDowell, Jason Ream, Michael Martineau, and Verdo Gregory. Carolyn Martineau ran the relay event.

Jason and I decided to run together for what we could. We targeted a 1:19:15ish goal for our split, and then planned to drop whatever we could in the second half. Ideally, we both wanted to go for the seemingly impossible: negatively split races. For me, anything under 2:38:46 would've been a PR.

The first five miles had a decent loss of elevation to them (nearly half of what the whole course would eventually give). We started conservative, and after a some early jockeying and loosening up, Jason and I were hitting low-6's. We weren't working with anyone else early on, but slowly reeled in a nice pack of a about 6 or 7 runners by the 4th mile.

Jason's voice of reason had us stick with the group for a while. It was a wise move because it was either this, or go it alone. Jason hung off my shoulder or in the middle of the pack, while I was happy up front. (I had the burning desire to make sure we stuck to my plan and hence I became a pace setter).

It was really pretty cool, as this pack clung together until about 15 miles deep. We gradually consumed and reeled in runners one by one. Some joined us, some fell off. Nobody dropped us. At almost any point over a 10 mile stretch, we easily had a solid mass of 10-15 guys... all plugging about a 6:00-6:05 pace.

In spite of being in a pack, guys were running completely different races. I found myself pushing up the hills, then cruising down them. Others fell off the back on the way up, then hammered on the way down. In general though, I remained on the front of the pack as much as I could to ensure that I kept with my pace.

We breezed through the 1/2 split at 1:19:16.... 1 whole second from goal pace. Insane!!

As the race unfolded, our conservative start and teamwork proved to be incredibly wise. Steady efforts as we rolled through those hills. It wasn't easy, but also not overly taxing. We had put in a solid number of 6-flats by about 15-16 miles. Our numbers had dwindled. I felt strong. I could sense that some of the other runners didn't want to step it up. I started to pull away from Jason and the pack.

I knew the course was gradually leveling off. It was now me and 1 other guy from Sacramento's Fleet Feet that came along. I was in charge though. I plugged a couple of 5:55's and he retreated. It then became a game of steady leap-frog from road kill to road kill. I didn't have many, but one by one I passed what was left in front of me as the miles started falling off. Nobody had anything to hang with my pace. 4 mile in a row in the mid 5:50's, followed by a bridge and a 6:01, then another mid-5:50.

There were no clocks on the course. I had no idea what time I was running. I was inside of an 8K now and starting thinking, "Hang in there, anyone can run a damn 8K!"

I stumbled through some tiny rolling hills to a 6:01 in 22. A bridge at mile 23 took some of the wind from my sails... 6:09. Ugh. I wasn't done yet. I had a couple more runners in front of me to keep me motivated. There was no going out in flames. I knew it. I was still strong. Only 5K to go now... I kept saying, "Any asshole can run a 5K! Get moving!!"

I bit down for a 6:03 in 24 and passed 2 final runners, one of which tried to hang on to me. I used a 6:05 in the 25th mile to put some distance on the leach. He didn't realize who he was fucking with.

After 25 though, I couldn't even see the next guy in front of me. No more road kills. Nothing to motivate me. Just me and the clock... which I hadn't seen all day. I still had no idea what time I was running.

My mind wondered. My feet became heavy. I became painfully bored. I started doing math in my head. I knew I was on PR pace, but was I under 2:38?? It's not that it hurt so much as it was heavy. Why didn't I just look down at my watch to see what time I was running??

This 26th mile took forever. I felt like I was absolutely all in, as fast as I could. I smiled as I passed Jesus. I liked his style, but I didn't believe what he was telling me.

I had been nailing the redline so hard and so long. I buried those last 10 miles. I could feel myself ever so slightly letting go as I increasingly lost focus with that mile. Ugh! It took forever!!!

Then I thought, was I really all in???

I slapped my wrist. 6:13. FUCK!! That was an expensive mile. I immediately woke up. I knew I wasn't all in. It was too late to make that back though. I gunned it for what I could.

I rounded a turn and saw a clock way up ahead. It was ticking 2:37:45. Ticking 2:37:50. Ticking. Ticking. 2:38:00. It was just too far away. I just fucking wrecked something insanely beautiful in that last mile. No sub-2:38 today. I was immediately pissed.

I rounded the final turn and went as fast as I could to make sure I didn't hose my PR opportunity.

I came across at 2:38:14. I immediately saw that I negative split the course.... I hit the goal perfectly on the head.

I was happy, but had that bitter 15 second taste in my mouth. I knew instantly that I could've probably squeezed a little harder during that 26th mile... A sub-2:38 would've required me to actually even pick it up slightly from the couple miles before, but I can't say that it would've been impossible.

Anyway, that was 32 seconds faster than my Rotterdam Marathon, 8 long months ago.

I did it on fewer weeks of training, and had less confidence going into CIM.

With the exception of that minor 15-second hiccup in the 26th mile, I was a fucking surgeon out there. I cut that thing up with pristine accuracy. By far, my best marathon to date... both by time and execution given the course complexity.

Split Recap:
1- 6:09.7
2- 6:04.7
3- 6:01.8
4- 5:53.5
5- 6:00.5
6- 6:01.5
7- 6:04.9
8- 6:10.9
9- 6:06.1
10- 6:00.7
11- 6:00.7
12- 6:08.4
13- 6:00.0
1st Half Split - 1:19:16
14- 5:59.8
15- 6:01.6
16- 5:58.0
17- 5:55.4
18- 5:54.8
19- 5:53.7
20- 6:01.8
21- 5:54.9
22- 6:01.9
23- 6:09.5
24- 6:03.5
25- 6:05.2
26- 6:13.0 (WTF?)
.22- 1:18.0
2nd Half - 1:18:58 (neg 0:18)
Total: 2:38:14 / Avg Pace: 6:02

Where are the jitters?

2011-12-02T22:02:00.002-06:00

So I'm sitting here on my flight out to Sacramento, and I'm realizing that I'm about to embark on yet another 26.2 mile journey.

Oddly enough, I've barely been worried about this one. All week long, I've been waiting for the pre-marathon jitters to come, and ...nothing. Weird.

Maybe I've been trying to ignore the uncertainty in my training? Maybe it's because Thanksgiving really derailed my thoughts of running a marathon? Maybe it's because it'll be my 14th time going the distance and I'm just that nonchalant about it?

Maybe it's because I've been so focused with the volatility in the markets that I've unintentionally nuked my ability to have emotions?

...I'm actually concerned about this on a grander scale with my life... I feel like I'm seriously suppressing my emotions all around right now, because who really cares about a damn marathon when we have approximately $700 TRILLION in currency, credit and various derivative swaps outstanding worldwide -completely unregulated and unchecked, especially since not a single one of those major 30 or so monster world-wide institutions have to worry about EVER going bankrupt, so left they're betting the house every second of every day... and the fractional reserve banking system just continues to multiply at eye popping rates... and sovereigns all over the world are only promoting this model so we can perpetuate the status quo and lobbyists' interests. And all anyone wants to do is try to kick the can father down the road... well it's no longer a can, it's now an anvil and you simply can't kick it anymore.

Our entire worldwide fiat ponzi is staring down the barrel of a bazooka and it's only a matter of time until one little itchy trigger finger from thousands of miles away says "I need to unload." We're talking the brink of complete financial meltdown feels like it's days, if not weeks, months, or just a couple years away... (it changes by the minute...)

And worst thing is... nobody cares or even knows what's about to hit us. Fucked up beyond comprehension. OR - Maybe I should stop thinking on my own or reading http://www.zerohedge.com/ and just join the comatose status quo and ignore the numbers?

OK OK... I try not to rant about the market here, but I think I just figured out why I haven't been the least bit concerned about my marathon so far... I'm sitting on this plane right now, far more concerned about euros, aussie-yen crosses, brent-WTI oil, MLP spreads, interest rates, money printing, etc... let alone what "Merkozy" comes up with this weekend, ...than I am about putting my body through 26.2 miles of agony.

This is about 24 months in the making for me. The last 6 months especially, I've gone to sleep every night not knowing if tomorrow will bring financial armageddon, not knowing which too-big-to-fail bank or world power is on the brink of disaster, not knowing if I'll have a job... not knowing what sort of civil fallout ensues WHEN the house of cards truly collapses and people realize what sort of sham we've been trying to perpetuate. Don't bother asking about my "Five Year Plan"... I have trouble thinking about my "Five Month Plan".

SO, cool as a cucumber about CIM... not so much about the markets. I have less than 36 hours to get my shit straight and focus on the task at hand.

Gluttony + CBM + Botched Turkey = Bad Taper

2011-12-01T10:31:00.004-06:00

Some random pre-marathon thoughts here:

I've been on the steady downward slope this taper (yes, pun intended). It's certainly been an unorthodoxed, as Thanksgiving's gluttony and my general diet have not helped my cause. I feel I've gained a little weight now that my miles have been cut. To top it off, I still have no idea what kind of shape I'm in.

Allow me to whine like a little bitch for the moment:

In the past couple weeks, I've eaten like 3 Thanksgiving dinners, each worth at least 1500-2000 calories... eaten way too much pizza, had countless sweets, drank too much alcohol (or at least well beyond what a taper would justify). All things that should not be happening as one prepares to go to battle.

Then throw in the CHICAGO BEER MILE. Of course I couldn't pass up one of the best events of the year, but its timing couldn't be worse for me. (I can gloat that I did PR though with 11:39, in spite of multiple pukes in 5 laps). Unfortunately, all the things that come with a beer mile means binge drinking, eating like a hell, and a monster 2-day hangover. Naturally I used Jimmy Johns and pizza to try to cure the hangover, which only compounded the situation.

--------------------------------

BUFFALO TURKEY TROT

So speaking of fitness... I have no idea where I currently stand. That brings me to report on last week's Buffalo Turkey Trot 8K.

This was race supposed to be the guide post that tells me what to target in California. Instead, I screwed up and am left scratching my head.

The Trot is the oldest race in America and the city's main racing event. By some technicality, Buffalo's Trot even older than the Boston Marathon - though both have been running 116 years. (yeah, there was a time when Buffalo was more than just a run-down, brain-drained, bankrupt ghost town... Its truly sad to see my hometown fall apart).

So typically this race is stacked with college kids and fresh-outs rounding out their XC/racing seasons. It had a field of about 13,000, and up to 50 people generally go sub-28. All but a couple of the guys in front of me were older than mid-20's.

The course is a point to point with some rolling hills early. Temps were in the 40's, but I had to deal with a nasty head-wind the entire way. The kicker: I stupidly forgot my watch and for some dumb reason, thought that there would be clocks at the mile posts (nope, there weren't).

I supposed not having any clocks made the race more entertaining, since it became a "pure race" of me against anyone around me...? Unfortunately, I blew my pack apart at about 3 miles, and ran the last 2 miles totally solo and with out a clue of pace. The monster gusts in the last mile didn't help either.

That said - I ran 27:16. 20th place. Technically, a long overdue 8K PR and I won my age group since the 2nd overall was in my group. Unfortunately, it was about 20-30 seconds off of my target... not a small miss for a 5 mile race. It leaves me clueless as how to gauge my marathon this coming weekend.

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FINAL TRACK WORKOUT

1x 400 @ 71
1x 1600 @ 5:02 (75, 77, 77, 73)
2x 800 @ 2:32, 2:26
1x 400 @ 65

The mile was a disappointment, but otherwise I'm happy with the workout. Somehow I fell into a comfortable zone in the 2nd and 3rd laps...? I could've easily gone 5+ seconds faster had I not fell asleep at the wheel.

The second 800 and final 400 made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Last big track workout

2011-11-17T22:45:00.002-06:00

The 20x 400 has become one of my pinnacle workouts before a marathon, similar to the the 10x 800. The 400s though feel like a much more intense and bigger workout though. More speed, and it takes forever given the recovery time. Yeah, I know, it doesn't hold a candle to Quentin Cassidy's 3x 20x 400, but its still pretty large.

Tonight's 20 were a fraction slower than a couple weeks ago, when I did 16. That extra mile had me a little more cautious early. All in all, the whole workout was pretty comfortable and I finished strong. It's hard to tell if I felt better tonight than when I ran them before Rotterdam.

Also, I think I got Monday's knotted up quad all sorted out. It's taken a couple massages -aka pretty much a bazooka to the leg, but it didn't phase me one bit tonight.

I'm still not sure how I feel about missing my mileage this week. I know it's just a number, but I've been meticulous about my miles for the last several weeks. My all-important goal of "3 big weeks" becomes only 2 and a an 80s. Maybe it doesn't matter, and I'm actually better off for being cautious? I'd certainly feel better if I ran a bit harder tonight or during last week's 800's... or had a faster tempo on Monday... This is a shining example of a marathoner's OCD when it comes to training.

I have a couple more days and then it's officially taper time for 2 weeks. The Buffalo Turkey Trot next week will tell me what to expect in the marathon.

Split Recap:
1- 73.9
2- 73.4
3- 73.7
4- 73.1
5- 74.4
6- 73.1
7- 73.5
8- 72.9
9- 73.4
10- 73.7
11- 73.2
12- 71.9
13- 73.1
14- 71.9
15- 71.7
16- 72.0
17- 71.3
18- 70.7
19- 70.6
20- 70.3
Avg- 72.6

I flinched.

2011-11-15T17:50:00.003-06:00

Solid tempo run last night. A big nine miles, but in the final mile spooked me.

My quad said enough is enough, and knotted up on me. I was forced to slow up instead of hammering the mile. There wasn't anything I could do, as I basically wound up with a painful flat tire.

A massage and a day later, and I think it's better but I'm afraid to run on it today. I'm taking the night off. Unfortunate, because that busts my week. Tonight was supposed to be 16 miles, and I was shooting for a third 90+ week. I can double tomorrow to pick up some of the slack but the week will still falls short. I'll have to be satisfied with this. It's not worth the risk of doing more damage.

Split recap
1- 5:59.6
2- 5:55.4
3- 5:54.6
4- 5:48.4
5- 5:49.3
6- 5:44.8
7- 5:50.3
8- 5:51.0
9- 5:49.7
Avg - 5:51

Big-boy miles

2011-11-14T13:27:00.000-06:00

I've been living beyond 100 miles for the last handful of days. Current tab is rolling at 103 in 7 days.

So far, so good. I can tell my body's getting stronger, and the endurance is building with every run. (Kids, don't try this at home! It takes years to condition your body to do this without breaking it). I've dropped 1-2 pounds in the past couple weeks, in spite of eating everything and anything put in front of me. I'm now 138 lbs and it feels like most of that's in my legs.

Dan and I ran 23 miles this past Saturday in Barrington. It was much more comfortable than the prior week's 23. Both included some quality pick-ups too. Difference was that last week's run was easier from the get-go but did fade a little late, while this week's took me nearly 10 miles to loosen up but finished strong and fast. ...That's the effect of 103 miles.

This will be my longest stretch ever above 100 miles.

Out of my last 4 marathons:
Chicago-09: 1 day that touched 100 (I thought it was sooo much too!)
London-10: only touched 90.
NYC-10: huge base eventually broke me as I tried a streaking above 100
Rotterdam-11: 1 day that peaked up at 106 (included 2x 22mi long runs).

CIM will be a true trial of miles. These are all pure miles here. No cramming in extra long runs, just lots of running every single day... and quality at that. I haven't taken a day off in over a month. I have no idea if it's worth it.

As I said, so far I feel ok. I need to pull the reigns in mid-week though, before really cutting back next week. CIM is only 21 days away.

Monday Funday

2011-11-07T20:42:00.005-06:00

Tonight's 8 mile tempo was in a misty, rainy, 50 degrees. Luckily not much wind. It was faster and a lot more comfortable than last week's run, and it was following a heavier mileage week.

Verdo and I went out around 5:50's then came back in about 5:40's (his Garman showed us going slightly faster and longer than what my splits were showing). We hammered the last mile down to nearly 5:30. Same run and route as last week. All in, very smooth. A good confidence booster for another big week of training.

Split recap:
1- 5:55.7
2- 5:53.4
3- 5:51.7
4- 5:45.6
5- 5:44.0
6- 5:43.6
7- 5:43.3
8- 5:31.6
Avg: 5:46.1

1 down, 2 to go.

2011-11-05T17:41:00.000-05:00

My marathon training is centered around 3 big weeks. Everything aside from these weeks is just work to get me ready to run those weeks, or a recovery from those weeks. Those 3 peak weeks will either make or break my marathon. Week 1 was this past week. I put in a solid 93 miles chalk full of quality and speed. So far so good. I have 2 more peak weeks to go.

On the heels of my 5K last Saturday... The week that was:

Sunday: 13mi w/ about 9 of it progressing from higher 6:30's down to 6:10ish pace. Admittedly, I had a little help with the wind at my back as I picked it up, but it was still an aggressive effort sandwiched between a 5K and a tempo run.

Monday: 8mi Tempo. 13 miles total. Slight wind at the back early followed by head wind late. The last couple miles show the effect of that wind, which were marginally slower but at a higher effort.

Splits recap:
1- 5:55.0
2- 5:54.2
3- 5:50.4
4- 5:46.2
5- 5:45.66- 5:47.4
7- 5:49.5
8- 5:49.2
Avg 5:49.7

Tuesday: 16mi slow. I was spent right from the get go. I complained the entire way. Legs were totally flat from the prior days' runs. The last handful of miles were a death march.

Wednesday: BIG BOY 400's. 16x 400 w/ 75sec recovery. I averaged 71.6. Wicked! Faster than when I've run them in the past, but I did take a slightly longer rest. The first few were a tad slower, then it was like clockwork with 12 straight at 71. Final two were the fastest, at 70.8 and 69.4sec. I walked away from this workout feeling a lot better about my current condition. A big thanks to Jason, Verdo and Dan for carrying me through the workout!

Thursday: 8 easy.

Friday: 12 with my Vibram Five Fingers. Love those shoes! LOVE THEM. Always have. I don't care if they broke my foot 2 years ago - that wasn't their fault, it was mine. There's truly nothing like running barefoot or in VFFs... It doesn't matter how fast I go, it's just sheer entertainment and makes me feel like a kid again. I was full of energy and it was difficult to keep the reigns in.

...And to make the run even MORE entertaining, I had the pleasure of being accompanied by the infamous "Hi Guy"!! I was gradually passing him on his bike on the lakefront, and couldn't help but say my typical "Hello, Hi Guy!" His prompt reply was, "Hello, Runner!" He then latched on and rode next to me for about 3 miles. Hilarious! We talked about all tons of random shit. I ran 90% of that run with a grin going from ear to ear.

Saturday: 23 miles in Barrington, with about 7 or 8 miles at a solid 6:45 or faster... 3 of which were sub 6:20. First time I've had a decent hill run in a long time. All in all, I was very comfortable and felt strong the whole way. I'll try to repeat this again next weekend.

What is a Carrera?

2011-10-29T12:33:00.006-05:00

I should know this... I've obsessed about the word "Carrera" since I was a young boy. My fixation stems from the Porsche variety, but in true meaning they adopted the name from a grueling Mexican endurance race.

In theory, I know that a carrera is a race. In reality though, today it was a race that I was ill prepared for and hence got schooled because I failed to actually race.

Carrera de los Muertos

5K race in Pilsen, Southwest of the Chicago Loop. I went into it thinking that I'd run a 16:30ish. I also went into it thinking that if anyone was around me, then I'd be able to out kick them. I was completely wrong!

After lots of jockeying by a bunch of clowns, I was settled into 4 place by the first mile split, 5:21.6. 3rd place was easily over 50m in front of me and getting dropped by 1 and 2. He looked like he went out too fast and had no idea who he was dealing with (1 and 2 were a couple U-Sole guys that I know I can't compete with). I made the 3rd guy my target, thinking he'd eventually die.

Before I knew it, another guy snuck up, passed and gapped me. He and #3 were now at each others throats, while I watched from behind. I kept within that 50m until the 2nd mile (5:25.4), and then made my move to chase them down. (Oddly enough, I actually thought mile 2 was a bit long... I later verified the course was about 3.16 to 3.17 - or ~5085m, not 5000m... lame!)

Anyway, to my annoyance and surprise, numbers 3 and 4 didn't die at all. Not cool! That meant I had to work. It was going to be an actual race to the finish line. After stalking them and then surging to bridge the gap, I caught them just before mile 3 (5:22.8, which again seemed slightly long). I hammered past them with a big surge, but they just wouldn't die!

At that point, I knew it was over. I spent myself and they weren't going away. With under 40m to go, both buried me with monstrous kicks. I had absolutely no ability to respond. #3 wound up 16:41, #4 was 16:42, I was a shitty 5th at 16:43.

So there you have it... I should've easily had 5-10 seconds on them, but I blew it. Surged too early and had no follow up to counter their counter-responses. I'm not sure if I was just being a giant pussy and didn't want to fight (aka, actually race until the end!), or if I'm just that far out of shape.

I finished the race feeling like I had the endurance, but no fucking kick after that surge! I hate 5K's!

This carrera was a "race of the dead", and dead I was!

5K split recap:

1- 5:21.6

2- 5:25.4

3- 5:22.8

.1- 33.7 (5:15 pace)

If 5000m, Tot: 16:43.6 / Avg: 5:23.0

If 5085m, Tot: 16:26.8 / Avg: 5:17.6 (minor consolation)

5th Overall, 1st Age

A quick car bomb on the ramp

2011-10-26T10:00:00.003-05:00

It's been a pretty fast ramp up. I hit 96 miles in 7 trailing days last Friday, and 82 miles for the week. That's much quicker than I anticipated hitting that level, and so far so good. I'm starting to feel like things are coming together.

Lots of decent running last week too. The real entertainment came on Wednesday night's speed workout: We skipped the track and opted for a super long fartlek on the lakefront in 20mph winds with gusts up to 60mph. Tracking would've been useless in those conditions. ...It was cold, it was ultra windy, it was uncomfortable. Lots of random repeats at varying paces. Tons of effort. All in all, a grueling workout with over 28 minutes of pure speed that put hair on the balls of my feet. A 19 mile day after doubling.

A nice surprise came with the Oak Park Frank Lloyd Wright 10K - I ran 34:38. It really is far from what I should be able to run (guessing least sub 34?), but I'm happy with it since it was my first "race" in a while and I was pretty strong through the whole thing. Ironically, I PR'd by about 6 seconds too. My last 10K was the 2009 FLW, 2 weeks after popping my 2:40 cherry, and just before I got my stress facture. (knock on wood). Just goes to show how much we should enjoy healthy running while we can.

Anyhoo, I celebrated this minor victory at FLW with a car bomb on Sunday. This leaves in a good spot with my training. I'm now in a cut-back week. Took Monday off, which will probably be my last day off for a while. I'll race again this coming weekend with the Carrera de los Muertos 5K, and then I pop for three hard weeks at >90 miles each... That'll be make or break time. My final prep-test before CIM will be the venerable and hometown favorite: Buffalo Turkey Trot 8K... the oldest road race in America.

FLW 10K split recap:
1- 5:27
2- 5:44 (whoops!)
3- 5:37
4- 5:33
5- 5:30
6- 5:35
.2- 1:12
Tot: 34:39 / Avg: 5:34
6th over all, 2nd age group

Thought for the day...

2011-10-11T12:34:00.003-05:00

I'm stealing this from Facebook:

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered:

"Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about he future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

I don't know how much more I need to add to this, other than it is sad because it is so true.

1/2 of Chicago Marathon

2011-10-09T12:24:00.004-05:00

Chicago Marathon was today. Felt kinda weird, considering this was supposed to be an "A" race for me, but in the end I'm really REALLY happy that I didn't run the whole thing.... I wasn't even tempted.

Weather was a heater once again. Like the 4 out of 5 years now! Can they just get the hint, and change the date or start time already?? Ugh.

Start was at 7:30, already in the low-60's and a little stuffy, but it heated up real quick. It wasn't too bad while I was running, but definitely too uncomfortable to have gone the distance. By 10:00, it was easily 80+ with a killer sun.

Right from the onset, my goal was to run the first half of the race (and nothing more) at approx marathon goal pace.... ~6:00/mi. I did just that.

It was a little annoying through the first several miles, because my legs just refused to loosen up and get a comfortable stride. The thought had actually crossed my mind to bail at about 4-4.5 miles. It was too much work and it was only gonna get hotter. Jason and I hung together through about 6 miles. Fortunately, then I had started to ease into my stride and finally feel decent. I picked it up slightly and plugged away though the half. (It was quite easy to see other runners starting to fade into the heat too. It was clearly gonna be a shit show for people going the distance).

I love the first half of the Chicago Marathon!.... One of my favorite parts of any race, as the crowds are chalk thick, and the course snakes its way through the concrete canyons in the Loop, then all the northside neighborhoods, and back down through the loop again. It was all that much more fun having a number of friends at several spots along those miles.

A fun run, great workout, and perfect execution... Once I loosened up, I felt totally fresh and comfortable too. That leaves me in a great spot for my training over the next few weeks.

Congrats to all those who raced and gutted it out, in spite of it being yet another shit show of a Chicago Marathon.

Split recap:

1- 5:55.6

2- 5:59.6

3- 6:02.0

4- 6:00.9

5- 6:03.2

6- 6:01.8

7- 5:51.8

8- 6:05.2

9- 6:02.2

10- 5:59.7

11- 5:48.2

12- 5:55.2

13- 5:51.2

.1- 0:37.7

Total- 1:18:14 / Avg- 5:58.1

Cramming for a marathon

2011-10-06T10:40:00.004-05:00

I feel like I need to document my training thoughts here...

I was mildly concerned that I might not have enough time to cram training for CIM (early December), so I went back to see what sort of abbreviated schedules I ran for my 2011-Rotterdam and 2010-London marathons.

A more proper training schedule would probably be about 20 weeks long, with a steady basing for several weeks, then 2-3 steps up with cut-backs before each step up. 14 days before the race, the plug would be pulled and I'd fall back into taper. Cramming is doing this in 10-15 weeks, removing the cut-back weeks and shortening the taper.

London was quite hilarious - Seriously, I only had like 8-9 weeks of training before that thing. I went from two straight months of down time from my stress fracture, to piddling with a handful of 30-35 mile/weeks, then rolled 8 weeks (6 of which were >60 miles), then tapered for 9 days. Now that was cramming! On race day, I felt fresh as could be and actually had a good race (2:39:53).

Here's what I ran leading into Oak Park 5k (16:16) and Rotterdam (2:38:46)...
(Again, garbage miles for a handful of weeks prior to touching a 50+ week)

Week / Miles
1 / 51
2 / 50
3 / 50
4 / 57
5 / 52
6 / 58
7 / 57
8 / 73
9 / 63
10 / 92
11 / 90 (7 day stretch of 106 miles)
12 / 90 (included 1:16:26 Cary 1/2 at the start of the week - totally on fumes though from all the miles)
13 / 42 (I shut it down mid-week to start recovery = 12 days of taper)
14 / 24 (includes 16:16 5k, 7 days before the marathon)
26.2 on Sunday, 4/10/11

14 weeks total. 7 weeks <60 miles, followed by 5 weeks >60 miles, followed by 12 days of taper. The 3 solid weeks >90 miles were key though... I topped out at 106 in a 7 day stretch, then went back down to the 90 range, then tapered.

All that said, here's what I'm thinking for my CIM training. This time, only a couple weeks prior to kick off with ~30 miles/week.

Week / Miles
1 / 50
2 / 50
3 / 65
4 / 65
5 / 75 (running 1/2 of Chicago Marathon at beginning of week)
6 / 75-80
7 / 60 (Oak Park FLW 10K at beginning of week)
8 / 90
9 / 90 (probably try to peak this week w/ 7 days >100)
10 / 90
11 / 45 (trial race somewhere in here?)
12 / 25
26.2 on Sunday 12/4/11

In the end, it can be done. Tried and true. I've proven it twice now, and with excellent results. It won't be easy. It'll require hill runs, and lots of tempo and speed workouts that I'm just starting now. And most importantly, I can't get injured (so far, I'm able to manage this hip/hamstring/glute with 1-2 massages a week, and tons of streching).

If I'm gonna gun for a PR at CIM, then I'm gonna have to be extremely strict with this training starting..... NOW.

Green shoots in late September

2011-09-29T13:28:00.005-05:00

Slowly starting to get myself back in to shape. I now have 2 weeks of 50 miles underneath me, I'll be mid-60's this week. Nothing to brag about by any means, but I have to start somewhere and I'm hoping that my longer-term base will help me to bounce back pretty quick.

Speed still sucks, but at least I'm feeling more comfortable with distance now.

Last night, I did a fartlek with Jason, going 1 minute, 2 minute, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... with the same minutes recovery in between each interval. He buried me by the end of it, but I at least kinda held on ok. Good enough for my first speed workout in months. More entertaining though, we ran it in Lincoln Park, taking completely random routes for each interval. It was actually a pretty cool idea. A workout like that will come in handy in a few months, when nobody wants to go to the track.

Monday, I did a double - 5 miles early, then 11 miles with 6 of it being tempo. I started out around a 6:25ish pace, dropped it to 6:15 for the 2nd and 3rd miles, then dropped it to 5:50ish for 4-6 miles. Averaged about 6ish. It wasn't easy, but again it was a start.

Chicago Marathon is in 1 week. Kinda bummed that I won't be racing it, but I'm still planning on doing half of it as a tempo run / marathon paced run. That'll be a true test to see how much work I have ahead of me. If I can survive 13 miles at 6-flat, then I'll feel better about rolling up for CIM.

It's amazing how quickly you can lose your conditioning... Rotterdam seems like a completely distant memory by now.

CIM is 10 weeks away. Yikes!

Back to the drawing board

2011-09-12T15:17:00.003-05:00

I took over 6 weeks hiatus, lost most of my conditioning, fattened up a bit, cleared up 50% of my troubles (foot, not hip)... and now, I'm starting to run again.

After some solid winter training and 2 big PRs in the spring (here and here), I muddled along for three months without recovering. Lingering soreness and botched training forced me to re-think my summer and fall racing plans. Throw a market crash on top of it, and it made August training virtually impossible. Ramping up to 100 miles a week was just not feasible. The plug had to be pulled.

It's incredibly annoying to go from primo shape, to giving it all back, and now having to start from square 1 again... Regardless, I have to start from somewhere.

I'd like to say that I'm 100% healthy now, but I'm not. My foot is finally better. But I'm still experiencing hamstring/glute/hip troubles. Recently, I've had some success with some extremely aggressive massage therapy though. Fingers crossed that I'm close to getting this resolved in the next couple weeks... or at least to a point where I can train more comfortably + still work with the massages.

As of now, I have 2 straight weeks of about 30 miles under me, and feel that I can continue to run with at least that sort of volume. Yesterday I ran the Chicago Half Marathon strictly as a training run and finished at 1:24:56 (Thanks to Ryan Curry and Ken Fandell for keeping me motivated!).

None of this is coming easy, and I have a long way to go.... but it's a start. If I can pull it together, then I am registered for the California International Marathon, on December 4th. That's cutting it extremely close with my lack of recent running. I've been here before. Heaven forbid I get a full training session!

Stalled

2011-08-01T11:16:00.004-05:00

I'm coming to the end of my line.

My 2 lingering injuries are on the brink of shutting down my Chicago Marathon.

1) Left hip/glute/hamstring
2) Right cuboid/fifth metatarsal

My left glute continues to be constantly sore. It feels like there's a big knot somewhere holding it hostage. As a result, I'm lacking in any fire power. For the last several weeks, I cannot extend my left leg straight out in front of me, or bend over and touch my toes. I fear that I may have tore something.

My right foot has started to improve (kinda). It feels fine when I'm not running, but once I ask it to go over 5 miles, it starts putting up a fuss. Something eventually falls out of place, and becomes an aching mess until I snap it back into place. It's then sore for the rest of the day, and if I'm lucky it recovers by the next morning.

So, same story as it was a couple weeks ago and without any significant improvement in spite of taking numerous days off and skipping ALL normal workouts.

Instead of building my training to 70 miles a week in the last month, I've stalled.

Unless something changes this week, I'm pulling the plug on the marathon. There's almost no way that I can get back to PR... let alone sub 2:40 shape in under 10 weeks.

Getting old

2011-07-13T11:45:00.001-05:00

On this eve of my 34th birthday, I can't help but feel like I'm getting old.

The last 2 weeks have been above 50 miles, but it hasn't come easy.

I'm having some chronic soreness in my left glute/hip/hamstring/whatever it is... I've seen like 6 different people in the last 6 months, and nobody can tell me what's causing the pain... aside from "you're weak". I've technically been dealing wtih this pain since around Boston-2009.

Likewise, my good ol' friend Mr. Cuboid is back in town! Just when I've been starting to miss him, too. ...Two weeks ago, the chiropractor gave me a good yank on my foot. A couple days later and it was clear that my right cuboid had become subluxed. Maybe there's more to it than just the cuboid, but I've had this problem before and it certainly feels like it. Nothing like trying to run with a dislodged bone in your foot! I can get it to pop back in, unfortunately, it won't stay back in position.

Good news though: no more shin splints! That's probably a result of running the past couple of months almost entirely in my Vibram Five Fingers, New Balance MT10's, or my Mizuno Universe's. All are ultra-minimalist shoes. (I would say that none have caused the problems above... since the hip was there to begin with and my cuboid was just a strain from getting yanked).

SO... here I am turning another year, getting into marathon training... and I have a bum rear end on the left side and a flat tire on the right side. This needs to get fixed soon, or it's gonna be a long 3-4 months.

Time to get involved

2011-06-24T12:40:00.000-05:00

My running's been crap lately. I haven't strung together a week over 40 miles in the past month. I feel fat and out of shape.

I'll admit though, my legs are at least feeling refreshed. Hip/Glute has some linger soreness from my winter/spring training, otherwise everything else feels excellent. Now I just need to get the cardio back and onto a more normal diet.

Chicago Marathon is 16 weeks away. I need to make that shift from running to when I want to, to actually training.

Thus, summer training officially just kicked off a few minutes ago... I pushed myself back in by signing up for 4 on the 4th. It'll just be a tempo run, but this is my excuse to start running on a more steady basis. The race is in a little over a week, so I have no choice but to get back to work.

The following week, the city celebrates my day of birth with the Bastille Day 5K. Naturally, I must be there for all the people to honor me.

Game on.

Not much running, but a long awaited homecoming!

2011-06-09T11:43:00.003-05:00

Not a whole a lot of training right now... I'm sticking to my guns and taking some downtime for a couple weeks. Nothing but garbage miles right now. I'll keep this up through next week, and then start to get back towards base mileage.

In other news:
I FINALLY got Sandy back!! Six long months after "The Crime of the Century", and she's finally home. It took forever for the shop to pull her back together. I still haven't seen a final report of everything that they did to her. A lot of parts getting shipped from Germany and possibly some unmotivated mechanics... but she's back nonetheless. Unfortunately, I feel like they missed a few things. I may wind up having to stick her back into the shop to pull together the loose ends.

SF10 - DNF

2011-06-01T11:59:00.002-05:00

It's official - I've had my very first DNF in a race.

That's quite the honor!

Here's the thing: I went into SF10 expecting to have some fantastic race. I knew I was gonna PR that thing, since my 10 mile PR is inside of half marathon(s).

Two week earlier, my first 10 of the Green Bay Half was 57:09... and that was during freakin gale-force winds, and on a mildly hilly course. SF is a flat course, and winds were beneficial for a wisely-run negative split race. I felt like I should've been able to at least muster up a sub-57, or ideally closer to 56:30 (= 5:40 pace). GB should've just been a warm up for SF10.

Anything worse than Green Bay's 10mi split would've been tragic.

There was a head wind through 5, and I found myself running alone for about 3 of those miles. I first got dropped by faster runners (as expected), and then I gradually got swallowed by a small pack of 4 runners.

In my mind, that pack shouldn't have been near me and it initially bothered me. But, they were working together and that proved to be a much better strategy, so I accepted it.

As we turned at 5 and gained a tailwind, I realized that I was working waaaay too hard to hang on to that pack. The 6th mile was 5:38 and it felt like I blazed a 5:20. I couldn't fathom hanging onto that pace for any longer, in spite of having that tail wind. And then I got dropped. Passed 7 at 5:49. I was disgusted that I was blowing up.

I thought no way in hell was I going to be able to maintain that for another 3 miles. Everything collapsed so quickly. Like I hit a wall, but only after 7 miles... and 7 miles slower than what I ran at GB! I knew it was over. I didn't have to think twice about it. I immediately pulled the plug.

So there you have it. I turned the corner, expecting to get this big ol' boost from some wind at my back... and even get the favor of running with a few guys..., and instead I got dropped on my "out of shape" ass. I was damned if I was going to run slower than my 10 miles at Green Bay, let alone start choking out some marathon paced miles in a 10 miler. And damned I was!

For the second race in a row I had negative, self-destructing thoughts dictate how I raced... or lack there of.

I'm OK with it too. It's clear now that I did too much. With in about 2 months, I ran Cary 1/2, PR'd Oak Park 5k, PR'd Rotterdam, slugged my way though Green Bay, and then attempted SF10. That's a lot of hard running! My eyes were bigger than my stomach.

SF10 probably would've gone much better if I had been more aggressive with my training in the past few weeks - but honestly, I didn't feel like it. I've been running on empty since Green Bay. I lost the motivation. I didn't want to bother with the track or a couple mid-week longer runs. I got lazy and paid for it. It should've been either GB or SF... not both.

I need to recovery before I can do much more. I'll do a little running this week... only enough to possibly choke out the Roselle 5K... if I even bother... then 2 weeks of heavily reducing miles.

I need to get feeling fresh again before I can think about the Chicago Half and Chicago Marathon.
Split recap:
1- 5:36
2- 5:42
3- 5:45
4- 5:44
5- 5:45
6- 5:38
7- 5:49
A waaay too difficult 7 mile average of 5:42.7.
Note, I went through GB mile 8 with a 5:39 average, before getting slammed by the wind.

A really fun run!

2011-05-20T15:02:00.009-05:00

I have only one way to describe my run today:

FUN!

That's seriously for a lack of better terms too. All I could think when I finished was... "Wow, that was really fun!"

I'm alone in the office today. I decided to duck out for an 8 mile run on the lakefront. The weather was probably the best it's been in weeks... 60 degrees, minimal wind. I ran in my newly acquired New Balance Minimus MT10's. I've run a handful of times in them, though I haven't really pushed them until today.

Obviously the name suggests that they're a minimalist shoe. Technically they're dubbed as a trail shoe, though they're far different than any trail shoe I've ever seen or felt... very light weight, very flexible, very thin sole, a slightly heel-to-toe drop (hardly noticeable), and extremely comfortable. Truly a minimalist shoe. I had no trouble wanting to run on pavement with these. A close second to the Vibram Five Fingers.

Anyway... my "8 miles easy" turned into a 10 mile progression run, where I started to push about a 6:00 pace towards the end. I didn't mean to run that fast, it just happened. It sounds kinda stupid too, but I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the entire way.

I felt great. My feet loved every moment of it. No pain in my shins or calves, or anywhere else. Just like effortlessly floating along for an hour.

That's the joy of running in a minimalist shoe... the stride becomes so much more natural that it no longer feels like work. Total entertainment and enjoyment.

A runners high taken to a whole new level!

Good Riddance Green Bay!

2011-05-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

I became a big fat pussy and cry baby during the Green Bay 13.3 Half Marathon. Prior knowledge of an incorrectly mapped course plus some serious winds eventually got the better of me...

The day before the race, we drove the course. It was very clearly marked on the ground with spay paint, and very easy to follow. They put a lot of thought into this! That's great and all, but the course was also very clearly MARKED INCORRECTLY!! Mile 4 was blatantly long, and mile 12 might be debatable. The published and certified course maps were inconsistent with the spray paint.

Bottom line: We went into the race knowing that it was going to be long by at least 0.15 mile. After driving it, we mapped it out 5 different ways on Google, and it just didn't add up. We consistently showed it being over 13.3 miles. As it turns out, after the race, officials later confirmed the course as being 13.25 due to mile 4. I still think that it might be off at mile 12 as well, but that's splitting hairs at this point.

To top it off, we ran the race while dealing with gale-force winds... SOLID 20-30 mph, with gusts in excess of 40mph. Granted, there were times that the wind helped... but trying to hammer a mile into that shit ain't easy.

So there you have it. It got the better of me late in the race.

I put in a solid effort for a while. I ran through mile 8 right at a 5:40 average pace (I'm adjusting that average for the long mile 4... and assuming my pace in that mile was a 5:45 instead of a 7:02). I did screw up in mile 5, which included some wind and a messed up pace by running with a few other people... I ran a 5:55. Not sure what exactly happened there. I eventually dropped some guys that were clearly slowing up, and then faced a nasty 1/2 mile stretch into the wind. This was a screw up, but not a deal breaker. Again, avg pace through 8 was about 5:40... 5:39 if I skip mile 4 altogether.

Mile 9 hurt. It included some uphill, but more importantly it was directly into some horrendous wind... seriously, it was near unbearable. I had caught a couple other guys and tried to work with them, but ultimately I became their work horse for most of that mile. One did jump in front of me late, but the damage was already done... 5:55. We split up and I ran alone from there. I slipped... Mile 10: 5:50, Mile 11: 5:45. Both 10 and 11 had wind hitting me from the sides. You'd think that shouldn't be a big deal, but it mentally effected me.

Mile 12 was the bitch that end my race for all practical purposes. I was all alone, and turned directly into what seemed to be a tornado's path. Seriously, I felt like I was dealing with 50 mph steady winds. I remember seeing shit fly at me and along the sides of the road... like a seen from Twister or something! After dealing with that for all too long, I thew in the towel and just tried to run comfortably though it.... I recall thinking of how pissed I was to be there... how I bothered to drive up nearly 4 hours, only to run a long course during a fucking tornado. Why did I subject myself to that?? I somehow managed to slug out a 6:15 mile. A far cry from my early 5:40 pace.

And to boot, after I passed the 12th marker and turned out of the wind, one of the guys that I dropped 4 miles earlier had caught back up to me and drafted off me through the worst of the worst. I had no idea. He then passed me. I didn't care. In my mind, my race was over. I cruised 13 at a 5:48 pace...

I was angry by the time I hit mile 12, and that wind broke me. Mentally I had checked out of the race. I'm ok with it. I'll just have to roll the SF10.

Splits:
1- 5:35 (aggressive, but felt it was necessary to fight the wind by drafting)
2- 5:29
3- 5:33
4.2- 7:02 (probably a 5:50 equivalent?)
5- 5:55 (Wind, plus ??... I think I fell asleep?)
6- 5:48
7- 5:37
8- 5:37
9- 5:55 (up hill + monster wind)
10- 5:50
11- 5:45
12.05- 6:15 (HORRIBLE wind, seems long, I totally threw in the towel here)
13- 5:48 (basically just rolled my pussy to the finish)
.1- 0:35
13.1- 1:16:45, 17th Place.

Afterwords, the race officials adjusted our times by a multiple of 0.9886 to compensate for their error. Simply applying that multiple gives me a 1:15:51 result. I don't think that's correct in my case, as I ran faster earlier and quit late. - If I smooth out my 3rd and 5th miles (which would still be slower than a simple average of my 1-8 miles), I come up with something like a 5:45-50 pace for mile 4.
That translates to about a 1:15:30 race, in spite of the wind. My second fastest 1/2 marathon.

Needless to say, I'm done with Green Bay. I won't be back.

I can tempo, but can I race?

2011-05-10T10:40:00.011-05:00

It's been almost a month since my marathon, and I'm gradually getting my stride back.

Last week I hit 72 miles. It all felt pretty decent too. I even threw in a few core workouts, which I'm trying to do more regularly now.

Last night I rolled a tempo run (2 weeks in a row now).
My goal was to hit some sort of half marathon'esq pace. I did that and then some... 6 miles at 5:47, 5:45, 5:44, 5:40, 5:38, 5:30... a 5:40.7 average. I gradually just pulled the trigger, getting faster and faster. It might've even been a tempo-paced PR for me...? I don't typically go that fast. A slight headwind in the second half made that final mile hurt. It definitely wasn't as easy as I wanted.

This all leads me to the question:

What the hell am I going to run in Green Bay???

I'm just starting to get the mileage back up after a handful of lame weeks. Plus I still haven't been to the track yet! I do feel alright, but I don't think I'm ready to hammer this thing.

My PR set last year was 1:14:50 = 5:42.5 pace. ...The thought of running what I did last night, and then tacking on another 7 miles makes me sick!

It's been a slice, now get back to work!

2011-04-26T12:06:00.007-05:00

A couple weeks have passed now since Rotterdam.

The first week was spent vacationing in Europe with Sarah. An awesome trip! We left Rotterdam the day after the marathon, and went to Amsterdam. Spent 24 hours there (24 hours too much!), then flew down to Rome for 5 days...

Rome is amazing. I love that city. Potentially one of the greatest city in the world... and we did it right. Stayed in a swanky hotel near the Spanish Steps. Walked the entire city. Saw as much of the history as possible. Sarah took something like 2,000 photos. Ate great food. Tons of pizza! Drank lots of cappuccinos, wine, and limoncello. Smoked some Cubans. Spent way too much $$ shopping. My only regret was I didn't eat enough gelato.

I ran once while in Rome. A great little run in the park, on top of Piazza del Popolo / Spanish Steps. The views were incredible from up there!

----------

Since Europe, I'm slowly getting back into it in Chicago. 35 miles last week, including a 15 mile run. Like all post-marathon runs, the first couple were laboring and full of soreness. I think I've finally kicked all that out of the system. Now I just need to improve upon my diet! (I've been eating like crap!)

From an injury perspective, I'm feeling decent. No major aches or pains at the moment. Although, my glutes and hamstrings seem extremely tight... Otherwise nothing other than your standard post-marathon lethargy, which is getting better. I've even broke out the Vibram Five Fingers a few times while going easy.

The next month will be all about trying to maintain my fitness. Upcoming target races are the Green Bay Half Marathon on May 15th, followed by the Soldier Field 10 on May 28th.

My goals are still up in the air, but a sub 1:15 effort in Green Bay would be awesome. That's gonna require me to get back into the 60's for mileage, plus spin the wheels on the track. I don't have a lot of time.

Back to work.

A Rotter-damn PR on fumes

2011-04-25T13:17:00.000-05:00

Rotterdam was a success by the measure of an evenly split race and a PR.

I'm absolutely excited about how it turned out. It wasn't quite what I gunned for, but it could've been much worse. Unfortunately, I ran it on fumes.

I've come to the conclusion that international marathons aren't easy. I had to adjust for a 7 hour time difference in just 36 hours before racing. That's just ridiculous . This was my 4th international marathon, and you would think I would've already learned and been better prepared. Nope. Instead, I went to the starting line with absolutely no sleep on Thursday night, 12 hours of over-sleep on Friday night, and a whopping 3 hours of sleep on Satruday night! I went to the starting line feeling groggy and drained.

As far as the race itself goes, Rotterdam was great. I highly recommend it! Logistically, it was very easy to deal with. Fewer than 10,000 runners. Managing the starting line/finish line was very easy. Water/Euro sports drink every 5K. Course markers every 1K, Clocks every 5K. Gun was at 11am sharp.

The figure-eight course was pretty ideal. Any headwinds eventually became tailwinds, and vice-versa. There were some "hills" from over-passes, and one large bridge that we went over a couple times, but otherwise it was extremely flat (very similar to Chicago or Berlin). It's no wonder this thing is consistently a fast course! My only complaint was a lack of shade... The sun definitely wore out its welcome. I guess that's not too different than most other marathons though.

My original race goal was to go through the half at 1:19:30, and come back as sub-1:19 as possible. That would've had me going out at 3:45-46 K's, and coming back at 3:44-45 K's. With the sleep and mid-day heat working against me, I knew that might be tough. 2:39 was my hard limit. Anything over that, and the race would be a disappointment.

I left the hotel 20 minutes before the start, jogged 1 block to warm up, then went to the corral. (It was really simple). Corral was packed, but a little negotiable. My seed had me in a mix of runners, and I was forced to start behind probably 300+ people. I should've been in the front of my corral, I didn't leave myself enough time to get closer to the line.

We sat for a few minutes. The waiting game was pretty standard for me. Everyone all jittery. Couldn't understand a word that anyone was saying. Weather was warm up... 60 degrees, and climbing with the sun. A light, steady wind. Helicopters swirled above.

A cannon blasted right at 11am.

The first 5K was all about jockeying for position and shedding some of those slower runners. I hashed out about 150 people within 1K, and crossing our first bridge. Annoying, but oh well. I took another 50 runners through the 15K, and then it was no-man's land. Maybe another 25 people in the remaining 25K? The only person to pass me after the first 5K, was a runner that I was working with and eventually yo-yo'd later into the race.

I went through the 5K all on my own, at 18:48 (3:45.6 avg, 6:03/mi). Pretty much right on target. Everything felt good, so I just clung to it. I gradually picked up a handful of other runners and we went jumping from pack to pack. I sat in the middle of this small group for as long as I could.

Splits went like clockwork through the half. 10K was 37:31, or 18:43 for the next 5K split (3:44.6 avg, 6:01/mi). ...One of the front runners dropped our pack and we eased up for a couple K. I felt good but wasn't going to join that runner. I didn't want to ease up much more though either, so I took the lead. I occasionally put in a few surges to catch guys ahead and shield myself from some on/off head winds. At this point, other runners refused to take the lead but gladly came along for the ride.

We passed Sarah. She handed off a Gatorade. I pressed on.

By 15K, the meat was gone and fat was shed. It was down to myself and a German guy. We went through 15K at a 18:45 5K split (3:45.0 avg, 6:02/mi). Most of the time, the German rode off my shoulder, but occasionally he'd give me the pleasure of taking the lead. We talked a little. He mentioned he had run the course a few times before. We strolled by a couple runners here and there. I noticed it was getting pretty hot and sunny. 20K still went like nothing though, exactly 1hr 15min deep, the 5K split at 18:44 (3:44.8 avg, 6:02/mi).

Started to hit a little wind, then the Half Split at 1:19:20 (3:45.6 avg, or 6:03/mi). Pretty much right on target!

It got pretty annoying as we went though the half though... My fellow German refused to help with what became some solid headwind for the next 5K. That stretch was pretty brutal and we had no one else to work with. Probably the worst and most barren spot on the course... and when the going got tough, my German went into hiding. He finally stepped up and gave me some relief for maybe 1K, but he slowed our pace. I took over after I saw a 3:50 split. It wasn't easy, and I clung two more 3:50 splits. We went from running 6-6:01 splits to 6:10's because of that split. 25K at 18:59 (3:47.8 avg, 6:06/mi). Given the temps, sun, wind... that stretch was expensive. ...and now a bridge.

Just after the 25K... we crossed the Erasmusbrug Bridge for the second and final time. Some more wind on the bridge, and then it finally let up. I carried us up, and then my German dropped me like a bad habit on the down side of the bridge. I couldn't believe it! After all that work and running together. After I basically carried his ass for at least 15K.... he threw in a major surge and gapped me by at least 10-15 seconds.

At that point, we didn't have any more head wind and I still felt somewhat comfortable, so I wasn't too worried... I know he knew the course, but seriously, "You're welcome!"...

I spent the next 5K trying not to lose him. A few times I started to catch back up, but then gave it back. I couldn't help but give up some ground. He definitely kicked into a different gear. We each passed a few stragglers, otherwise there was no one around. Keeping him in my sights was my only hope. 30K at 18:52 (3:46.4 avg, 6:04/mi).

I just passed Sarah, and she threw me another Gatorade. I was starting to feel the dehydration. It was easily in the high 60's, before considering the blazing sun. I wasn't sweating anymore.

I thought more about that last 5K. It was only a few seconds, but I lost some of my early groove. That was now 2, 5K splits that were slower than my earlier splits. I initially struggled with that. I wasn't sure if my time had come and the combination of no-sleep plus heat was taking its toll. Or if I could come back...? German was easily >20 seconds ahead of me and now with a small handful of guys. There was no one else within sight.

My little pity party didn't last long. I was 30K deep and I knew I "only" had 12K to go. For some reason that number didn't seem too bad...? I knew I had to step it up, or my race was over. I immediately surged to wake myself up.

I dropped a 3:39 1K. My fastest one so far. I counted my steps, I pumped my arms, I repeated and chanted random lines in my head... I did whatever it took to forget about the effort.

A couple more mid-3:40's, and a surge with another 3:39...

35K at a 18:40 split (3:44.0 avg, or 6:00/mi). Another K and I caught the pack. German had already started to pull away. I was clearly going faster than these runners. I dropped them, and I gradually reeled in German. He was strong. He said, "Welcome back!" I held on for another 2K in the mid-3:40's. I must have been the wind in his sails though because he took off again. There was no catching him this time.

I just passed Sarah for the 3rd time on the course. She was amongst a thin crowd that was slowly getting bigger. I couldn't wait for this to be over with.

39K and I held a 3:48 pace (6:07/mi). A little slower but not bad, I thought. I had more or less fallen off of German as opposed to him dropping me. That sun was fucking hot! A couple runners that were between us and now became my targets.

My feet had started to get heavier. Legs were sore. I tried to shake them out. I felt the crusted salt on me. German was slipping away. 40th K, a 3:55. UGH!! Hang in there. I hit that 40K with an 18:59 (3:47.8 avg, 6:07/mi).

3:55 hurt, and it came out of nowhere.... but what really hurt was the 41st, 3:59. Out of nowhere, I had slipped to a 6:18-6:25 pace. It was like I completely fell asleep. London all over again, when I hosed myself in the last couple miles.

I remember thinking, "What the fuck!?!" I was dehydrated and dead, but not that dead!! I was pissed and the fuse was lit. "I got's to go!"

My watch said 2:34:28. 1200 meters to go. I couldn't think of the exact math, but I knew I was inside of 5 minutes from the finish. I knew I was going to PR unless I royally fucked up. Maybe 1200 meters is closer to 4:30?? That's still sub 2:39. I wanted that sub-2:39.

I went all in right then and there.

Didn't think a moment more about the race or my pace; I just went. I passed a guy. He tried to match me. He had nothing. The crowds were huge by now and lined both sides of the street. Saw another guy. I don't even know what happened to him, I went by so fast. I dropped the hammer and kept going. Don't think, just run. Only a couple minutes now... Anyone can run hard for 2 minutes.

I pumped my arms as much as I could. I chanted a quote in my mind... The night before, I saw a Winston Churchill line written on a wall: "If you're going through hell, keep going." Awfully fitting. KEEP GOING!

The crowds were screaming like mad for me.... it had to be for me, because there wasn't anyone else around... I was coming up to the final turn on the Coolsingel. That's their famous final straight. I rounded the turn. Crowds swelled. 300 meters to go. I kicked even harder.

3:36 on my 42nd K (a 5:48/mi pace).

Balls to the wall now. Every ounce of energy to go here. As hard as I could... which as I look back, was pretty damn hard. I can't believe how much kick I had!! Where was this strength in the 39th and 40th K's?? Where did it come from??

Never mind, just go!

I saw German up ahead, but I was running out of course. Give us another quarter, and I might have beaten him. From here it was just a race against the clock.

I could see it was now ticking 2:38:50's.... I had cushion versus my chip time, but how much?!? Get there. 2:39:00 now... Fuck! Get it!! I stepped over the line seconds later. I shut my eyes and slapped my wrist to get the split.

It took me a couple seconds to collect myself. I looked down...

2:38:46.

I closed that 1200M with my fastest effort during the race... My final 200m kick was a 5:37/mi effort.

I was incredibly pleased with the way that ended, incredibly surprised given how tired I was, but equally frustrated with my 39th and 40th K's. It was a near perfect race. Had I not slipped for those couple K, I'd be singing a much brighter tune here.

But alas, it's a damn PR and a damn good one. I split the second half of the race 6 seconds slower than the first half.

Results show me finishing in 90th place, but I believe that's on clock time. Chip time, I believe I was 88. Splitting hairs, I know.

K recap:
1- 0:03:47
2- 0:03:46
3- 0:03:47
4- 0:03:47
5- 0:03:41 (5K: 18:48)
6- 0:03:45
7- 0:03:44
8- 0:03:41
9- 0:03:49
10- 0:03:45 (5K: 18:43)
11- 0:03:46
12- 0:03:45
13- 0:03:47
14- 0:03:45
15- 0:03:44 (5K: 18:45)
16- 0:03:45
17- 0:03:46
18- 0:03:43
19- 0:03:45
20- 0:03:45 (5K: 18:44)
21 - 0:03:50
1st HALF- 1:19:20 = 3:45.7 / 6:03.1 avg

22- 0:03:50
23- 0:03:50
24- 0:03:47
25- 0:03:42 (5K: 18:59)
26- 0:03:50
27- 0:03:39
28- 0:03:51
29- 0:03:44
30- 0:03:48 (5K: 18:52)
31- 0:03:39
30- 0:03:45
33- 0:03:49
34- 0:03:39
35- 0:03:47 (5K: 18:40)
36- 0:03:44
37- 0:03:47
38- 0:03:44
39- 0:03:48
40- 0:03:55 (5K: 18:59)
41- 0:03:59
42- 0:03:37
195m- 0:00:41
2nd HALF- 1:19:26 = 3:45.9 / 6:03.5 avg splits
OVERALL- 2:38:46 = 3:45:8 / 6:03.3 avg splits

Last 1195m were hammered at 5:46 pace.

Rotterdam Bound

2011-04-07T10:28:00.004-05:00

Rotterdam will be my 13th marathon. It's hard to believe that I've done that many. After Chicago 2004, I swore I would never do one again (and I've swore that many times since). And look at me now! All grown up.

After NYC I was jaded. I was tired of crap weather and difficult courses. I wanted to burn a fast one. Now it remains to be seen if my recent training has me in tip-top shape, but I'm at least setting it up for an ideal setting...

The lure to Rotterdam is that its ridiculously flat, very fast, uber-competitive, and consistently decent weather. And when I say fast, I mean famously fast...

Since the 1980's, this smaller race has produced 3 separate world record's (one of which stood for over 10 years). Most recently, it's become a destination for wanna-be title seekers, though it doesn't typically draw big name guys due to the lack of payout and/or majors' points. In the last 3 years, 8 runners have post sub-2:06. 4 have been sub-2:05! 8 of the 20 fastest times ever have been produced in Rotterdam (London is 2nd w/ 5, Berlin 3rd w/ 4).

The small field is only about 10,000 deep. Last year, over 100 snagged sub-2:40. To put that into perspective... last year you needed to run 2:52 in Chicago be in the top 1% of 40,000. The cut off time in Rotterdam is 5:30, as opposed to the standard 7 or 7:30! Average finish time is sub-4hr.

In other words: this is a race for runners.

That said, I'm still not sure what my plan is. A wise man once said, "Go out fast, pick it up in the middle, and finish strong." I'm gonna go out conservative with the intention to negative split the thing, but other than that I have no idea what my body will allow.

All I know is that I'm not a shorter distance guy. But after a 16:16 last week, that should tell me something.

Gun at 11am local time. That gives me the chance to catch up on sleep. Weather looks to be ideal too: most likely high 50's/low 60's, clear skies, 3mph winds. (Yeah, that's right... 3mph!)

Giddy up!

Short Taper, Long Tempo, & Big 5K PR

2011-04-03T14:21:00.009-05:00

Typically, I like to have 2-1/2 weeks taper time before a marathon. This round however, has been cut short so that I could squeeze in an additional training week. I'm stuck with 10-12 days instead.

Going from 90 to 40 isn't easy. For the last several days, I've complained about feeling like I wasn't getting enough running in, taking too many days off, and feeling "fat"... It feels like this is all coming too quickly. I put the breaks on and took 3 days off last week. It has felt like with each day, I'm losing something.... That was until today: the Oak Park 5K. The CARA season opener.

Before I get to that, I'll say that my tempo run last week was great. A much needed, 9 miles of speed and confidence. The longer tempo is the hallmark of a marathoner's training. It's a nice 50+ minute bad ass run, where you press the pace for as long as you can but save yourself from blowing out. Clearly it can't be as fast as some shorter tempos, but 1/2 marathon pace is ideal.

I usually target a few of them in my training, but for now I'll have to count Cary as a tempo along with this last 9 miler. Most importantly though, by the end of it I felt very strong and hungry for more. A special thanks to Jason for getting me rolling through the first 6, which were into some wind.

Split Recap:

1- 6:00.7

2- 5:52.1

3- 5:53.5

4- 5:49.0

5- 5:47.8

6- 5:44.3

7- 5:48.3

8- 5:45.7

9- 5:36.0

Total: 52:17.9

Avg: 5:48.7

-----------------------

Today brought an unexpected pleasantry: The Oak Park 5K.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hate 5K's! They're too fast and furious for me. They require a me to go all in right away, and just hang on for as long as I can. They never feel comfortable and almost always end in disappointment. For the first time today, I felt like that wasn't the case.

Oak Park has a great competitive field, stacked with a bunch of guys seeking to tune up for Shamrock, Boston, and other early spring premier races... including Rotterdam!

Decent weather today too, good temps with only a nasty headwind in the last 3/4 mile.

I went out with the goal of shooting for a 5:20 pace (roughly 16:30-:35 goal). The luxury of the field allowed me to hang on to a pack of other runners and let them do a lot of the work early on... and the added bonus of my boy, Erik Rasmussen to help carry me through the first couple miles.

We went through the first mile at a blistering 5:09, as everyone jockeyed for position. Oddly enough, it didn't feel that bad (I say that with surprise and disgust). Erik and I settled down a bit in the second mile, but never fell very far off our pack. We did take a few runners out, as we still clipped 5:19. Partly a result of a little head wind, a small hill, and the pack calming down.

The third mile became my race. Erik fell off, with a bit of a calf problem. I turned a corner, and headed into the wind. I had to make a decision: either hang with him, or suck it up to catch the pack ahead. The pack was left with only a few guys now. I needed them to keep me in the race.

I still felt strong so I made the push and within 30 seconds I drafting off the back of 3-4 guys, including FF'er Dave Strubbe. I hung here as we took a few individual runners, until we rounded a couple more turns, and came to the final half mile long stretch. Head winds were nasty here and killed the whole pack. We clearly slowed up, but nobody wanted to be the sacrificial lamb. I pushed through the pack anyway. Naturally, a few guys grabbed on to me. Then it just became guts and hit it as hard as I could until the finish.

The lead was swapped 2 or 3 times between 3 of us. We swallowed another runner, and I eventually finished in 2nd amongst our pack and final push. Third mile was 5:15, final 0.1 was 0:31... not a huge kick, but I'd say given the head wind there, it was easily a 5/sub-5 effort at the end. Clearly enough to out kick several other top quality runners too.

Final result... a big PR in an event that I hate... 16:16. Average of 5:15 pace. 9th over all, 3rd age group. I felt strong and in control throughout the race. A very nice start to the CARA Circuit season and a HUGE confidence booster for Rotterdam. This little 5K has reassured me that I can gun for a PR next Sunday.

The scary thing is though, I'm actually really excited to run Rotterdam now. I wasn't before. I need to stay calm, otherwise by the end of the week, I'll be crawling out of my skin and driving myself crazy.

Marathon count down has begun yet again.

Time's up

2011-03-26T15:47:00.004-05:00

I'm done. 3 weeks at 90+ miles each. Time to recover for a few days.

It was a good stretch. I crammed quality plus quantity the whole way, and so far I'm passing the test. I (definitely) didn't over do it going into this plateau and I'm not busted coming out of it. I'm not sure if it'll be enough to blow out Rotterdam, but I'm guessing that I'm in better shape than I was 1 year ago, heading into London... I cranked a 2:39 there, so that should be worth something.

I'm finally feeling like I'm back in shape. A few more good workouts will help. For now, a big feeling of relief has come as I can finally cut back. I've plugged nearly 300 solid miles in the last 22 days and I still have fuel in the tank. Taking tomorrow off, and dropping the mileage this week. Rotterdam's in 14 days.

2011 Cary March Madness Half Marathon

2011-03-23T10:06:00.000-05:00

Cary was amusing. I claimed that I would be happy to produce something sub-5:50 pace. Well, I did just that: 1:16:26 = 5:49.8 pace. That's 2 seconds faster than I was 2 years ago... but 2 years ago wasn't on the heels of 106 miles and had slightly better conditions.

I can say I'm happy with the race, though I'm a little disappointed in how I achieved it. I went out too fast, and didn't come close to a negative split. I'll blame that on some tailwinds after the first few miles, which turned into headwinds during the meat of the race.

The first 2.5 miles were straight into some head winds and I was forced to jockey for positioning to help fight those winds. Hence, the first 3 were a blow out. Then I had mostly down hill, and tail winds from 2.5 through 6.5. Clearly the easiest miles of the race.

After 4 miles, I was all alone for the rest of the race. Even though I wasn't far off the back of Verdo and Jason, that made things significantly more difficult for me as I had to cope with really nasty headwinds and hills in 7, 8, and 10. I eventually lost sight of them after 10, as I held my pace and they pulled the trigger. I eventually picked off 1 runner that they dropped in their move.

We finished 6th, 7th, and 8th places in what was a fairly competitive race.

SO, I am very pleased with my time and how I felt throughout the race. Given the weather/winds, I have to accept how I ran my splits... it was probably an even effort aside from blowing out the first few miles. A few days of taper and I definitely could've gone faster.

Since the race, I'm hanging in there. Still on track for 90 miles this final week, though I'm having to juggle taking Monday off with a couple doubles. I resume speed tonight.

Split Recap:
1- 5:35.3
2- 5:41.1
3- 5:37.1
4- 5:51.6
5- 5:45.3
6- 5:50.8
7- 6:05.2
8- 6:02.1
9- 5:34.4
10- 6:05.2
11- 5:58.9
12- 5:55.7
13- 5:49.7
.1- 0:33.8
Total: 1:16:26
Avg: 5:49.8

Unintended PR

2011-03-19T15:04:00.002-05:00

Hit 106 miles in 7 days.

It's the result of cramming in order to give me one recovery day in between my long and the Cary 1/2 Marathon. The week included 2 long runs of 22 miles each. I also had 1 double giving me 14 miles, and 2 other days of 14 miles. It wasn't all just big miles either... I had 7 miles of tempo, and 20x 400's.

I actually handled it all pretty well. No major aches or pains as of now.

Weather for tomorrow's race will be 10-15 mph winds, 40 degrees, and probable showers. On the heels of 106 miles, I'm not expecting much other than a long tempo run. I'll be happy to produce something sub-5:50 pace, though that might even be optimistic.

I still have one final big week of training next week. Getting through 90 more miles uninjured is far more important.

Building a Plateau

2011-03-17T09:21:00.005-05:00

After 2 months of basing in the 50-60 range, I've jumped to 90 miles. My goal is to plateau up here for 3 weeks. While doing so, I'm focusing on quantity AND quality. This is my last ditch effort to cram for Rotterdam.

When I attempted something similar for NYC back in the fall (minus the cram), it didn't go so well. I wound up breaking myself. In hindsight, that move was unnecessary as I already had plenty of speed and endurance under my belt. I could've peaked with far fewer miles and been far better off.

This time around, I'm going off a smaller base with less speed, but I am attempting to plateau from a more healthy standpoint. As of now, I have no major aches or pains that are slowing me down. I'm nearly 2/3rd through the peak, and so far so good.

Assuming all things remain equal, after tomorrow, I'll have about 104-105 miles in the last 7 days. Cary is Sunday. That'll be my next test. I'm essentially running through it, so I'm not expecting to come remotely close to a PR, but I'd like to get a solid long tempo from it.

My success in Rotterdam hinges upon me getting through these 3 weeks rather unscathed and healthy. Is my base (short term and longer term) big enough to hammer on the gas for 21 days without over doing it?

Two notable workouts this week:

Monday night's tempo was a confidence booster. 7 miles, and stayed plenty strong all through the run. The first 1/2 was into wind, followed by wind at my back.

Split recap:
1- 6:07
2- 5:55
3- 5:48
4- 5:46
5- 5:41
6- 5:41
7- 5:27
Avg: 46.4

Wednesday night's BITCH of an interval workout: 20x 400's w/ 60sec recovery. It was in the zoo parking lot, which made it even less entertaining. Odd repeats were going into a slight wind. I averaged a full second faster when that slight wind was at my back.

Split Recap:
1- 75.8
2- 73.3
3- 73.5
4- 73.4
5- 74
6- 73.1
7- 75
8- 74
9- 73.9
10- 74.4
11- 74.1
12- 74.4
13- 74.6
14- 72.9
15- 73.6
16- 72.5
17- 74.7
18- 73.8
19- 74.8
20- 71.4
Avg: 73.86

Running out of time

2011-03-08T09:17:00.002-06:00

Rotterdam coming up quickly and my race is at risk, unless I can seriously pull myself together in the next 3 weeks. I have 1 month until I toe the line.

I had a very regrettable mistake last week: I skipped my Friday night run. I was tired, I had an insane week at work, I've been very stressed lately... blah blah blah... Cry me a river. I finished the week 10 miles short, and only at 63. I would've been 73 for the week (and 2 weeks in a row >70), which is still pathetic... but certainly better than a measly 63.

Mistakes like this leave me running out of time and under-training. I really should in the mid-80's right now and making a push for mid-90's. Instead I'm essentially at 70 and making a push for mid-80's.

Yes, I've gotten myself back into a nice little base of let's say 60 miles, but that won't cut a sub-2:40 marathon. I need peak miles. I need aggressive running (via tempos and intervals), and I need mid-week long runs. I'm missing the latter two, and hence missing a quality build towards my peak.

I ran 6 tempo last night. It wasn't even tempo, since my overall pace was still slower than my half-marathon pace. It definitely didn't feel easy. Furthermore, I should be running 8 mile tempos right now, not 6's.

The Cary Half Marathon is next weekend, and I can't even fathom running a half marathon right now. That pace makes my stomach churn.

The only thing I have going for me is the fact that I'm not injured (knock on wood!)... I'm not feeling totally fresh or in incredible shape, but at least I'm not running in pain.

Whatever. There's always Chicago!

Creeping up with a little speed

2011-02-17T09:04:00.003-06:00

My mileage is creeping back up... very slowly! I'm actually concerned that I'm under training right now.

At any rate, we had awesome weather last night for the first time this year, and put it to good use. 6x 800 with 90 seconds recovery @ 2:39, 2:38, 2:36, 2:34, 2:34, 2:31, 2:32... averaging 77.5's.

Not bad for the first interval workout in 4 months. I actually felt pretty fresh at the end of it too.

I'm finally bouncing around in the 60's with some mis-matched 7 day periods... I still don't feel "in shape" yet, and running faster still seems to require effort (with the exception of last night). Shins/calves feel good though. I'm constantly like 1 week away from feeling "more normal".

Crunch time is coming. I need more tempo, speed, and quality.

Heading off to San Antonio for a long weekend with Sarah. I should be able to get some nice warm weather, plus hill runs in down there.

Snow Bound in Chicago

2011-02-08T18:50:00.009-06:00

I watched The Shining the other day. Very fitting.

Any meaningful running in this city has come to a halt.

Since the DBO, we've been covered in at least 6+ inches of steady snow at any given time. It's sucked. The path or lakefront have been cleared on an occasion, but since last week's mini-blizzard we've been buried. It's impossibly (and very tiresome) to get any sort of decent mileage in this crap.

Last night I hit a tipping point... I was hoping to get a tempo run in, but it snowed a solid 3 inches in the hours leading up to the run. Instead, Larry and I skated our way through 10 miles on a fun mix of fresh powder, packed powder, granular, and ice... Needless to say, it wasn't fun but at least it was a workout......???

I threw in the towel today and did a tempo run on the treadmill. 1 mile warm up, 5 at just under 6min pace, 1 mile at 5:30 pace, 1 mile cool down. All in all I felt decent with the tempo. It was the first time I hit any sort of pace in a few weeks. Given the conditions, I'll take what I can get.

On the flip side, all this snow has probably done some good for me: Running on it is almost like cross training + running together. Seriously, the entire body gets an awesome workout when running on a highly unstable surface. Especially when you stretch it out to an hour+. When running on ice or packed powder, you immediately clear up your stride and unintentionally run as efficiently as possible... you have no other way... of course until you mis-step and pull something. I'm not saying I like the snow, but it does have it's advantages.

Oh, and it's fucking 10 degrees here today and gonna stay like that for the next several days.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

65 + DBO XC

2011-01-26T10:20:00.006-06:00

I've come to the 65 mile line.

65 in the last 7 days. Nothing spectacular, based on what I need to roll up for Rotterdam. And really, I've only been churning 50 miles in the last several weeks... but it's a right step in my "build back up" direction. My goal has been to simply base in the 50's throughout January, and then step it up in February. I'm getting there.

Last week, I had 3 separate training runs at moderate to faster paces. Each felt decent and I'm starting to reintroduce some shorter tempo work into my regime. I'm a little sore at the moment, but undoubtedly from a couple of snowy runs in the last few days.

First race of the year: I ran my first ever cross-country race this past weekend. The Daniel Burnham Open XC. The race was great, except for the fact that I clearly have no idea how to run XC. Who woulda thunk that I couldn't even maintain my marathon pace over a 2.5 mile run!

The 4k course looped around and over Cricket Hill, here in Chicago. A pretty competitive field with about 35 runners. The kicker, every step was entirely covered in about 4-6 inches of snow.

Needless to say, going out at marathon pace was still too much for those conditions!! I stupidly lead the field through the 1/2, only to get passed by the experienced XC'ers and then barely hung on for the last 2 miles. A sloppy 7th place finish. First mile was something like a 6:10, and that's after I slowed up from the 1/2 mile mark. 16:06 overall... you do the math. Fugly on my part, but still a fun experience nonetheless. I'd love to give it another try sometime... preferably with less snow next time.

Team work in running

2011-01-11T10:17:00.004-06:00

The beauty to running with a group comes in the following:

Last night was cold. Not the coldest night, but cold enough and with a steady wind. After a long day of work, the last thing I wanted to do was go run in that stuff. The second last thing I wanted to do was go run tempo.

Needless to say, I forced myself out the door to meet up with the Jason, Michael, Verdo, and a few others... as I felt obligated to... as we have this unspoken reliance upon one another during these freezing temps.

Two miles into our run, they began their tempo workout. After kicking and screaming for a bit, I decided to up my pace, but not quite to their effort. After all, the faster I ran, the sooner I'd finish. They went out in a ~5:50 mile, and I was dropped quickly, but I still managed a 6:01.

Before I knew it, I got into a nice groove and never lost sight of the pack up ahead. Mile 2, I made up ground. Without realizing how much I upped my effort, I went 5:47. It still felt comfortable. I caught Michael and turned after the 2nd mile. We then went through mile 3 at 5:48. I buried mile 4 at a 5:41.

Not a blazing pace, but considering they're the fastest miles I've run in 3 months - I'll happily take it. So 9 miles total, 4 miles of a progressing tempo... when my alternative was to sit on my ass and get fat. Today I feel good about myself.

Getting out the door is 1/2 the battle. And thanks to running in a group of dedicated guys, we'll be able to slug our way through this winter.

14 Weeks

2011-01-07T10:36:00.005-06:00

As I said, I'm officially signed up for the Rotterdam Marathon, on April 10th.

To begin with - everything feels pretty good right now, so I'm ready to start bumping up. This week will be >50, since I squeezed in 2x 15mi runs. Calf feels better... Still not 100%, but probably better that at any point in the last 12 months.

I've been thinking about how to train for this thing. I'm only 14 weeks out, so it'll have to be a quick roll back up. One side of me is concerned that I might be under trained, the other side is concerned that too quick of a roll up could have me over train and blow it like I did with NYC.

Since I crammed for London, I looked back to last year's post-SFX training as a comparison. Here's the basics:

- 10/11/09 - 2:39 Chicago Marathon
- SFX 2 weeks later on 10/28/09, didn't run a single step until 1/8/10. Total down time exactly 10 weeks.
- I essentially had 15 weeks of "running" to prepare for London.... 1/2 of which was just literally "shedding weight" running.
- I could probably only call 7 weeks of real training, if that:

Week - Mileage
1 - 21 (began on Sunday, 1/10/10)
2 - 31
3 - 35

4 - 35
5 - 42
6 - 21
7 - 42
8 - 66
9 - 60
10 - 55
11 - 82
12 - 67
13 - 82
14 - 60
15 - 26
16 - 26 (2:39 on 4/25)

The end result was just seconds shy of a PR, and I felt much stronger than in Chicago-09. However, my under training showed up in the last few miles. So, it was a far more aggressive race especially when I consider the lack of mileage that went into it, and my body still allowed me to run well. Adding more up: I only had 2 weeks above 80, and 3x 7-day streaks above 80. I did have 4x 20+ mile runs. A huge difference between London and NYC.

I can comfortably say that if I'm not totally out of shape right now (which I'm not), then I should be able jack my miles beyond London's and run a similar-or-better race. There shouldn't be any concern for getting into shape for Rotterdam... My concern should be over training again.

So in order to not over train, I'll cap on my weekly mileage at about 90 miles AND to spend at least 2 days a week cross training. I'll base in the 55-70 range, then pop it for 4 weeks at 80+. No more than 4-5x 20+ runs. Everything gets topped off with the Cary 1/2 Marathon on 3/20, 3 weeks before Rotterdam.

A lot fewer miles than NYC, but more than London. And to boot: the cross will help to build my core back into a rock, like it was couple years ago. It's not gonna be fun with this winter weather (it's in the 'teens today), but it'll leave plenty left in the tank for this marathon.

If I'm gonna cherry picking this race and go all the way to Europe, then I'm gonna have to change up my training and make sure I do it the right way.

By the end of next week, I should be able to start bringing back the quality.

A moment for Sandy

2011-01-05T11:39:00.003-06:00

This New Year got off to a bit of a rough start, but it is getting better by the day....

Sarah and I threw a New Years Eve party and it was an absolute blast!! About 30 people attended at one point or another. Unfortunately you can only control so much, and a couple of jag-off's show up as guests of a guest. We didn't know these guys. Both did seem a bit shifty.

Low and behold, at 2am, my car was missing from the garage!! It turns out that they took the keys off the key rack, walked out while no one was looking, and sped off.

Yep, you read that correctly.... we invite people into our home for a nice little get-together and celebrate the New Year, and they fucking steal my car!!!! Ummm, OK, that's a little different than just snagging a few CD's or an IPod... which you wouldn't think any of your friends would take anyway... but when you throw in a few guests of a guest....

Goods news though: It was recovered the following day (albeit, kidi-corner to Cabrini Green w/ all the keys in it). No significant damage that I can tell, other than some rips to the interior fabric and weather stripping. I'm getting the car checked out next week to determine if any mechanical work needs to be done.

I love that car - I basically own my dream car... or at least my child hood dream car. To have some dick head rip that away from me is unconscionable. I'm still in shock. Fortunately, she came back to me.

Moving on

2010-12-31T14:43:00.000-06:00

Since completely botching NYC, I've been in limbo with my running. I'm now finally ready to get moving again.

Ultimately I want to do another marathon and piggy back off of New York. I feel like I completely short changed myself after months of solid training. But, I need to get my calf sorted out first.

Ever since coming back from last year's stress fracture, I've been hindered on and off by shin splints that have lead to other material tightness/knots. Call it residual growing pains, rolling up too fast, whatever... it's frustrating that I've been running consistently for 6 years now and I still get shin splints after taking any down time... and the tightness stubbornly refuses to go away once it's started.

I've officially clocked 2,420 miles this year, and I'm willing to say that probably 50% of those miles were run under some sort of lingering shin or calf pain! Without these issues, I would've easily run 200-300 more miles... at least... and that's before considering that I was barely running at the beginning of the year due to the SFX.

SO, acknowledging that it needs to be addressed before I can train for another marathon, I've taken a different course of treatment. I started seeing a Chiropractor about 6 weeks ago. 2-3 treatments a week are not cheap by any means, but I feel that I've had significant progress.

His findings have been pretty cool: Basically, my hips have been out of alignment and slightly rotated so that my left hip was tracking behind and lower than my right hip. I've probably been like this for years. Being out of alignment has caused some muscles to be shut off while other muscles have been getting over worked and increasing imbalances. The result has ultimately lead to my left foot striking too far in front of my left hip, in spite of striking under my body. This undoubtedly causes shin splints and IT-band problems.... which have been consistently happening under my left hip for years. (It certainly explains a lot!!)

If nothing else, his adjustments have me standing much taller and more upright, and my hips feel much more aligned. My running form has improved somewhat. And the hope is that I will be less prone to shin splints. ...The troubles on the outside of my left calf (which ultimately shut down my training for NYC) are the result of overly tight IT-Bands and uneven muscle strength in my upper quads (a result of being out of alignment). I'm PT'ing myself to correct this.

SO, all of that said, I'm starting to feel more normal again with my running. I do feel out of shape - but that'll come back soon enough. I can finally start running again.

Today is 12/31/10. With the New Year and a resolution, I move on to better and more healthy running.

I have officially cherry picked my next goal race:

The flat, fast, and infamous Rotterdam Marathon, on April 10.

I start rolling back up tomorrow.... hang over or not.

Coming clean on NYC

2010-12-19T13:43:00.000-06:00

OK, it's been long enough. I've delayed writing about this debacle as I've really just wanted to move on.

After months and months of hard training and fresh PR's: I bombed the NYC Marathon.

It was a nightmare. Undoubtedly, New York was the worst race and biggest disappointment of my running career. All I can do is chalk it up as a nasty experience and try to learn from it.

It boils down to this:

1) I pushed the redline too long with my training. I was ready weeks before I finished my peak, yet I continued to push the training. Somewhere around my Chicago Half Marathon, I tweaked something in my left calf. This problem compounded in my final peak weeks. My taper never allowed me to fully recover from this breakdown. My legs did feel better on race day - but I was still not 100%. Ultimately, I think I lost some of my zip in those weeks before toeing the line.... all other things being a non factor, and I might have been able to deal with this. BUT...

2) Race day weather was shit. Very unaccommodating for an aggressive race plan. New York's course goes North for the first 20 miles, then back South for the last 6 miles. The worst possible condition is a Northerly headwind. Guess what we got? A solid, relentless, 15 mph pounding headwind at all times for the first 20 miles, followed by swirling winds in the final miles. And of course, being the stubborn idiot I am, I decided to charge into that fucker without a care of conserving any energy for the last few miles.

3) The icing on the cake was 2 monstrous blisters, which took nearly 3 weeks to fully heal! This was poor planning on my part as they were caused by wearing socks that had given me blisters in the past. It was stupid. I felt the first blister coming on at about the half way point, and by mile 17 it was unbearable. I was forced to stop at 19 and pop it. Sitting down for 2 minutes after hammering for nearly 2 hours doesn't bode well. As a result, I unleashed a flood of lactic acid upon on my legs. After another 2 miles, I knew it was over.

SO, given that, here's how the blood bath went down...

The race plan was to try go "easy" for the first few miles over Vz Bridge, then start easing into a 6:05 to 6-flat pace. Split it at around 1:19:45.... then it was just a matter of hanging on to a 6:05ish pace. Net result was to hit 2:38-2:39.

Jason and I had planned on running together, but even before race day he wasn't overly confident about running a sub 2:40. I think given the weather, he became even more cautious. As a result, I chose to control the pace in spite of the winds.

Keep in mind, a sub-2:40 marathon in NYC puts you inside the top 150-200 runners (20+ could be female elites though, which don't run with the men). Not a lotta other guys to work with!

SO... given the relentless wind... and very few people that were around us, which always seemed to be going slower than us... this meant that if I was trying to control a pace, then I was leading the charge... and ultimately, I was not drafting at all.

Miles upon miles, my front running had me expending significantly more effort than I otherwise should have been. A 6:00 pace felt like a 5:50, if not faster. There was no way I would carry a 5:50 effort in New York. It may not have felt too badly through the half, but it eventually wore me down.

I say this because in hind sight, this strategy was flawed. At the time I was willing to accept that flaw in exchange for "giving it a shot." After I dropped to fix my blister, Jason still went on to finish in 2:41... actually a pretty solid run in those conditions. It remains to be seen if I could've hung on... regardless of my over training and the weather... but, my unforeseen fuck up with the blisters definitely blew that possibility out of the water.

My splits:

1 - 6:32.9 - A bit faster than it should've been - as we were working quite hard in the wind on VZ Bridge and getting around slower runners.

2 - 5:46.0 - More wind. Waaaay too fast!! We should've been closer to 6-flat on this down hill.

3 - 5:59.2 - More wind. Fast again! Should've been 6:10ish. Anyone who didn't belong around us was gone.

4 - 6:00.2 - More wind. On pace. No packs at all at this point. With Jason off my back, I lead the charge. We'd play yo-yo over the next several miles. I'd get a little ahead of him, then let him reel me back in as I'd take a break.

5 - 6:03.0 - More wind.

6 - 5:58.4 - More wind.

7 - 6:00.2 - More wind. Made a push to catch a small pack (or thin line) in front, with the hopes of drafting off of them. This group immediately fell apart as Jason and I hit it. We sliced right through it. A couple guys grabbed on and drafted off of us. They'd soon be dropped. It still left me leading the charge.

8 - 6:04.3 - More wind.

9 - 6:05.8 - Wind. Clifton Hill.

10 - 5:55.4 - Wind.

11 - 6:10.5 - Wind (I think you're getting the theme here).

12 - 6:01.7 - Wind.

13 - 6:06.0 - Wind.

13.1 SPLIT - 1:19:28 - 1/2 split was on the money for a sub 2:39. 17 seconds ahead of planned, but as Jason and I crossed the line we said to each other that it wasn't as easy as it should've been. I initially started to feel a blister building under my right foot. There wasn't anything I could do about it. It was just a matter of how much pain I could take.

14 - 6:10.2 - Tons of Wind. Pulaski Bridge - The wind was bad here. I recall rolling up the bridge and getting scum suckers drafting off of me. 2 guys hung did eventually hang. Everyone else seemed like they were crawling.

15 - 6:14.8 - No so much wind as up hill. Beginning of Queensboro Bridge. I was swapping the lead with one of the guys; the other dropped. The hanger was quite annoying, and actually stayed with Jason through 22 or 23.

16 - 6:17.6 - More hill than wind. Queensboro Bridge. Jason and I finally started running side-by-side more consistently. The bridge really ballooned my blister. Gripping on the up then down magnified the effect. By the time we hit Manhattan, the bottom of my right foot was on fire.

17 - 6:06.1 - 1st Avenue. Yep, wind. Mark Wehrman jumped in from the sideline and begun to pace with us. For the first time all day, I didn't feel the need to lead.

18 - 6:09.2 - Wind. The sting from my blister was unbearable. It was directly on the ball of my foot. I actually started to fall off the back of Jason and Mark. The blister was killing me. I attempted to slam my foot down on the ground with a few strides, in a hope that it would pop from impact. That only intensified the pain. By the end of the mile, I knew I couldn't go on.

19 - 7:21.5 - Wind. I was dropped by Jason and Mark. I absolutely had to pop the blister. Either that, or stop running altogether. Sub 2:40 was officially out. I didn't care. I couldn't go on like this. I pulled off to the side and immediately sat down, tore my shoe off, and began to claw at my right foot with my finger nails. The crowd stared at me in disgust as I literally ripped a silver dollar sized piece of skin from the ball of my foot. It gushed as I cut all around the sides... like no blister I've ever had before. Fucking sick, but instant relief. There was second blister in my left foot, but I wasn't worried about that right now. Just get the one done, get myself back together, and run as fast as I could.

Separately, while the spectators all looked at me as if I was a freak - a really nice guy did come over and held his hand out, waiting for me to finish so that he could help me up. It was a really nice gesture at a time of need.

All in all, the pit stop took a little over 1:30 of time. That means I dropped a sub 5:50 that mile... all in nasty wind. The adrenaline was pumping. There were no other runners around. This was a huge mistake.

20 - 6:30.0 - Lots of wind. I recognized that I pushed too hard after getting back up, so I pulled back a little. The wind also intensified as I crossed over Willis Street Bridge. I tried running with another guy at this slower pace. By the time I hit the mile marker though, I was a little concerned. It was 6:30. I didn't think I slowed up that much... and it certainly didn't feel easy.

21 - 6:50.8 - Swirling wind?? Bronx. Aside from the Yankees, I fuckin' hate the Bronx. I remember thinking the something back in 2008, when I ran through here. My little slow up in mile 20 wasn't a fluke. Pain was setting in now, only this time it was lactic acid. Sitting down to pop that blister wound up popping my whole race. My body was now pumping cement into my legs instead of blood and oxygen. Crossed the final bridge back into Manhattan. That mile was WAAAY too much of a struggle. I saw the split. I knew it was over.

22 - 7:05.8 - More swirling wind. 5th Avenue. There was negotiating here whatsoever. As soon as I saw 6:50 for the 21st mile, I pulled the plug instantly. (As if I had a choice). This was the smartest thing I did the whole day (followed immediately by the dumbest).

My race was over and I had purposely slowed up my pace. Now it was merely a debate as to how to get to the finish line. Should I stop altogether, try to freeze my ass off and find a subway? Do I barter with a cabbie? Do I find a medical tent somewhere?? I've never dropped out of a race. The smart thing to do would've been just to stop running altogether. But I did some simple math and decided that I could jog to the finish... 7:15-7:30's, and I'd still be somewhere between 2:47 and 2:50. Not good... but hell, I'd still get the fucking finisher's medal. (The logic that go through a tired, dehydrated, and weary mind).

23 - 7:27.4 - Nice 'n easy... How do I still have a head wind though?? The absolute pity is that I'm now getting passed by scores of runners. I was starting to feel embarrassed.

24 - 7:47.2 - All I could think is.... "I've come this far, and any asshole could run 3 miles. It's really just become the principle of getting to the finish. If I didn't stop after 21, then why should I stop now?? No pain here... I just can't go any faster if I wanted to. Where the fuck is Central Park?? Shouldn't it be here already?!? More runners passing... Move along, Dick. Nothing to see here.... Shit, this is a joke... I could run faster backwards."

25 - 8:10.0 - Death becomes me. Everything was stiff. Too late to bother stopping though.

26 - 8:13.1 - I saw a lady with a walker on the sidewalk... I swear she was going faster than I was. I felt nothing but sadness, anger, rage. I wanted to cry. Why the fuck did I choose to "jog" all the way to the finish line??? That was a really stupid idea.

.2 - 1:47.9 - Whatever.

Overall: 2:50:55

1/2 split - 1:19:28
2nd split - 1:30:57!!

Pace through the first 18 miles, before I stopped: 6:05. Pace in the last 5 miles after I pulled the plug: 7:45. It turns out that those last 5 miles of NYC were the slowest 5 miles I've had in a marathon in 5 years, and 9 races!!

There is no pride in what I did, and for that I regret it. Sure, I got a medal. A medal I hate and spite.

I should've just stopped running altogether after 21 miles. I still have no idea what was I thinking??

I ran a damn 1:14 half marathon BEFORE I EVEN ENTERED MY PEAK TRAINING... and then I pulled this shit.

NYC was a complete and total disaster.

So what do I learn?

1) The socks immediately got thrown out. I don't care if I PR'd twice in them. I knew right then and there that they were shit.

2) If it's insanely windy or poor conditions... don't be a hero. It's tough to admit it, but tuck and roll is a much easier and safer strategy than leading a charge to certain death.

3) Training... Not sure what I learned here, other than I knew I had an ailing calf. I thought the calf would heal by race day. It did get much better, but wasn't 100%. Maybe 85%? But the damage was done. I tapered too much to over compensate. So did I over train?? By that measure, yes. Was the training a disaster? No. Like I said, all other things being equal, and on an easier course with perfect conditions... I probably would've been alright.

Everything added up though... I busted my NYC.

Like it or not, it's go time.

2010-11-05T11:51:00.006-05:00

I'm still not feeling 100%.

Out of the 4 runs this week, Monday was my best (a measly 4 miles at RP, and it still didn't feel easy). Since then, I've kinda been lumbering through everything else. I'm still feeling trashed.

Last night was 2x 1 mile amidst rain, wind, and hail. A 5:52 was into a ridiculous head wind, followed by a 5:35 while being pelted by hail! I cut the workout short and skipped my strides because it was so annoying. Not an ideal pre-marathon workout.

We're taking off in a few hours. Flying with Sarah, Jason, and Jamie. I'm heading to New York with feelings of disappointment and discouragement after chomping at the bit for the last 4 months. I know I've put in the work... way more than I have for any other race. I know I should be able to do what I'm setting out to do... But will my body let me? Have I recovered enough? ...As much preparation as I've done, as I sit here now, I'm feeling incredibly insecure and even frightened of what's to lie ahead.

It's all gonna boil down to: Can I toe that line feeling fresh on Sunday morning? Can I loosen up enough in the first couple miles to not only push the pace when needed, but merely maintain my pace in spite of headwinds and rolling hills? Can I keep my heart rate under control?!

Miles of trials and an ultimate trial of miles.

Time to focus

2010-11-02T09:28:00.005-05:00

OK, last night's pace run went well. I can breathe a sigh of relief.

9 miles total with 4 at a goal pace. Splits were 6:10, 6:06, 6:00, 5:52. First couple miles had wind at the back, last two had a very nasty head wind. Eased into it, and then pressed a little with wind to see how I'd handle it.

It didn't feel as "easy" as I had hoped, but given the wind I shouldn't be all that discouraged. More importantly, a little tightness in the calves, otherwise I didn't hurt too badly. It may have been one of the more comfortable runs that I've had in weeks.

A month ago, I wanted to tear my teeth into some pavement. A week ago, I wanted to curl up and die. After last night, some of that confidence is coming back.

Time to focus on the actual race, as opposed to nursing my aching body.

A main concern will be the wind. I'm sure it'll change significantly between now and Sunday... Right now though, Weather.com is calling for Sunny, 38 Lo / 50 Hi, 15mph W winds. Temp is ideal; wind is definitely not!

There's good and bad here. With the layout of the course, optimal wind would be from the SW for the first 20 miles, and then we do an about-face... so NE for the last 6 miles. A Westerly wind may not be all that horrible until the last 6 miles, which still wouldn't be a direct onslaught. Also, we can only hope that it's not a nagging, steady, Chicago-style wind.

Anyway, I can only worry so much about this. I'm either gonna have it after the Bronx or I'm not. Fifth Ave is a bitch no matter what. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to still have Ream and a few guys to work with.

In the mean time, here's a nice video of the course combined with the map:

It's always darkest before dawn.

2010-11-01T10:00:00.004-05:00

Three weeks ago, I felt as fit as could be. The best shape in my life. Unfortunately, I'm now questioning that I may have trained to get through the training, not to toe the line.

This taper has been a killer. My legs have felt trashed for far too long now. I've compensated by taking numerous days off, living in compression socks, on ice, and on Aleve.

So not only do I feel like I'm not running enough, but I'm also eating and drinking like garbage to boot. Not good!! Maybe this has been some sort of subconscious sabotage and depression as a result of over training? When I add it all up, it seems disgusting what I've done to myself in the last few weeks. I'm officially on a serious detox and diet for the next 7 days.

On the brighter side of things, with each passing day my legs do feel better. Two out of my last 3 runs have been reasonable. As of yesterday, my calf is no longer overly tight or swelled... It's actually starting to feel human again. Today I'm walking 100% pain free for the first time in a while. Could this be a ray of hope?

Tonight's run will be a key test. Can I go 4 measly miles at race pace without feeling totally gassed, or being trashed tomorrow AM? If so, then I think game on.

There is still the possibility that I didn't over train for this thing and leave my best miles on the lakefront or in Barrington. It's always darkest before dawn, and this morning I felt the sun starting to rise.

Growing impatient

2010-10-26T09:12:00.006-05:00

My taper is becoming a lame duck session. A week in, and I'm starting to question my training.

Simply put, I'm feeling banged up. My calves are trashed, especially my left. Not so much the shins, but general lingering soreness and knots that feel like they've been ingrained in my legs for months now. I fear that I may have torn something and it could get worse before it gets better.

Last week I planned on taking 2-3 days off. I wound up taking 4 days off and running a measly 33 miles. I missed my first long run of the training season.

Sarah has given me 3 massages in the past week. Seriously, who gets 3 massages in a week?? As much as they seem to help, and as much as she knocks shit out of them... the next day I feel like I'm right back at square 1. I keep waiting for that magical morning where I wake up and nothing hurts.

At least I can say I haven't killed my quality (yet)...

Last Wednesday, we did a huge 12x 800 workout. I averaged 2:34/2:35 throughout the workout. Unlike the previous set of 800's though, I didn't seem to have the strength to pick it up towards the end. Maintaining was hard enough.

Last night, in a windy tempo workout, I struggled to maintain marathon pace for 8 miles. I seriously felt like I was giving it all I could, only to run marathon pace. Sad.

I'm not quite sure where to go from here. Maybe I need to kill the quality? I'm feeling like garbage the morning after harder runs, when I should be slowly feeling better with each passing day. I can't stop running altogether, otherwise I risk "racing" the marathon.

This is very disappointing. I put in a lot of work, and had awesome training. It really didn't seem like I was over doing it. Now I'm paying for it.

Taper, bitchez!

2010-10-19T12:39:00.006-05:00

A few weeks back, I claimed that I was going to attempt to hit 375-385 miles over a 28 days streak. Well it didn't happen. I pushed the red line too much. Fortunately, I didn't break.

I did come close though, as I strung together 359 miles over a 28 day period of time. 378 miles over 29 days. Basically 13 miles a day. I was forced to take 2 days off in there, which I hadn't anticipated and I wound up about 15-20 miles shy of my goal. In the end, this wasn't easy. The last several runs were totally forced.

By the simple measure of missing 2 days of running, and 15-20 miles - I failed in my training goal. But that's ridiculous to think that way. In the process, I've put in some of the best training I've ever attempting. I've had a 5 monstrous weeks that included:

A solid PR in the half marathon.

5 long runs ranging from 20-24 miles (1 of which had about 20 miles @ 6:15 avg pace).

5 mid-week long runs of 16-17 miles.

4 tempo runs at 7 miles or more (1x7, 2x9, 1x10).

3 ballz out track workouts.

Running through a 5K PR, the morning after a 22.

2 separate 100+ mile stretches over 3 weeks.

PR of 103 miles within 7 days.

After last night's 10 miles at 5:55 average, I'd say that pretty much puts the icing on the cake. The core of my training is done, and my reward is a couple of much needed days off.

Now I recover and replace quantity with quality. 2-1/2 weeks until NYC.

Insane Ladder

2010-10-14T09:04:00.006-05:00

Forget the Crazy Ladder... this shit was Insane!

4x 400 @ 77/76/75's
2x 800 @ 77/78's
1x 1600 @ 5:10 (77/78)
2x 800 @ 77/78's
4x 400 @ 73, 72, 71, 70
75 sec rest, except for 2 min before/after the mile.

= 5 miles of WOWWZA speed!!

Monster, Ream, and I plowed through the thing. Jason did most of the pacing, since I forgot my stupid watch (who forgets their watch for the track??)... Michael kept me rolling by pushing from behind. I had it easy by just staying in the middle of the pack.

The fact that we ran this in the middle of our peak week speaks volumes. Everyone's tired. Everyone's sore. Everyone's motivation is slipping... each day feels like we're hanging on by a thread with our training.... our bodies want rest and recovery... I've been waking up in the morning thinking that I'm one run and a crutch away from a damn telethon...

But together we run stronger than alone. And together, we made it through this bitch of a workout, and got faster the further we progressed.

Runs like last night's are a testament to running with a group or training partners. There is no way I would've pushed as hard as I did on my own.

Thanks for your help guys!!

Almost done

2010-10-13T10:27:00.000-05:00

103 miles in the last 7 days.

Almost all of this has been easy (7 min pace), longer runs. I've had a 16, 17, and a 20 miler. After a week off from speed, I did 14 miler on Monday with 9 progressing to tempo.

This last month has been all about peaking... Jamming in as much quantity as I can with a good mix of quality workouts. I briefly paid for it, but after a week of pulling back I'm now feeling much better. Somehow I've actually recovered in the middle of all this...?

Back to the track tonight.

6 more days of hard running before I start to shut my training down.

3 1/2 weeks until NYC.

Marathoning in Racing Flats...

2010-10-07T09:50:00.001-05:00

This is a snippet from an email chain. It's a good subject, so I felt it was worthy to post for future reference. The original question was from Ken Fandell, asking whether or not he should run the Chicago Marathon in Nike Zoom XC 2's.... an ultra-light weight racing flat.

Here was my response:

-------------------------------------
The history of Rabbit's racing flats.........

Prior to last year, I was doing my marathons in the Nike Marathoner... good shoe. Not great - because I found that I was getting sore calves and/or tired feet late in the race. I think part of it had to do with the sole being slightly more stiff than typical racing shoes.

Boston '09 - I wore Lunar Racers... F*cking horrible. It went the complete opposite direction as the Marathoners. Not stiff, but ultra cushion AND a thick shoe. Absolutely stupid for a racing shoe. I have no idea how anyone ever considers them racing shoes (sorry Dan, Verdo and other fans).... They're like running on pillows. You lose all ability to "feel" the road, which is the beauty behind a racing flat. (Also, I firmly believe that the Lunars are what caused my shin splint that has persisted for the last 6 months - I ran for 2 months in the Lunar Trainers early this year and have been dealing with the side effects ever since.... it's just a come-and-go issue now that'll probably get cleared up with rest.)

(Years back, I did run a couple marathons in the Brooks ST Racers - I'd say they're a cross between the Marathoner and the Lunar Racers... slightly thicker than Marathoners w/ more support and cushion, but still light and you're able to feel the road.... I don't believe they've changed the shoe much since then. If you feel you absolutely need support, these could be good shoes. However, the argument is that during a "race", you shouldn't need support.)

Chicago '09 was the first time I ran a marathon in an uber-light flat... I used the Katanas (slightly more beefed up than the XC2). I had some big concerns leading into the race, thinking that they wouldn't have enough cushion. Hogwash!! They were great! No troubles at all. No calf flare up, no sore feet, no sore hips, nothing..... Added bonus is the grip on the bottom of the shoe. My only complaint was that they were just a little too narrow... but not a big enough deal to cause a problem. (Mind you, this was also still prior to me running significant amounts in flats).

London '10 - I wore the Nike XC2's - Awesome! Big improvement from the Katanas... better toe box and much lighter. No problems what so ever. I finished the race with my legs feeling better than any other marathon. I liked them so much, they're now my training shoe (along w/ 2008 version Adidas Adizero Adios Pro... which is actually my preferred flat, but I'm not allowed to race in them... they may have wrecked the newest Adidas version though). I'll be wearing XC2's again in NYC.

Conclusion: You'll be fine!!! You'll most likely feel even better wearing the flats. You'll definitely feel faster!!

As Jason said, you absolutely need to make sure you run a few times in them though. Make sure you've had at least a 10 mile run in them, if you intend on doing a marathon. Also, think light as a feather!! Don't go crushing your heel on the ground wearing them... Don't get sloppy. Stand tall, and use quick, light, strikes..... From my experience, the XC2's almost prevent you from getting too sloppy late in the race.

Probably WAAAY more information than you needed, but the whole point is - give it a shot. What is this, like you're 20th marathon? What do you have to lose? You're doing another in a month......
-------------------------------------

Full Disclosure: I've officially given up on trainers. With the exception of 2 runs since August 15th, I've been running 100% of my runs in racing flats! I have to say, I feel great - I have had no ITB troubles, no knee troubles, no hip troubles, and it feels like my form has significantly improved. My strikes are quicker, lighter, and back is straighter. I feel totally comfortable running each and every run in my racing flats.
HOWEVER, I am still having calf troubles. This is very frustrating and confusing. My left calf just will not let go! It is a lingering issue that goes back years. The only thing that seems to help is Aleve, massage, and multiple days of rest. This most recent bout has come from 1) rolling up too quickly after a break (primarily at the beginning of the year and post London), and 2) rolling up in the wrong shoe (I ran in Lunar Trainers back in January and February). Until I can rest either during my taper or after NYC, then I'll just have to deal with it.

Bucktown 5K

2010-10-04T08:46:00.001-05:00

I can't say that I'm overly proud of this, but I did PR my 5k over the weekend... 16:45.

My 5K is pathetic. I don't race them often, and when I do it's not fun. Too much pain. I enjoy easing into a race, and there's nothing about easing into a 5K. It feels way too much like a sprint right off the line.

In theory I should be running 30 seconds faster in my 5K. Granted, I did run 22 miles the day before this race, but that's not the point. The point is, it's taken me 2-1/2 years to PR a 5k, and yesterday I couldn't fathom going any faster - regardless of how sore or fresh I was. Hell, my pace probably isn't much different for a 5K than a 5 mile race! Sad.

I guess I chalk it up and say that I've built myself in to a distance machine. I endure more like a turtle than a rabbit.

Bucktown 5K:
1- 5:21
2- 5:28
3- 5:18
.1- 0:37
= 16:45 (5:24 avg)

-------------------------------------

Separately - I've been banged up the last several days. I clearly pushed too hard in too short of a period with my 101. I had a lot of quality amidst quantity and as a result my calves have been extremely sore for a handful of days now. Sarah has really helped a lot with her massage work. I am finally feeling better today. I'm not hitting the speed button again until Wednesday... if even then. I need quantity this week and can't afford to take another day off.

101

2010-09-30T11:24:00.000-05:00

101 miles in the last 7 days.

I sweated yesterday's track workout all day. I was feeling trashed. Legs were incredibly sore and tired. Still, I was resilient:

10x 800's w/ 75 second rest:
1 - 2:33.4
2- 2:34.7
3- 2:34.3
4- 2:35.5
5- 2:36.5
6- 2:34.5
7- 2:33.7
8- 2:34.0
9- 2:35.5
10- 2:31.5
Avg: 2:34 (77's)

Even better - I had to pace it all alone. McHair and Monster were there, but running their own paces. No Reamers to pull piggy back off of. I still felt plenty strong though, and easily could've belted out a couple more... or even pressed the pace slightly more.

My reward: I'm sore again this morning. Too sore. It's all in the calves. I had nightmares last night about getting injured.... and again, I've been sweating today's planned double.

I'm pulling the plug on my plans to close the week at 100. I'm already there w/ 101. I'm not going to gain anything from running myself into the ground. It shouldn't be this stressful so I'm taking today completely off and relaxing.

Hello 100

2010-09-28T09:39:00.000-05:00

100 miles in the last 7 days.

Last night's tempo was supposed to be 4.5 miles at MGP (~6-6:05), then progress slightly for 4.5 miles. Splits were roughly 6:03, 5:56, 6:00, 5:54, 5:54, 5:51, 5:51, 5:42, 5:36... avg 5:52. I let Verdo do most of the work with the pace. In the end, it was way faster than I needed/wanted/intended. It definitely didn't feel as comfortable as I would've liked - but that's to be expected given my last several runs.

I'm sore today. Icing the calf and taking Aleve to come back down to earth. I'll also hit the hot tub and take a nap shortly.

I'm happy to see 100 again... but... I'm already ahead of my schedule for the week. I'm now pushing the red line with that many miles a week and a half sooner than I had originally anticipated. I need to exercise some restraint and be patient.

1 down, 3 to go

2010-09-26T15:58:00.000-05:00

Target hit for the last week: 94 miles. After today's run, I'm at 98 miles in the last 7 days. 1st week through my 4 week peak. I had 3 hard quality runs amidst quantity...

Monday nite tempo - 7 miles on a windy night @ 5:44 pace. Progressed from 5:50ish down to 5:40ish. Happy with the results, but it certainly wasn't easy. Pace was similar to my half marathon - only the half marathon was significantly more comfortable.... I guess chalk that up as a lack of recovery from my 22 mile run 2 days prior.

Wednesday nite at St IggyPiggyopolis - 8x 3x 200 Cut-Downs, hammered at 34.5/33/32 splits (45 sec recovery after the 1st 2 reps, then slow 200 after the 3rd rep)... Awesome track workout. The cut-down stragergy focuses on turn-over and really gets the wheels going faster and faster. Ideally, I'd like to get another one of these in before NYC.

Back to Barrington - 22 miles on Saturday in Barrington. 2:19:30 total time, or 6:20 average pace, which included 1 mile warm up and 2 mile "ease" down... In other words, a near goal paced run with >1000 ft climb and >2000 ft net change.

I ran it solo. Basically out and retraced back (which is more difficult than running the Barrington Loops as it adds more intense hills later). Sarah assisted me on the bike, and that was an huge help!

I set out thinking I'd hold something more aggressive than my typical long run. After getting settled in with the first mile, everything just started falling into place. By the time I was able to catch some accurate splits, I was hitting 6:15's. Way more aggressive than I wanted, but it felt smooth so I just went with the flow. Most of the splits I took fluctuated between 6:05-6:20.

This was a huge run and confidence booster as: 1) I never had any rest/stopping since Sarah was able to help with Gatorade and Gu... 2) It was effectively an ultra-long "tempo" run... 3) The pace + hills provided a great NYC simulation... 4) I felt comfortable and strong the entire run.

After the past week, I'm feeling decent. Tired, and calves are sore (especially left).... otherwise no major complaints. I definitely feel like I need a day off, but can manage. At this point, I'll try to push 100 this week, step down slightly next week, and then pop the last week back up.

It's Business Time

2010-09-17T13:17:00.000-05:00

After the 1/2, I took Monday off. I figured I had earned it. That'll be the last of that for a while. Since then, a double and 3- ten mile runs. Total for the week will be 82 after tomorrow's 20.

I build from here. It's go time. I have 4 weeks of solid training ahead of me. Everything I've run up until now has been merely to prepare me for these next 4 weeks. If all goes well, then those 4 weeks will prepare me to absolutely torch 5th Avenue.

Quantity with a handful of quality workouts. I'll take it week by week - but the goal is to have at least 1 week in the 90's and 2 weeks breaking 100 miles each. In all, I should see 375-385 miles over the next 28 days..... Come to think of it, 395-405 over the next 29 days. (GULP!)

Truly a trial of miles.

Mid-term Aced!

2010-09-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

I fretted about this year's Chicago Half Marathon. No idea why, since I wound up blowing the doors off it. Simply put, I just started running and tried to maintain as long as I could. In the end, and aside from dealing with a monster blister on my foot in the last two miles... I killed it.

Weather was ideal for race conditions. I couldn't ask for a better day. Sunny, low 60's, a slight side wind from the west (occasionally annoying, but never hindering). Course was on the south-side of Chicago: looped through Jackson Park, headed north on Lake Shore Drive, then returned south on LSD, and finished in the park. Mostly flat except for a few overpasses.

Gun was at 7am. Pre-race rituals were pretty standard. Got down there with time to spare and everything flowed smoothly right up to the gun.

My initial goal was to go out at ~5:50. I’d either hang on to that, or if things felt good then I'd try to push splits down to 5:45. Ideally, I wanted sub-1:16.

Miles 1-3:
I started only a couple rows back from the line. However, it's a big race. Easily 50 guys took off fast and were ahead of me through at least the first mile. I wasn't sure how many of them actually belonged there, but eventually most would come back to me. Mile 1- 5:43.5... A tad faster than I wanted, but nothing critical. I had settled down after the first 1/2 mile anyway.

Cruised in the 2nd mile. Many of those overly eager soles started to get weeded out. I coasted by a couple packs of 5-10 runners. Nobody wanted to play with me.

By the end of the second mile a small pack formed with 5 or 6 up ahead, but otherwise I was amongst a thin line of runners. I saw a local stud, Jeff Jonaitis jump in with the pack. Either he was pacing or just doing a workout with another runner in that pack. His presence reassured me that they’d act as a steady measuring stick. I chose to play their chase. Mile 2- 5:49.1.

As we finished winding through Jackson Park, I had a handful of randoms around me that were trying to jockey for position. This was pretty annoying, as we didn't quite formed a pack. None of them wanted to work together. Lots of surging by some of them, and then laying off, but we had a long way to go to be messing around. I got cut off a couple times going around turns by one of the guys. Nothing like having to step over someone's heel because he has no respect for your personal space. Maybe I should've clipped him? 5:41.9. Still felt good, but the annoying maneuvers from the other runners upped the pace slightly.

Miles 4-8:
Heading north on Lake Shore Drive now, which meant wide lanes and long sweeping turns for almost the remainder of the race. The tangents would be extremely important to maintain. No sense in making the race any longer than it needed to be. Unfortunately, Gatorade and water tended to be on the outside of the course. Because of this and the fact that it wasn’t blazing hot - I limited the amount of times I took Gatorade (grabbed 3 drinks at one point or another).

Mile 4’s split was waaaaay off - 5:09.8! All I could do was laugh. Last year’s race was horribly mis-marked. Unfortunately, this year wasn't any different. Miles 5- 5:47.3, 6- 6:05.0, 7- 5:37.1, 8- 6:05.7. It felt like I had cruise control set on a 5:45ish pace in here, so mile 4’s error was returned over the next several splits. In this stretch, I simply tried to maintain and not lose too much distance on JJ’s pack ahead of me. For the most part, they were always about 25-50m ahead. As for my little angry pack, it gradually dissolved by mile 7. None of them were of any help, and they were also no longer threats as each of them fell off the back.

Miles 9-11:
The course turned with mile 9 on the 31st Street off ramp / on ramp, and began heading south again. I still felt very smooth and strong at this point, so I set my sights ahead. In my mind, everything up until now was not a race. It was merely getting me to a point where I could possibly pick up the pace. The questions at this point were: How fast was I actually going? And how much could I afford to pick it up?

The pack ahead began to fall apart after the off/on ramps. JJ and his partner were taking off. In the far distance, I could see Joe Guinness’s bright green FF singlet (aka - something was going wrong for him). I hit mile 9 with 5:35.3. The split actually seemed honest too. Since it didn't kill me, I continued to press on. I started to reel in the 4 or 5 guys that fell off of JJ. Each upcoming road kill became my motivation, and I easily passed each of them. Mile 10- 5:38.8. Gatorade. 5K to go. I approached Joe. A great runner, much faster than I am – but just not having a good day. We exchanged a few words, and I pulled the trigger. Mile 11- 5:29.2.

12-Finish:
Last 2 miles. Crowds were a non-event up until now. People all along the sides of the course. Masses of runners on the other side of the median. This part of the race actually became entertaining. Unfortunately, I was too dehydrated and deep to care. It was just noise. After passing Joe and 1 final runner, I had no more road kills for the taking. The next guy up had considerable distance on me.

Somewhere in here, I started to feel an extremely nasty blister on the ball of my right foot. Over the course of the next mile, the pain became quite intense. That's what I get for washing my shoes the night before and running in new socks!! This and a lack of motivation forced me to ease up slightly. Mile 12- 5:46.4. I was to easily hit mid-1:15's, if I didn't fall apart. I passed Sarah. She was screaming at the top of her lungs at me. Without any other motivation though, I just tried to keep my pace and avoid burning the hell out of my foot. Every step hurt at this point.

Turned off Lake Shore Drive onto Hayes. Mile 13- 5:46.8. As I approached the marker, I saw it ticking 1:14. Awesome! Given the blister, any kick was likely out of the question, but I had time. Hold and I can cruise to sub-1:15.

Then, just out of nowhere - some formerly road killed, sand baggin' son of a bitch snuck up and passed me. All I could do was try to get him back and stay with him. My foot was absolutely on fire! Burring him was out of the question. I didn't have the room, the pain threshold, or the will since I could see I was already sub-1:15. We basically crossed the line together – in my mind, I may have had a step or two on him. It turned out, that slag had 4 seconds on me by actual versus chip times, so he got the better placement. To add insult to injury, he was in my age group.

Finish: 1:14:50. 18th overall out of 14,000+, 3rd age group.

All in all – an absolutely awesome run! Well above my 'hopeful' expectations of a mid-1:15 run, in spite of a nasty blister.

The course was identical to last year. I’m not sure what that means... either its total distance is actually correct (depending on how perfectly you run the huge tangents), or it was long again. A couple runners with GPS’s both told me they ran 13.17 miles. Either I can still be upset about last year, or I can have solace in this year’s run and know for sure that I didn’t run a short course. Regardless, HUGE PR! 1:40 under Cary '09, and almost 2 minutes under Chicago 1/2 '09 on the same course.

Split recap:
1- 5:43.5
2- 5:49.1
3- 5:41.9
4- 5:09.8
5- 5:47.3
6- 6:05.0
7- 5:37.1
8- 6:02.7
9- 5:35.3
10- 5:38.8
11- 5:29.2
12- 5:46.4
13- 5:46.8
.1- 0:38.1

Finish- 1:14:50 / Avg- 05:42.5

Mid-term Exam

2010-09-10T10:43:00.000-05:00

Front end loaded this week so I can get some rest and recover before Sunday's Chicago 1/2 Marathon. I'm taking a whopping 1 day off (today), and then doing a measly recovery run tomorrow. I'll still be in the low 60's for the week.

Today is much needed. It's my first day off since August 26th and basically my second in the last month. After the PF5 on Monday, I'm feeling it. Looking back, in the last 7 days I have 87 miles. Not ridiculous, but the most I've put in a 7 day stretch in 12 months. Left shin, right knee, left ITB are all tender.

This weekend's half marathon will be my first time running the distance since last year's Chicago 1/2. Unfortunately that course was slightly long, otherwise it would've been a PR for me. Hoping that they've sorted their shit out this year. It pisses me off beyond belief when a race distance is incorrect. (I mean seriously, how difficult it is to measure a course??)

This should be a great mid-term exam to see where I am with my training, but I have no idea what to expect. A) I'm pretty much running through it with 87 miles in the last 7 days, and coming off a mini-peak. B) I've had basically no racing to gauge myself. C) My track work has been handicapped by the summer weather, so I have no idea what kind of speed is under me. I'm just trying to go into the thing with no expectations, and if it feels good then I can go for it.

Park Forest 5mi

2010-09-06T13:35:00.001-05:00

I haven't raced much in the last several months, since I've been building my mileage back up. The Woodsmen's 10.?K a few weeks back was the ice breaker, and really just a tempo on hills. Over Labor Day weekend, I ran the Park Forest Scenic 5 Miler.

I went into Park Forest thinking it would a glorified tempo, but unlikely anything all-in. I wound up running a very steady and controlled race.

It was a stacked race w/ some prize money. Something like 9 Kenyans showed up for a 300 person race! Also had a number of guys vying for top seats in the CARA standings. Weather was decent, however, winds were generally tails for miles 1 and 3, and heads on 2, 4, and 5.

Mile 1... Slightly down hill with a tail wind. Pretty much guaranteed to be the fastest mile. Several runners pushed ahead of me. Since I had no idea what I was actually going to wind up running, I just let it unfold. Everything felt good. A group of college / high school kids rolled by me. For a moment, I was impressed with how easy they were jamming. 5:27.

Mile 2... Blew by the kids. I thought they were going to suck on me as we turned into some head winds for about 1/2 mile. They weren't ever a threat. Dumb kids. I was no longer impressed. However, Felipe Lopez passed me (he'd be the last). Up in the distance were Steve Breeze and Mike Egle. All race hogs. Felipe and Steve are in my age group for the CARA Circuit, and they're generally slower than I am. I haven't seen them in a year, so this created a good measure for myself... They shouldn't blow me away. If they did, then I'd really need to start questioning my training. Felipe quickly put 20+ meters on me, and he still had another 20+ before Steve and Egle. 5:38.

Mile 3... Settled into auto pilot now. I still felt good, but didn't know how long that might last. I was slowly getting dropped by Felipe as he pushed to catch Steve and Egle. Maybe 50 meters between us now. Then all of a sudden, it was as if someone pulled in the train. We approached a few turns on the course, and I gained significant ground on their pack. I passed a few other guys that started to fade. 5:37.

Mile 4... I sat on Steve, Mike, and Felipe for a minute now. We turned a corner into the wind, and I immediately dropped them. No body challenged me. Somewhat surprising that Egle didn't step up. He's typically more aggressive than that. Either he had his own agenda, or he's starting to show his age. From here on, I was pretty much alone - one runner in the distance... easily another 100m up. I still felt strong, so I put a little more distance on the pack as I headed into a slight wind. 5:34.

Mile 5... Now straight into head winds, which were very steady and relentless. I still had plenty of gas, but the wind definitely made the final mile a challenge. At some points I was crawling. Other times, I was hammering. I mainly didn't want to get caught by my former road kills, so I just kept pressing. The runner in front of me was initially an after thought, but he started to show pain as the mile progressed. I could see him looking back and gauging me. We hit a quarter-mile long incline, and I started to reel him in. By the final 200m, he became my bitch. I buried him. An unimpressive 5:35 for the 5th mile, but given the evil headwinds, I'll take it. 27:53 overall.

First age for Circuit purposes... 14th over all... loaded w/ 9 Kenyans.

Split recap: 5:27, 5:38, 5:37, 5:34, 5:35... 27:53.

For comparative purposes: Back in the spring, my Shamrock 8k was 28:05 (also treated as a fast tempo versus all-in race). 8k is fractionally shorter than 5 miles. On an 8k basis, I could possibly shave another 8-10 seconds off the Park Forest time. Considering I didn't feel extremely taxed, I would say this was a nice test race.

Adirondacks

2010-08-31T11:17:00.000-05:00

Two weeks at the cabin in the Adirondacks. I had the pleasure of spending the time with 5 dogs, 4 nieces, 3 sisters, 3 brother in laws, Mom and Dad, and The Most Interesting Man in the World. I can't really say that the trip was all that relaxing - but it was some much needed family time.

Clearly a whole ton of activities: rappelling off the cliffs from the falls, water skiing, swimming, hiking, 4-wheeling, boating, etc... and of course, my running...

Prior to getting up there, my left calf was starting to nag me. Once again, my age old fight with shin splints was on. They seem to go into hibernation, but never just die away. I took 3 days in a row off to chill things out and recover. (Probably much needed given the heat exhaustion/dehydration I've been experiencing in Chicago too). It would be one of my last opportunities to do this for quite some time. In the process, I loaded up on some anti-inflammatories, and started to stretch the hell out of my big toe (more so than ever before). And in the end I was running splint free by mid-week at the cabin. To note: all but 1 of my runs were in racing flats or VFFs.

I logged an 85 mile week and a 76 mile week. The 76 week was cut short because of a day trip to Old Forge. Every single run was on hills. Weather was very accommodating! Mostly in the low 70s for my runs, and only a couple soggy days. Importantly, no major injuries.

Adirondack Training Circuit:

Most was done on the 8 mile Soft Maple stretch between Effely Falls Road and the No. 4 Road (out and backs for 16). I also added a hill run to Stillwater, a tempo down to Croghan... and for the first time I ran the Woodsmen's Field Days 10k.

Croghan to Stillwater is a 2,000 foot climb, net 3,150 elevation change. My typical 16 mile loop is an 1,100 climb, net 2,100 change.

Workouts included:

16 mile progression run MGP (not so easy given the hills!!)

Woodsmen 10K: Hilly and clearly long by about 0.1mi. I went into it planning on doing a workout and going 35-36 depending on the hills. Sub-37 typically wins this thing. After I saw the first several runners bolt out of the gate (2 clearly belonged in front of me) - I stuck to the workout plan. Splits were 5:34, 5:38, 6:18 (hill+long!!), 5:47 (hill), 5:53 (hill), 5:34, 1:27.

11 miles to Croghan w/ 7 at roughly MGP (most of the MGP was rolling, w/o net elevation change).

20 miles w/ 7 at 6:35 on the hills.

The Chicago Steamer

2010-08-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

Word on the street is that this summer is the WETTEST in history for Chicago. Combine that with steady 80-90+ degrees on a daily basis, and you get steam.

It's extremely uncomfortable and flat out sucks for training conditions. If by some miracle it's not ultra humid, then it's unbearably hot. It is impossible to run in this shit. It is also impossible to maintain any sort of hydration. At this point, I'm yearning for those frigid 0 degree days.... (though I know I'll regret that statement soon enough).

In spite of the weather, the last couple weeks' tempo runs have gone well. 6 miles for each of them, averaging low 5:40's. Last week wasn't 88 degrees, so I went marginally slower yesterday.

On the other hand, last Wednesday's track workout was a shit show. It was like 99.9999% humidity and 85 degrees. My 16x400's were at a sloppy 76-77 pace. Pathetic compared to what I should be able to run them in, and pathetic compared to the fact I basically ran the 400's at my 800's pace. I'm a whiny bitch... but it's justified because I haven't had a single decent track workout in this round of training. Each of my 5 workouts have been altered due to the weather.

I only have a few more days to deal with this though, as I'm leaving for the cabin on Friday. It'll definitely be cooler up there, though not necessarily less humid. I'll have 2 weeks in the Adirondack Mountains. When I get back, things should be more bearable and I'll be in much better shape to tear it up.

Hills, Hills, and more Hills.

2010-07-26T11:14:00.001-05:00

Quote of the day courtesy of Erik:

"King of the Hills = PR."

I spent another weekend up in Wisconsin... and in between surviving on only the finest foods to be found at a gas station, including drinking enough beer to kill a dairy cow... I managed to run 27 miles... all on the hills in the beautiful country side.

6 miles w/ the guy on Friday. 21 alone on Saturday.

My 21 miler included a whopping 2280 feet of climbing and 4572 feet of elevation change:

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=383577

2 WI weekends, + I'm guessing at least 1 or 2 long runs in Barrington, + spending 2 weeks in the Adirondacks, + at least another weekend up in Wisconsin...
= King of the hills = PR.

If I get through all of this... the next time I see 5th Ave, I'm gonna torch it.

Hitting a Wall

2010-07-19T18:18:00.000-05:00

Pulling the plug on tonight's run. My running has been going well lately, but mentally I've hit a wall:

I've been getting my ass completely handed to me at work. I can't stop losing money. Today was another doozie. Market goes down, I lose money. Market goes up, I lose money. If the market goes down and then up in any given day, I lose even more money. Shorts are killing me, longs are killing me. It makes absolutely no sense. In theory, I should be slaying it with my bets, yet for some fucking reasons beyond my control (too many to potential to list here), I'm stuck in a horribly perfect storm working against me... The world fucking hates me, and it's been steadily getting worse for the last month and a half. I've had like 8 up days out of the last 32 trading days. Pathetic. Depressing. I feel like there's no cure. It's wearing on me.

Up until now, I've been able to ignore it and run through it. Today I can't. All I can do is hope that tomorrow I can cope with it better.

I've had total garbage for sleep lately. 6 hours a night for the last week+, and it's clearly catching up with me. It's making me even more cranky from work.

Lack of sleep and uber stress with work has my body literally feeling sore and bloated today. This is a wall that I can't run through... at least not today. The last thing I need is to disappoint myself with a shitty tempo run.

My solution: spend the evening with Sarah, make dinner, watch TV, totally vege out, and kill my $100 bottle of Del Dotto 2005 Napa Cabernet. Try again tomorrow.

Tempo

2010-07-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

Last night... on a hot and humid evening, after a long day of work, and after running 26 miles of brutal hills in Wisconsin over the weekend... I ran 5 miles of tempo.

5:50, 5:42, 5:44, 5:39, 5:38.

I didn't smash any records, but it was a very respectable run with a nice negative split. I rolled at a good clip, and did it without dying or begging myself to end the run. I actually finished wanting more. Complete satisfaction.

A runner's high.

Summer Runnin'

2010-07-12T11:54:00.000-05:00

In general, just lots of easy / steady runs lately. That's gradually changing though...

I'm above 50 for the last couple weeks (actually 69 for the last 7 days). All in all, I feel pretty decent. No significant pains anywhere. All systems "go" to continue rolling up.

Most notable over the last couple weeks:

First ever run totally barefoot!! Very cool! It was a couple miles on some mixed terrain w/ Chris Woods. We went to see Barefoot Ken Bob host a fun run out in Woodstock, IL. He's a totally off the wall, California-hippy that could pass as Jerry Garcia's stunt double... only BFKB's addicted to barefoot running (no need to speculate on any of his other vices). Anyway, BFKB's been 100% barefoot for the last couple decades, and completed something like 75 marathons and countless other races.... and in respectable times too! Let's just say that if anyone knows anything about barefoot running, then it's Barefoot Ken Bob. He started blogging his running back in the late '90s to document his work and hopefully help other runners make the switch.

It was interesting to hear BFKB talk about where people often go wrong when running without shoes. He made some very good points about how the foot strike and lift off can especially lead to injury... and not just about stepping on something sharp either. Toeing off too much or landing too far up on the ball will ultimately produce nasty blisters and potentially stress fractures down the road (yes, I know the feeling). Also, he is fairly convinced that when starting off barefoot, you must run purely barefoot as opposed to in VFFs... VFFs ironically still provide a lot of protection to our feet.

When it comes to running in general, everything's all about reducing impact forces and improving efficiency. Barefoot running takes that to the 1,000,000th degree. I'm slowly learning that these are things I can't naturally feel unless I totally lose protection on my feet. Its very easy to see how your body naturally straightens up, and your stride improves when running barefoot (as opposed to strapping pillows under your feet). It is an awesome learning tool... and cheaper than any coach or expensive running shoe.

So, the bug is back... I ran in my Vibram Five Fingers twice last week. It was awesome! The closest thing to being barefoot without actually being barefoot. It sounds cheesy, but running like this is such a great feeling of freedom. Once you do it a few times, you'll only want more of it. As excited as I am though, I still have to remind myself of the consequences of doing too much too soon. The last thing I want to do is risk another stress fracture. I'm saying no more than 2 runs a week in my VFFs (max of 5 miles each), and maybe a mile or two sans-everything.

Spent this past weekend up at Erik's place in Wisconsin. We went up to watch Myra slug it out with a disgusting 50 miler Dances with Dirt. Huge congrats to her for finishing that damn thing! - It was a ridiculously difficult course on an extremely hot day. That must have been brutal both physically and mentally.

Anyway, over the weekend I ran a 16 miler on Saturday and a 10 miler on Sunday. Both runs were on some rolling hills... OK, so 1,250ft of climbing and 2,500ft of total elevation change on the 10 miler alone. I guess a little more than "just" rolling? I'll be back up there in a couple more weeks for round 2. Hills like that are going to turn me into a monster...

Mid-Year Update

2010-06-30T10:26:00.000-05:00

Silly McHair has inspired me to do some math:

It's June 30th. Half way. After this evening, I'll be at roughly 1,000 miles for the year.... or roughly 38 miles per week average.

A year ago, I was at around 1,225... or roughly 47 miles per week average. I rounded out last year with a total of 2280 in 10 months, then 2 months of absolute downtime due to the SFX.

Sadly, I'm embarrassed to say I've only run 1,000 miles this year. I'm 18% under where I was a year ago, and a lot of this year's mileage has been concentrated in only a very short period of time.

YTD:

- I was basically handicapped for the first month of training this year, which delayed any decent mileage until March...

- Then I crammed for London... which included many shin splits.

- Then took a couple weeks of down time or lower volume to recover...

- Then paced 20 miles of the Green Bay Marathon with Claudia and Jason, which GB+London took a far greater toll on me than I anticipated...

- So I then took even more down time for a few more weeks...

- Then when I was finally ready to start bumping my miles on June 1st, I basically broke ANOTHER toe at a street fest by massively stubbing it, and was forced to delay any sort of roll up in mileage....

- Which brings me to now: I finally hit 40 miles last week. Not quite where I'd like to be, but not horrible. I only feel mildly disgusting... but at least I'm healthy.

Going forward: I'm only signed up for 2 races at this moment... the Chicago Half Marathon in September and the New York City Marathon in November.

Any racing leading up to NYC will be a function of training for a PR in NYC - which won't be easy, since its a very difficult course.

Training basically began for NYC last week - with my whopping 40 miles (gotta start some where). I had 1 workout last week: a 4 mile tempo run. I'll have 1 workout this week: mile repeats tonight. Next week, I start kicking it into gear.

My basic stratergy: I'll make a steady climb up towards ~75 miles/week, hang on to that for 3 or 4 weeks, then push to 100 for a month, then come back down.

The key will be remaining injury free and trying to stay as "fresh" as possible.

Since London

2010-06-18T14:15:00.000-05:00

Miles have been easy, and few and far between. But plenty of good times in the last month and a half....

London:

Paris:

Strasbourg (Straßburg):

My "new" 1986 Porsche 911 Carerra Targa: Frau Sandy Sarable. Drove from Utah to Chicago to pick her up... (then Chicago to Green Bay, then Chicago to Buffalo):

Memorial Day Gluttony w/ Humes:

Thumper gets married:

I moved in with this PYT:

Maifest mit keiner Lederhosen :(

...I later smashed and potentially broke my middle toe on my left foot at the fest... fortunately I was only forced to take a handful of days off.

Hawks win the Cup!!

My 5th Major: The London Marathon

2010-05-31T14:34:00.000-05:00

Alright, this is long over due!! It's a month late. I've been very lazy about updating this blog as I've been preoccupied by traveling across Europe, then traveling across the country and getting a car, then Green Bay, then moving, blah blah blah. So, better late than never...

The London Marathon - April 25, 2010

All things considered, it went extremely well. I say all things considered because... 1) I didn't know if I was gonna even be able to get out of the country due to that freak'n volcano... 2) I had a bad case of insomnia for several days leading up to the trip... 3) I then had jet lag and barely slept the night before... 4) I had to stand outside in the cold rain for 2+ hours while waiting forever for the gun... 5) I had a horrible seed at the start, which made the first couple miles very difficult... Oh and 6) Let's not forget that I had a stress fracture 5 months earlier and had to force a crash course training schedule.

Not that I'm making excuses for anything, but I'm just pointing out that I had a lot stacked against me going into the race. That said, I exceeded my expectations of "low-2:40's", so I am very pleased. I ran a great 24 mile race... the last 2 miles, not so much... but everything was going so incredibly well for so long that I just had to go for broke.

The weather was a comfortable cool, but in typical London fashion we had to deal with rain in the morning, which made for a very annoying start. As the rain cleared up, it was replaced by a slight head wind while we ran mostly into the west.

The course was a point to point run that started in the south east part of the city, snaked, and finished to the north west. It reminded me of an inverted "S". Other than that, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I've heard the course was flat. It wasn't. We started on some high ground, so the first 1/2 was mostly rolling down. We crossed Tower Bridge at the split, then stayed north of the Thames. I thought the 2nd half would've been flatter... I was again wrong. We continued downhill for another several miles, but then we had to basically retrace those down hills, and then roll to the finish.

This was important, because ultimately I ran the course the way that it wanted me to run it... I hit the gas on the downs, then recouped on the flats/ups. The slight downs and rolling persisted through about 20 miles, then a number of steady ups were 21-24, then rolling through 26.

Unfortunately, I started the race behind like 1000 people who had no business being in front of me..... The first mile was entirely spent scrambling and jockeying for some breathing room. By that point, anyone going my pace was long in front of me and I essentially ran the entire marathon alone, while steadily passing people.

After a few miles, I was so amazed with how fresh and strong I felt. So in spite of what I might have thought prior to the gun, I was getting all green lights to go for it. And that I did. I started hitting numerous sub-6 miles. They just melted away as I kept rolling.

Not in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be able to PR this thing. Yet as I had crossed the half at blazing 1:19:08, I started to wonder how long I could maintain. I knew eventually we'd have to go up hill somewhere... London wasn't a bottomless pit (though some might argue this). Per the results, I split the race in about 410th place, but finished in 172!!... I mean I passed hundreds, if not a thousand runners in the first 13 miles. I don't recall getting passed by a single person - until the 25 or 26th mile.

Ultimately, I couldn't maintain. As I expected, I gave time back on the up hill portion of the race between 21-24. A PR was still in the bag though.... Until... in the 25th mile I fell asleep. 6:44! All I had to do for something fantastic was maintain 6:15's. I have no idea what happened, but I went bust. I totally ran out of gas. No strength left whatsoever. 26 was a struggle to salvage any self-honor as I choked out that last 6:27.

Maybe it would've been different if I didn't press so hard so early? Or if I had a few more weeks of training? Or if I had more sleep? Regardless, there wasn't much I could do about it. I felt good, I committed to an aggressive race, I went for broke, and I knew I'd eventually have to pay some time back while going up hill later.

I wouldn't have changed a thing about it! I had to see if I could do it. And hey, it wasn't all that bad! It was a sloppy positive split, but from what I saw in the results - EVERYONE, with the exception of very very few people around my finishing time posted a mildly flat split, let alone negative. Chalk it up as experience for an experienced marathoner.

First half - 1:19:08, 410th
Second half - 1:20:45, 172th
Final - 2:39:53, 172th Overall, 2nd American

I now own 2 sub-2:40 marathons, all 5 World Marathon Majors, and 11 marathons total.

Mile splits:
1 - 6:19
2 - 6:02
3 - 5:47
4 - 6:02
5 - 5:57
6 - 6:13
7 - 6:09
8 - 6:05
9 - 6:02
10 - 5:57
11 - 6:01
12 - 5:57
13 - 5:56
14 - 5:54
15 - 5:57
16 - 5:58
17 - 5:57
18 - 5:50
19 - 6:10

20 - 6:05
21 - 6:14
22 - 6:17
23 - 6:16
24 - 6:15
25 - 6:44
26 - 6:27
.2 - 1:23

5K splits:
5 - 18:45 / 6:02
10 - 18:54 / 06:05
15 - 18:51 / 06:04
20 - 18:39 / 6:00
25 - 18:19 / 05:54
30 - 18:35 / 05:59
35 - 19:11 / 06:11
40 - 19:54 / 06:24
2.212 - 08:45 / 06:22

Eyjafjallajokull (update)

2010-04-22T13:28:00.000-05:00

Looks like old man volcano is chilling out... or at least the EU was willing to bow to pressure from the airline industry to open up the sky for travel. Flights have been rolling steadily since last night.

Game on. Heading to the airport in a bit.

I'm starting to accept the fact that I'm going to have to run a marathon in a few days. Nerves are getting wiry.

Eyjafjallajokull

2010-04-21T10:42:00.000-05:00

OK, so here's a fun wrench that I've been dealt in the last week:

The beautiful island of Iceland has decided to blow up - literally! Iceland is known for its numerous volcano's and hot springs, many of which are buried or surround by glaciers. Well guess what - one decided to blow up.

"Eyjafjallajokull" (pronounced "try to fucking screw Robert's London Marathon plans")... has been erupting on and off for the last month. A week ago, part of the volcano, which is essentially covered with a glacier, started to get violent. Lava, magma, glacial ice, and ash have been getting blasted 30,000 feet into the atmosphere. Combine that with the current heavy jet stream, and the result is Norther Europe is getting heavily shit upon . Hence, flights all over the continent have been cancelled for the last week - particularly in London!!! About 75% of all flights in Europe altogether have been cancelled in the last week!!

Ummm, not the ideal concern I'd like to have in the days leading up to my marathon! The whole experience is still a pretty surreal for me, as I feel like I'm in a bit of "marathon denial mode" - but this isn't helping any of my pre-marathon nerves.

Travel plans could be hosed. Sarah and I are supposed to leave for London tomorrow afternoon. I have no clue what the odds of that actually happening are. We're basically on a day-to-day basis. WTF!?! Apparently, London just now is opening up for some air traffic however, most US bound flights are still cancelled. It remains to be seen whether UK bound flights from Chicago will be starting back up today. I'll know more in a few hours. Leaving tomorrow is a crapshoot.

Let's not even get into the conversation that the air quality in London is crap right now too! I've seen comments that suggest the streets are slowly getting covered in dust. Not good.

The icing on the cake: I didn't opt for the European Volcano Trip Insurance with our travel plans.... We'll easily be hosed on maybe $2,000 worth of reservations that won't be refundable.

Eyjafjallajokull-whatever-yer-name-is can continue to erupt for the next 12 months or as long as it wants to, and spew massive ash plumes into the atmosphere every other day. ...Just a friendly reminder that mother nature rules above all else. Gotta keep an even keel.

Better

2010-04-15T21:11:00.000-05:00

For the first time in 6 months, I finally feel like I'm getting into shape. Unfortunately, I feel like I'm maybe 3-4 weeks shy from being in a much better condition (as opposed to peaking)... and instead I'm gonna force a marathon in about a week.

I've pulled together a few good workouts in the past :

* 4/9 - 22 miles on a Friday night after a long day at work.
The first 10 were easy @ 7:15s. The next 6 were progressing from 6:45 to 6:20. Then 5 miles @ 6:15 progressing to 6:00. Final mile was a cool down. This was one of those pinnacle long runs where I just had to force myself to run faster and faster, slowly pulling a trigger. I finished strong and didn't have any troubles whatsoever.

* 4/12 - 12 w/ 8 miles tempo.
There was a good headwind for the first few miles of the run, but that clearly came back to help me towards the end. Goal was to start out at marathon pace into the wind, progress towards 1/2 marathon pace, then go nuts at the end. It went perfectly.... 6:09, 6:00, 6:08, 5:50, 5:44, 5:44, 5:29, 5:23 = 5:48 avg. A massive negative split. I finished feeling gassed, but not toasted. I plowed right through any lactic acid. I could've easily thrown in another couple miles (of course, slower than 5:23).

* 4/14 - Yasso 10x 800s.
In my mind, this is a key workout. I've said it before, I'll say it again - If I can't do these things at 2:40 reps, then I shouldn't even considering thinking about a low 2:40s marathon. I ran an average of 2:36. Unfortunately, the faster ones were earlier (going 2:33-35s). I did hang on through the end though (finishing 2:37-38s). 80 seconds rest. The last time I did this workout in the fall, I gave myself an extra 10 seconds rest. This tells me that I can have some confidence in running low 2:40s in London.

Reality

2010-04-08T07:39:00.001-05:00

The reality of all this is that I had a stress fracture. I broke my foot. I was at my peak performance a little over 5 months ago. I was then forced to take about 2-1/2 months completely off. So I'm now only about 2-1/2 to 3 months back into my running.

Rule of thumb: It takes you twice your down time to get back to where you started. After all of my garbage running and down time over the last handful of years, I firmly believe that. If you take 1 week off, it takes you almost 2 weeks to get your fitness back. I took 2-1/2 months, and it'll take me 5 months of hard training to get back. I'm half to where I was in October. It will likely take until June or July to fully hit my stride again... probably longer, since I'll still have to recover from London.

I say this because in spite of a decent 20x 400m workout last night (jogged a 200m recovery - basically not allowing myself to fully rest between reps).... I still felt unsatisfied. The workout went very smooth, I held my splits, I even picked it up in the second half.

However, Jason was running 5x 1000s at a faster pace than my 400s. He eventually lapped me. Late in my workout, some of the other elite guys started running. I think they were doing 1600s... they were going at least my pace. (aka, potentially easing into sub 5min mile repeats). At one point, one of them blew by me like I was standing still.

It was very humbling. I actually felt embarrassed. Jesus, I was doing measly 400s!! I felt that there's no way I'm even in the same league as these guys. I was the piece of shit slow kid, and in their way on the track. Not a single one of the other "elites" even acknowledged me. I'm on their team! Or are I? Maybe I'm just the pity fuck?

On my lonely cool down, I came to my reality - I've only been running about 2-1/2 months; I've just started to right the ship. I'm half way to getting back in shape.

I have a marathon in a little over 2 weeks, and I'm far from where I wanted to be when I signed up for the damn thing... but its thousands of miles away and costs too much to bail on. Maybe it'll be dubbed the London Lay-up, but hey, at least I'm heading in the right direction.

Cramming

2010-04-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

Last week got the ball rolling. Now its just a matter of hanging on for as long as I can....

-14 miles last Friday after work.

-23 miles on Saturday morning in Barrington (avg likely 6:50ish).

-12 miles on Sunday around noon.

That's 49 miles all within like 40 hours.

Socially my life has gone down the tubes. I'm in bed by 9:30 every night. Get up, go to work for 10 hours, come home, run a couple of hours, eat, go to bed. Such is the life of trying to cram for a marathon.

Since the weekend,

-I doubled for the second week in a row on Tuesday, w/ 6mi tempo after work. Tempo was solid, considering an 18 mile day - 6:00 down to high 5:40's, but I had some help from a wind at my back.

-Tracked last night with a variance of 200 cut downs. 4 sets of 4x 200, with an easy 200 jog in between reps (roughly 75 sec)... reps were consistent w/ #1 = 35-34, #2 = 34-33, #3 = 33-32, #4 = 32-31.
Looking back at my fall workouts, we ran with on 45 sec rest, and did 3 reps going 35, 33, 31.

All in all - Cramming is the only way to describe it... and quickly. I'm not terribly sore, but my legs no longer feel fresh. Calves feel like balloons. I'm tired. I'm hungry, but afraid to eat too much during the day as it'll upset my run.

The shins/calves are the only notable pains. They're better than they were a month ago, but keep tightening up with every 5-6 day streak. Massages have helped a lot. It's been a week since Sarah's had the chance to work on me though. I can tell. I'm stuck taking Aleve once or twice a day to reduce the swelling. I should probably suck it up and start wearing compression stocks while I'm not running.

Basically have 2 more weeks to cram in miles, then cut back for about a week and a half days. It all boils down to about 3-1/2 weeks of 80+ miles with as much quality as possible. Not your ideal marathon training, but its gonna have to do.

The Crazy Ladder

2010-03-25T07:51:00.000-05:00

The missing piece to the puzzle lately has been my speed workouts. I've had some so-so track workouts in the past couple weeks. All a reminder that speed doesn't come back instantly.

Last night, however, was a pretty solid workout. Dubbed as a Crazy Ladder... and one to be repeated in a few weeks:

4mi warm up

1200 @ 86s
800@ 79, 80
400 @ 77
1600 @ 81-82s
1200 @ 80-82s
800 @ 79, 81
400 @ 71
90 rests

2mi cool down

The goal was to ease into the speed with the first 1200, get some fast endurance with the mile and second 1200, and add turnover with the 400s. Nothing ridiculously fast, but just a strong workout. It was definitely taxing, but ultimately I felt much more comfortable this week versus last week. I'm finally starting to see some gains.

Eyes on the Prize

2010-03-22T10:29:00.000-05:00

The season opener for Chicago racing was yesterday... the ol' Shamrock Shuffle.

My expectations weren't overly high for one of my favorite races this year, given that I've hardly done any speed work lately. My main goal was just to run something of a steady, fast tempo... and not kill myself.

Weather was chilly - mid 30's. No ridiculous caked slush to deal with, like last year. With the exception of a nasty NE headwind, which effected the second half of the run, conditions were good for the race.

I wound up going 28:05 (unofficial because of elite start)... Splits were 5:30, 5:36, 5:42, 5:38, 5:38. Mike was a huge help, as he got me going. We ran the first 3.5 miles together. The only complaint I have is that I lead a train of scum suckers into some brutal wind during the latter part of the race. It seemed like nobody wanted to man up, and then a handful of them passed me in the last quarter mile. Roosevelt was a pisser this time around. It felt like I was crawling up that thing with the wind. Oh well.

Aside from the Shamrock though, I had a great 20 miler on the lakefront on Friday night. I ran about 17 of it at around 6:40ish pace. 6:30s with the wind at my back... and mid-6:40s with the headwind.

Hitting that pace for a long run, and then going a steady Shamrock tempo 36 hours later makes me feel a lot better about my running lately.

As of now, no shin splints. No massive knots in my calves. No pains in my foot. A little soreness from the Shamrock... otherwise, all systems go.

Eyes on the prize.

5 weeks 'til touchdown in Londontown.

Feel more like a turtle than a rabbit

2010-03-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

I feel like I've been in a rut for the last couple of weeks. I'm finally starting to get some miles... In the 60's, but I've been plain old lethargic when it comes to adding speed.

Easy and maintenance miles are no problem. Long runs feel good the whole way. Even progression runs have gone well. Track speed sucks.

A couple of tempo runs in the last few weeks have gone alright, considering they're my first attempts. Last week I had 5 miles that started at about a 6min pace, and got down to 5:49... OK, but easily 10 seconds slower per mile than they should be.

I've also done two speed workouts in the last two weeks. Both were 6x 800's. Both were disappointing. I was hitting 79-83 second laps. Very inconsistent... with the expectation that I was consistently running the second lap slower than the first. Not good. Last night was especially lame. I was hoping to see week-over-week improvement but got nothing. I even pulled the plug and cut it short (6 instead of 8 reps). A morale loser.

I know I can't expect myself to all of a sudden start running at the pace I was back in the fall... but I'm discouraged by the fact that I've had to ramp up a little more slowly than I anticipated.

Shamrock Shuffle is on Sunday. Typically this is one of my favorite races. Last year, I had an excellent run in horrible conditions. I'm expecting a pretty lame showing this year. I'm not training hard enough to even consider tapering into it (not that there's even much to taper). I'll run through. 20 tomorrow night just to spite the fucker. Then treat the race as a tempo workout.

This week's miles are little light, as I took a long weekend to ski in Colorado. Next week will be a jump up in miles. I'll hold that for 3-4 weeks, then take it easy for a week into London.

Who would've thought a hangover would help my running?

2010-02-28T14:44:00.000-06:00

Sarah's birthday party + viele Stiegl Bieren + coupla Jameson shots = OOUCH!!

Saturday morning I was a waste case. It hurt. No way was I able to pull myself together to run my long run. I was probably so dehydrated that I would've bonked badly, or too brain dead that I would've tripped or done something ridiculously stupid.

Anyway, so as an attempt to nurse the hangover, I loaded up on some Aleve throughout the day and got some rest. Strangely, I think all the Aleve actually flushed some of the inflammation out of my shins, and the day off probably also helped.

The result... I ran the 18 today and felt great! No significant pains, and felt strong the whole way. Shins were good. I've jumped up in my long runs pretty quick here, and they're actually feeling good.

This week is now front loaded with a long run. I should be able to pull together 70+ miles, and top it off with a 20 miler run on the hills in Barrington. It'll definitely be a "get involved" kinda week. Not sure what kind of speed I'll do yet, but I'm FINALLY starting to pull together some decent runs.

Back in the 50s

2010-02-26T09:56:00.000-06:00

Way back when, I used to put in some decent mileage.

It seems like ages ago, but that's finally starting to come back now.

I've run 6 of the last 7 days for a total of 54 miles. I've also had 2 good runs so far this week, both of which included 4 miles of progression, hit down into the mid 5:50's.

The nice thing is that none of this was overly taxing, and my cardio is starting to feel more "normal". After taking a series of days off last week to help with my shin splints, I'm feeling much better this week.

Thanks to lots of lower leg strengthening, Sarah and her magical massage work, and some acupuncture... my shin splits have eased up. Far from 100% gone, but manageable at this point.

Also, earlier this week I had my final visit with Dr Baker. X-ray's confirmed that any remaining calcium deposits (aka repair work) around the fracture have fully cleared up. I officially have a clean bill of health for my stress fracture. I haven't had any foot pain in well over week... no aching or soreness whatsoever. All in, that ordeal was 17 weeks long. A nasty and costly learning experience.

Shin Splints

2010-02-17T12:32:00.000-06:00

I've reached an impasse.

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that I need to get this shin splint issue resolved ASAP before I run another mile. If I don't, then I'm going to blow a lot more than the London Marathon.

My shin splints are technically Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome.
Essentially, I took a break from running. My lower leg experienced some atrophy as a result of das fucking boot and my stress fracture. As I started rolling my mileage back up, the muscles running along the inside and back of my shin bone have basically been nagging that bone from over use / being over stretched.

My pain is technically just behind the medial portion of the tibia. From my understanding, it is the flexor digitorum and the soleus muscles pulling on that medial tibia. Some how, one way or another - it is the changing of angle of my foot before and/or after impact that gradually has stressed the inside of my shin.

This has happened to me a number of times in the past after coming back from breaks... It usually takes 3 or 4 weeks for the pain to first appear. The good news is that since I've been through this enough times, I know how to rehab it quickly. I can be rolling again in a few days.

The solution:
- Rest + ice + anti-infamitories.
- Doing like 50 different exercises constantly throughout the day to get it to chill out and come back to reality... main ones are: Walking on my heels; Raising my feet while standing and keeping my heels on the ground; Lifting my arches with my flexor digitorum (basically pulling the arches up, using the muscle on the medial side of my shin); Rotating my foot round and round a kazillion times in both directions.
- Lots of Massage! Sarah's been massaging it pretty aggressively in the past week. This is key, as the knots need to get flushed out.
- Acupuncture. I have a session tonight. This will hopefully help flush out some of those knots. E-stim would probably be very helpful. Not sure if the acupuncturist will want to do that though.

The last few days off have not been for nothing. I am seeing improvement here. This impasse will soon be passed, and I should be running by the end of the week.

Just a taste...

2010-02-11T19:46:00.000-06:00

10 miles with 8 at 6:30's.

Definitely my best run since coming back and a nice confidence booster.

I just had to bite the bullet with my shin, stretch it out, and roll. Once I got into the groove, I didn't want to let up and my calf finally chilled out.

That taste of going just a little faster for a slightly longer run was soooo nice! It's been too long since I've had that feeling. Call it a runner's high or whatever... but it was nice to get it once again.

The fact that I didn't have a heart attack during the run made it all that much better.

Trials of Miles

2010-02-07T12:08:00.000-06:00

Ran 15 yesterday. That's the longest run I've had since the marathon in October. It definitely wasn't easy.

My shins have been hurting me for the last several days, it was like 20-25 degrees, wind was incredibly annoying... and to top it off, I was a bit hung over.

I'd really like to say that this was one of those "growing" runs... where I'm stronger for having finished it than before... and now that it's out of the way, I feel much better. But no, it hurt too much. It was just a reminder of of out of shape I am.

3 weeks of mid-30's running... nothing all that special, but the foot is coming along nicely. No pains there, but as I said my shins are pretty banged up. Sarah's worked on them a few times and it really seems to be helping... but I'm still having to stop a couple times during a run to stretch my calves and quickly massage them.

I still feel like garbage running though. Up to 10 miles feels fine. Anything over 10-12 feel too much work. I still have yet to do a speed workout... I need a few more weeks of building before I'm willing to push it.

My simple goal for this next week will be to get beyond that.

10-1/2 Weeks

2010-01-27T13:58:00.000-06:00

I've been successfully running for the last two and a half weeks. I was reluctant to want to post too soon, as I didn't want to claim victory right away. I still won't know if this whole thing is a done deal for another few weeks... but so far, so good. Total downtime from my stress fracture was about 10-1/2 weeks.

I started back with my first run on a treadmill, on Jan 8th. A whopping 2 miles.... and at that, it was run a quarter, walk a minute, run a half, walk a minute, run 1-1/2 miles. The second run a couple days later was 4 miles, and also included some walking in there too. No troubles from either run. That was a big green light: After a week of being 100% pain free, I was able to successfully run pain free. The doctor confirmed a couple days later that I was able to start rolling back up.

Since then, I've only occasionally experienced a slight dull aching. But typically that shakes out either during a run or with some ice and/or heat post-run. I'm still using the ultra-sound on a daily basis... Hey, if it actually makes feel better, then why stop?

I put in over 30 miles last week. Not much compared to my previous mileage, but a minor victory. The only pain I had was in my pride and motivation... I'm VERY out of shape compared to a few months ago; and it's difficult to want to get out the door during the cold winter. OK, so that statement comes with a grain of salt too: Sure, I can run now. And 5-7 miles really doesn't phase me... but again, light years away from where I was back at Halloween. My 10 mile run last week was a reality check: It's going to be a long battle to get back to where I was.

The London Marathon is 12 weeks away. I need to get my shit in gear. Up until now, I've been very careful about coming back and not pushing it too much. I'm guessing it takes me another 3 weeks to get up to 50+ miles/week. No speed in there. After my final check up with the doctor, and assuming no troubles at that point... then I should be able to roll 6 or 7 weeks of solid training before London.

Ultimately, I have to look at this as a stepping stone for my summer season, but I still have a chance of running a good marathon in April.

Greenshoots

2010-01-04T17:25:00.000-06:00

I just ran about 100ft to get the bus... Absolutely no pain. That's the first time in over 2 months that I've moved faster than a snail's pace without even the slightest amount of pain.

Soon, very soon...

Ground Hog Day in December

2009-12-21T14:01:00.000-06:00

Today is Winter Solstice: The darkest day of the year.

I had my latest visit to the doctor today, and x-rays and a conservative return to running suggests another three weeks on the sidelines. I saw my shadow, and hibernation continues. - I say "conservative" because my main goals at this point is to avoid re-injury, and avoid pain when I return to running.

This is extremely frustrating, being that the standard 8 weeks of recovery would've had me running at the end of this week. Instead, I'm afraid that about 10-11 weeks will be more appropriate, in spite of some rather aggressive treatment.

I have no doubt that the week following my initial break was probably the main cause for this extended recovery time. In that week, I went untreated between when I received the MRI and my follow up appointment to see the doctor. Hence, I most likely compounded the injury as the fracture went unstabilized for 6 very important days.

At this point, my foot still doesn't feel a hundred percent yet so I can understand not being allowed to run. But I'll say that it is feeling better with each day that passes. I've had a couple instances over the last few days where I've jogged very briefly and haven't had much or any pain.

I abandoned the boot a couple weeks ago, at an effort to save my aching hips and knees. I'm still using the bone stimulator once or twice daily. I'm still loading up on calcium supplements (I'll probably keep with this longer-term). I'm still icing and/or applying heat - though not every day. I'll be going a few weeks without acupuncture due to the holidays, but I have been getting treatment at least once a week.

The fat negative: I've had very minimal physical exercise in the last 8 weeks. I've gone from being in the best shape of my life to feeling completely, 100% out of shape. This break has me gaining about 10 pounds from marathon morning, in October. I've been eating and drinking like a pig, and it shows. I feel disgusting; I feel like that damn movie "Super Size Me".

I keep saying that I'm going to start swimming or biking - but it's too cold to bike now, and swimming... eh, just doesn't appeal to me at the moment. Maybe tomorrow? (I've had that attitude for the last few weeks)... I've lost my motivation. That needs to change ASAP.

The London Marathon is 5 months away. I'll basically have to start training from scratch in mid-January. One month to ramp up, and accounting for cut back weeks and taper – that leaves me with only 2 months of training. It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be pretty. Thoughts of PR'ing at that race may be all but a pipe-dream at this point.

Treating a stress fracture

2009-11-25T12:08:00.000-06:00

I'm trying to be as aggressive as I can with treating this stress fracture. Until a week and a half ago, I was solely relying on the RICE formula with some anti-inflammatories. Now I'm basically throwing everything but the kitchen sink at my foot.

Ideally I'd like to get back to running as soon as I can, but I'm going to force myself to wait as long as possible. I'm still hopeful that 8 weeks will be the magic number, which puts me at around Christmas time before I can roll again.

Here's the run down of my current regimen:

1) Rest. I really can't do a whole ton right now, as my foots still very sore - though the soreness has shifted from being very localized on the 2nd metatarsal to spreading across the entire foot. Basically I've put myself on complete shut down for at least another week. I've accepted that November is a bust. December will probably have me getting back into swimming and some cycling. This will be the most rest I've taken in probably 5 years. I'm sure it's much needed too, since I've been pounding away for so long without much of a break (except when I've been injured).

2) Das Boot! In German, that means "the boat". I'd agree. It's a boat. A giant canoe strapped to my foot at all times. I hate it. I can't help but complain about it. The only time I'm not wearing is when I'm sleeping or showering. Basically a plastic removable cast with a stiff bottom and cushioned support + compression. The goal is to remove flexibility and the risk of putting too much pressure onto the metatarsal heads and toes. I acquired this wonderful piece of equipment a week and a half ago.

I have to rant for a second: What amazes me is that the medical community is willing accept these things as a means of treatment. Sure, it does offer pain relief while walking, but at a huge cost. My left foot is propped up at least 1 1/2 inches higher than my right foot. I'm totally off kilter. Walking, let alone even standing in the boot throws everything off in my body. It's killing my knees, my hips, my back, my posture... all in an effort to stabilize a few small bones and joints. This thing is horrible. A monkey could designed something better. Unfortunately, most doctors are so narrow minded and fixated on their areas of "expertise" that they fail to recognize the damage that something like this causes elsewhere in the body.

So much for the months and months of strengthening my hips and feet to get me to where I was. I feel like a week in this boot has trashed it all!

On the flip side, I've read that cycling shoes can be used instead of das Boot. I've tested this theory by walking around in my shiny Pearl Izumi's, and I think this could be a good substitute. I'm not willing to ruin my babies though, so this weekend I'll try to look for a decent pair of mountain biking shoes. The key is, the soles will need to be ultra stiff. Probably fiberglass or a composite material instead of a flexible plastic/rubber. There can't be any give if I'm gonna sink das Boot.

3) Icing. Still doing this at least once a day, 10 minutes on 10 off, 10 on again. I was icing a lot more, but there really isn't much swelling or inflammation at this point.

4) Pill popping. Calcium supplements. I need as much as I can get. I believe it's recommended that the body gets 1000 mg a day, upwards to 1500. I'm taking 1000 mg twice a day, combined with Magnesium and Vitamin D to help with the to absorption. I'm also taking some Chinese herbs to promote the healing of "traumatic bone injuries." I honestly really don't know what they are, but I'll take my acupuncturist's word for it.
I was taking Motrin/Aleve to help with the initial inflammation and pain, but I abandoned that a couple weeks ago after I read that anti-inflammitories actually can slow the healing process.

5) The Exogen 4000 Ultrasound Bone Healing System. It's a beauty! Long story short - as the name says, it's an ultrasound device promotes the healing of bone injuries. Apparently it's proven in phased studies and FDA approved. I've seen a number of articles and forums that suggest it can reduce the overall time required to heal by well over 30% with a very significant success rate (like 75%+).

Thanks to our awesome medical system in America, they're typically $3,500-4,000 new! Of course, the only people who actually buy the things are those with big PHat insurance plans to help pay for them. They then resell the devices on Craigslist or eBay after they're finished with their treatments. I was able to snag one on eBay that was barely used for $350. The battery life can get 300+ uses at 20 minutes per use; mine's only been used 8 times! Not a bad deal.

Anyway, it's purpose is to significantly speed up the recovery process. If that's the case, then it's well worth the $350! Recommended use is for 20 minutes, once a day. I'm going twice a day. So far it seems to be helping.

6) At least once a week, I'm getting acupuncture. I'm slowly starting to believe more and more in Eastern medicine. Acupuncture helped probably more than anything else when I was treating my hip back in the spring. I'll go out on a limb here and say that I'm seeing similar results with my foot. I've had 3 sessions recently. It's like a flood of fresh blood and energy through the foot, and all the muscles totally chill out. Even if the effects only last for a day, afterwords the foot feels great.

8) Moxa therapy once a day. Also recommended by my acupuncturist. It's a treatment with heat to get fresh blood, oxygen... energy... and qi all into and out of the foot using a burning cigar looking stick - called Moxibustion. It totally relaxes and loosens things up down there. Not sure how much it's helping, but it feels good.

SO - Like I said, I'm basically throwing everything I can at this thing. It's been a little over two weeks since I believe I officially broke my foot (technically about a month since I first incurred the stress reaction). I haven't seen much improvement yet, but I have a feeling I'm starting to turn the corner.

2nd Metatarsal Stress Fracture

2009-11-15T15:32:00.001-06:00

It's official. Results back the other day confirmed my fears via a MRI. I have a stress fracture in the second metatarsal of my left foot.

Think of bending a pencil... it may not necessarily break, but it does receive small cracks along the surface. One of those cracks would be akin to a stress fracture. The pain is very acute and has been very localized to a specific point along the top of my foot (approx where the arrow is in picture). It is at it's worst when I apply pressure to the ball of my foot, thereby putting upward pressure on the break.

In the mean time, I'll be in das Boot for at least the next 3-4 weeks. I'm already attempted to swim a little, but in moderation. No kicking, flip turns, or pushing off the wall... in otherwords, lame. Otherwise I don't anticipate much physical activity until I feel more comfortable on my foot.

Bummer.

Hitting Bottom

2009-11-11T10:35:00.000-06:00

It's been 2 weeks since that fateful rainy night, when I first experienced a mysterious pain on the top of my foot.

I'm honestly still not sure where I actually went wrong. I can only speculate that I must have mis-stepped somewhere late in the run while going around puddles.

I've been told by many people that this injury should be obvious:
I ran about 55 miles in my Vibram Five-Fingers over the course of 3 weeks... POST MARATHON. I over did it using a new training technique.

OK, not the smartest thing to do in the world, but I was going off a percent of base mileage. So if I typically would've run about 200+ miles in those 3 weeks, then 25% in VFF's shouldn't seem all that far-fetched - especially when I've spend months strengthening my stride and feet by consistently running in racing flats and occasionally in Newtons.

I was also basing this off the sage rule: Listen to your body. I most certainly was listening to my body - My feet had never felt better in my life!... or at least until the 9th mile of my October 27th run. My cuboid pain had eased up significantly, my shin splits finally went away, my ITB and hip even felt better. These are things that have plagued me for YEARS!!

Something I did not consider with my VFF's:
Both feet have very small bunions. Nothing ridiculous, but big enough. I believe this has been caused by some of my dress shoes being too tight around the toe box. The resulting effect of the bunion is the second metatarsal actually gets forced upwards slightly. The foot muscles adjust and atrophy accordingly.
While running, there is then an increased force on my 2nd metatarsal, particularly when running more on my forefoot - and especially if my toes are forced to be separated (like in the VFF's). Typically this wouldn't be a problem for me in normal cushioned shoes.

SO, remove all cushion, separate my toes and there's absolutely no protection to that 2nd metatarsal head when striking on the ball of my foot. Add 55 miles and jumping around a bunch of puddles for a few weeks in one of the rainiest Octobers that Chicago has ever seen... and I have the makings of my own catastrophe. It appears that the muscles in my feet were simply not built up enough to handle the work load.

So much for listening to my body. This was a complete blind siding injury. Absolutely no prior indications that I was having a problem. No prior symptoms. No warnings. No way I could have recognized that my second metatarsal was bearing too much of the blow.

Hence I strongly feel that I couldn’t prevent it. In hind sight I don’t think I would have changed anything, except for what I've done since then. I clearly should not have run another step. I did a track workout the following day (when it still didn't feel too bad), then took 10 days off, then ran 5 easy last Friday per the recommendation of my doctor. Those were both not wise moves.

I have to accept this. The pain at this point is undeniable and not going away. I need to move on and concentrate on fixing it.

As of Sunday, I'm self-diagnosing this as a Stress Fracture of my 2nd metatarsal - in spite of my doctor telling me that it wasn’t on 2 separate occasions, and in spite of much research on numerous barefooting/VFF blogs (where people claim the exact same pains were soft-tissue related).

I had a MRI yesterday. It was a very sobering experience. I hit bottom. I'll see Dr Baker again on Friday for confirmation of the results. Unless some miracle occurs and he sees something that he can manually fix (ie, some sort of dislocation or pinched muscle/tendon) - then treatment for a stress fracture will take about 8 weeks. Doing the math from my diagnosis: that means I'm laid up until basically New Years Day.

A complete travesty, considering I was in the best shape of my life 2 weeks ago. Now I could only dream to walk without a limp. I will certainly lose fitness from here.

Instead I have to work on healing it, and as meticulously as possible so I can return without any trace or potential for relapse.

It remains to be seen how this may affect my plans for the London Marathon in April, 2010.

It's raining this week.

2009-10-30T17:34:00.001-05:00

My last entry was "When the sun's shining, make hay."

Well, the sun's no longer shining.

It figures. I talk about it, and I jinks myself.

It's amazing how quickly things can change. I felt awesome last week. I felt like I was finally and fully recovered from the marathon. The 10K was smooth and no problems whatsoever. I took Monday off. Tuesday night, I felt awesome again......... until the end of the run.

For some reason late in Tuesday night's run, my foot started to get sore. I have no idea what caused it. I was a spry little fucker during most of the run, hopping and dodging puddles on the path. Yes, I was running in my Vibram Five-Fingers (more discussion about these later). So whatever happened, it wasn't anything noteworthy. I didn't sense a specific moment that pain started to occur. I did notice that with about a mile to go in the 11 mile run, that my foot was getting sore. It wasn't too annoying to stop, but was enough to want to ice it after the run.

Wednesday morning, it was very tender. My initial thoughts were that it was related to some foot pains I previously had in the weeks prior to the marathon: The top of my 1st metatarsal had been sore, right along a big honkin' vein. I thought that that was the cause of my racing flats being too tight. I can't rule out that these two might be related.

This time around though, the pain is along the top of my second metatarsal. A very small spot. Not radiating pain. No swelling. No discoloration. The pain comes as I push off on the ball of the foot, and stresses the metatarsal at top of the foot.

Anyway, as a typical runner - I spent Wednesday contemplating bailing on our planned track workout. I iced throughout the day, took some Motrin, and by 4:00 I determined that it really wasn't a major issue. I figured that I might be sore after, but it would still be worth hitting the track... especially if I was to continue with my push to get some CARA Circuit points. (Famous last words).

So Wednesday's track workout was great. The first "real" speed since the marathon. Chris, Verdo, and I did 5x 3x 200m cut downs. Similar to in the past: 35ish pace, then 33, then 32. The final 200, I buried at 30 and probably had plenty left in the tank to do a few more sets... but I didn't want to push it. Cardio and muscular wise, I felt great. I was back. It was a good tune up to run the Hot Chocolate 15K. Little did I know that I was creating more damage to myself.

Unfortunately, on the cool down, my foot was not happy with me. When I woke Thursday (yesterday) morning, I could barely walk on it. Immediately, I realized that I might have a serious problem.... aka stress fracture.

I contacted Jill Lohmann (a PT on the Fleet Feet team) as soon as I could, and she was able to take a look at it in the afternoon. In the mean time, I continued an aggressive treatment with ice, compression, and Motrin. After ruling out many different possibilities, Jill wasn't able to rule out a potential stress fracture.

Brings me to today - Woke up feeling no different. I made the call to see a doctor. All day long I iced, compressed, pumped Motrin into the system. By some miracle, I will say that as the day wore on and after I walked around a little to get lunch, I did notice it feeling marginally better. Not much - but enough to give me a ray of hope.

Luckily I was able to get into see an ortho-podiatrist this evening. After he did a few tests (though no X-ray / MRI / Bone-Scan) - he actually ruled out a stress fracture. Apparently it doesn't have quite the same characteristics. That's not to say that a stress fracture isn't possible in the future, if I'm not careful. His claim is that he believes the metatarsal has merely been "stressed." I pushed it to a near extreme. I'm going to need to be aggressive continuing with the ice, compression, and anti-inflammatory. ......No running! At least for a week. I can't imagine wanting to run at this moment, so that's not a terrible thing.

SO - for now I'll just do that and be extra cautious. My circuit season is over. No more points. No more racing... at least now. I can deal with this. It's not the end of the world. I still PR'd in every distance I touched this year. And I'm still not ruling out the USATF XC Club Finals in December. We reassess in a week and in the mean time, I can get back into swimming for the next couple weeks to help maintain my fitness.

And for those of you that have been DYING to say, "I told you so!!"... OK, have your glory now... Yes, quite possibly ONE contributing factor in this has been my running in the Vibram Five-Fingers. To my defense, I'll say that I have NEVER felt better about my running -at least until I woke up the other morning. That is total honesty here. Those Five-Fingers have cleared up some major, long time issues of mine... and only in a matter of a few weeks. But for now, as much as I love those shoes, I admit... I might have pushed the envelope just a little too much for post-marathon running.

Disclosure: This is the first time I'm actually admitting on this blog to my Five-Finger running - I've been doing some of my easier runs in them for the last 3 weeks. Including a couple runs the week of the marathon. I'll explain more in another post. First let me get things back to an even keel.

So, I leave with this - Run every run like it's your last run! Enjoy it. You don't need to blow it out, but soak it up. You never know. I learned a good lesson the other day... I did absoultely NOTHING wrong on the run. I never mis-stepped; I never tripped; I never rolled an ankle; didn't kick anything... NOTHING. I felt great until the very end. And yet, I wound up pissing off something somewhere along the miles.

The trials of miles... and the miles of trials!

When the sun's shining,

2009-10-26T20:57:00.000-05:00

make hay!

I'm still in great shape. Why should I just hang 'em up and walk away for the season, if I'm still feeling good? So what if I just ran a marathon? I don't have anything holding me back. I'm not sore anymore. All of my runs since the marathon have slowly felt better. I've had a good recovery thus far.

Hence, the CARA Circuit still has a few more races. I might as well try to pull a few off.

Oak Park - Frank Lloyd Wright 10K

My quick 2 second email reply to Dan McDowell was:

"It actually went well... Except fucking Mike Egle and a bandit drafted off of me for like 6 miles and then crushed me in the last quarter. Egle must have clipped my heels like 10 times too - seriously! I even called him out on it, and he continued to do it. Anyway, it was actually a really cool race experience, right down to the last wire."

That pretty much sums it up.

It really was a cool race though. For once, I knew it was going to be a true race at the very end. Nothing mattered until the kick. Pulling a quote from Once a Runner: "It doesn't matter how fast you can run, it matters how fast you can run when you're tired."

Unfortunately, the other two racers were significantly less hung over than I was, and they were the real deal (Kyle and Ricky's Halloween party was the night before). The two scum suckers rode me until they were finished using me, and then kicked at the perfect moment when they knew they could beat me. I tried throwing in a few surges earlier on, but they steadily matched everything. It went to the wire. When they threw moves on me, I had nothing. I ran for time. They ran to win. I did all the work, they stole the glory. Annoying, but a very good learning experience. Bastards.

The three of us each finished within 6 seconds of one another. I placed 6th overall... technically 5th because one of my guys was a bandit; top 3 were sub 33 and out of the picture. I won my age group; snatched a new 10K PR.

Splits were:
1 - 5:30
2 - 5:41
3 - 5:36
4 - 5:37
5 - 5:36
6 - 5:32
7 - 1:09 (5:22 pace)
= 34:43, 5:35 avg

MY CHICAGO MARATHON

2009-10-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Marathon

2:39:38 (PR), 6:05 pace, 180 place overall, 3rd Illinois Age

The whole concept me running a 2:39:38 marathon AND an 82 second negative split is still absolutely mind blowing to me.

Five years ago, I did something that I thought I'd never do... nor ever cared to do. I ran a marathon. It was one of the worst experiences of my life! I cursed the thing many times over. I finished in 3 hours, 39 minutes and change. A few years and 9 marathons later, and I've dropped an hour off that time!! AN HOUR! UnFuckingBelievable! So much for a kid that could've cared less about running when he was growing up. It's taken a week to let this set in, and I'm still having difficulty grasping it.

I'll try to give a recount of how I remember it, but really that's just a memory at this point... and a hazed one full of lactic acid, at that. To have experienced it was quite different. That can be said for any race or marathon.

The whole thing literally just flew by. The anticipation and days leading up to the race absolutely crawled. The waiting game was brutal. Then the miles, which may seem like they dragged on, unfolded so quickly. In reality, it was a very short experience in life. It's one of those things that I couldn't wait until it was over with, but now I absolutely regret wishing it away. I wish I could go back and enjoy every step and breath I took. I want to re-experience the numerous feelings of anxiety, joy, pain, fear, uncertainty, confidence, my runner’s high, and camaraderie,
...and now elation....

I nearly missed my alarm in the morning. Luckily my back-up woke me at 5:35. Thank you, trusty Ironman! The race started at 7:30, and Chris was going to be here in a 40 minutes; I needed to get moving. I packed my gear the night before but still triple checked it. I showered up quickly, and wolfed down a bagel w/ peanut butter and a shot of espresso... and I was out the door. No time to think, just go.

It was a cold 35 degrees, but the wind actually "wasn't all that bad". In Chicago terms, that means it wasn’t a 20mph steady in-your-face-all-the-time wind... only maybe 5-10mph. It was coming out of the North-West. It would hurt late in the race, but if we’re gonna have to have it, we wanted a NW breeze. ...Immediate relief came to me when I walked outside and realized the weather wasn't gonna be a game breaker.

Chris's girlfriend was dropping us off near the starting area. Grant Park was its usual pre-marathon madhouse. 40,000 wiry runners were bouncing all around. Bathrooms and gear checks were a mess; people were doing pointless warm-ups, and stupid pre-race rituals. We were among them. I must have peed 10 times. I choked down Gatorade and a banana. I layered on clothing, only to pitch it all a little later at the starting line. We left our bags at the gear check, and made our way into the "A" corral to meet up with Verdo.

At that point, nothing else mattered. There was no turning back. I completely blocked out the rest of the world. A bomb could’ve exploded somewhere, and I didn’t care (as long as it didn’t interfere with the course). When we finally got into the corral, we had 15 minutes for the gun. Now the waiting game really began. The anticipation and anxiety swelled with every minute. I pealed my extra layers of clothing. I needed to keep my heart rate down, but the cold didn't help. I tried to stop thinking. It was all just a waste of calories.

-----
My race plan was simple: split it as close as I could to 1:20:30, and then throw whatever I had at it in the second half. So easy to say, not so easy to do. In the back of my mind, my most aggressive goal was to roll a 2:39:59. It was going to require a 1 minute negative split in the race. All in, 6:06 average pace... but 6:08.5 through the split, then 6:03.5 to the finish. That thought made me sick. My conscious wanted me to just lay up, and keep it even in the second half. 2:41 would be fine. That would be a nice PR. It was a safer bet. I've never run a negative split in the marathon, in spite of trying. My conscious was being a pussy. In the minutes before the gun, I had to keep telling myself, "Don't think, just do." Stay calm. I had miles of miles in the last 10 months... I had no game breakers today.... I had to go for it. Stay in control, and patience would be rewarded.

Chris was to pace me through the first 8, then I'd pick up Jason around 18 and he'd work with me until 25. Verdo had just run the Berlin Marathon 3 week earlier, so I wasn't sure what to expect from him. I had a feeling that he'd try to go a little faster if he was feeling good, or he'd just hang with me through the half and see what happens after that. I wasn't banking on him though, he had his own plans in the back of his mind.
-----

When the gun went off, I remember being very surprised. It's not as if I didn't know it was coming, I think I just lost myself in the moments before the race. I became very calm. All of a sudden, we were off.

It took 15 seconds to get across the starting line. We probably could’ve gotten closer, but it didn’t matter. As annoying as it may have been, the crowd around us actually helped to keep the reigns in for a little while. The first 1/2 mile was spent weeding through that congestion.

Mile 1 - 6:26.8 - Slow but ok.

Mile 2 - 6:12.1 - A little smoother...

Chris, Verdo, myself, and another guy trying to run with Verdo all worked together. We started slower than we wanted, but I found comfort in that. My heart wasn't shooting through my chest. I didn't go anaerobic out of the gate. I have a feeling that played a huge factor in with me having a successful race.

We ripped down State Street, made our way to LaSalle, and started head out of the loop. The hoards of people spectating in the loop were crazy, as usual. Crowds were deep and the sounds were like deafening walls all along side the first 3 miles. Once we got out of the Loop, it didn't seem quite as chaotic as I remembered in the past. That's a cost of running as aggressive as we were. Most spectators cheer the masses.

Mile 3 - 6:06.2 - Perfect!

We may have gotten a little anxious in the next mile, as we jumped from pack to pack, to avoid some of the headwinds.

Mile 4 - 5:59.6. Too fast, too soon!

If I wasn't careful, this would get out of hand and I'd be dragged to a sub 120 half. That wasn't my plan. We entered Lincoln Park running with a small pack, and not many other runners around. A decision had to be made. Stick with the pack and be protected from some of the light headwinds, or relax, set my own pace, and hope that Chris could and I could manage the wind on our own.

I let the horse race go. Chris stayed with me and we watched them slowly pull away. We were on our own now, with only a few stragglers in front of or behind us.

Mile 5 - 6:09.4 - Much better. Give some back after last mile.

Gave a nod as I passed my apartment.

Mile 6 - 6:06.7 - Perfect.

Chris was immensely helpful by now. I became very comfortable and just followed his lead. We worked along side one another most of the time, but if a wind came he often jumped in front of me. We were slowly picking off the victims of Verdo's pack from ahead. Some of these poor souls (or soles?) went out too fast. A few joined us only to fall off a couple miles later; Verdo's machine continued to pull away.

Mile 7 - 6:09.2 - GU#1; nice work considering the wind.

By now, we were onto Broadway and rolling South. The infamous party in Boystown was just getting started, but they really weren’t ready for the early runners. It was surprisingly quite through this area. It didn’t matter. I was starting to get into the zone.

Mile 8 - 6:09.8

Chris’s selfless pace making task was finished. He got me through 8, and then jumped off at Belmont. His presence was much appreciated. I remember feeling nervous as he left. The easy stuff was done. Now it was time to go to work.

I had 10 miles before I’d see Jason. I needed to start plugging away where I could. A couple guys were around me, but it really seemed like a free-for-all; road kills and killers. Nobody wanted to slay it together for the next several miles. Verdo was easily 20 seconds ahead of me, and after his pack it was very sparse. I just set it on cruise control, and let my stride do its job. For the next 17 miles, I only recall being passed a few times – and anyone that did pass me, I killed them later... with the exception of 1 or 2 guys.

Mile 9 - 6:05.6 - Rolled over Clark and Fullerton - my backyard.

Crowds in the Lincoln Park neighborhood picked me up a lot! I started seeing people on the sides that I recognized. Rock on.

Mile 10 - 6:02.5

I wound through Oldtown, and got a big boost from the people around the Fleet Feet corner. Seeing more teammates and friends on the sidelines was very encouraging. In spite of dropping some slightly faster miles in here, I felt great.

Mile 11 - 6:04.7

I had to pull back a little after Oldtown. I didn’t want to over do it.

Mile 12 - 6:10.2 - Regroup & Hill (my slowest mile of the marathon).

Up and over the Franklin Street bridge. Its one of the few "hills" on the course. It really isn’t that significant, but it did require me to change my effort and stride. I had been on flat ground for so long, that the change was welcoming.

Crowds became deafening again as I re-entered the loop. This was awesome! It would be some of the densest crowds I would see. Literally thousands of people were crammed in on the sidewalks, screaming and cheering. Very cool considering there weren’t many of us passing through. It was difficult to hold their energy back and keep things in control.

Just to show how differently some guys choose to run races, the fellows in the above pictures all went through the split around the same time as I did. I may have put a few seconds on them, but not much. They had been in my sights for a few miles, and sometimes even pacing with me. They were dead after the loop. Bib 909 finished 2:47; Bib 1341 finished 2:43. Not very clean races. To the best of my recollection, in the second half of the race, I was only passed by 1 guy – and it took him over 10 miles to finally do it.

Mile 13 - 6:08.3
HALF SPLIT - 1:20:29 - I mean I went out honestly thinking 1:20:30 for the split. Obviously not everything was the same exact pace, since we were slow in early miles, but could have I possibly timed it any better?? Fucking incredible!! I was completely shocked from what I saw.

Verdo went through the split maybe 20 seconds ahead of me. I could barely see him on this long straight-away. It looked like he was still rolling in a decent sized pack. I think he shredded it up, because that was the last time I saw him.

Heading West away from the Loop, the wind picked up again. Spectators dwindled. Aside from Verdo’s group, it was a single filed line of runners.

I was passed by Bib #725. That was the first time I was passed in a while. He wasn’t rolling much faster than I was; yet he was clearly strong and put about 10m on me. If I was going to man up, and try to go negative, I needed some help - and NOW. I couldn’t sit back and wait for someone else to come along. He was all I had. I made the move and jumped on his back.

Mile 14 - 6:02.2 - It hurt with the wind, but it had to be done; GU#2 down the hatch.

We exchanged the lead a few times as the wind became more annoying. We were approaching the Bonks’ville... the place where so many make it to, yet so few make it through feeling strong. This is typically the beginning of the end for most marathoners. If you don’t feel good by 15-18, then it’s not gonna be pretty! It wasn’t clear how long either one of us would last. I was still strong though; and if he kept rolling up on me, then he was too.

His shirt said something like "Running for Dad Turner" with a DOB/DOD, and he was from Arizona. A nice gesture, considering most guys running this fast don't often give up real estate on their singlets. "Turner" commented to me that this wind was annoying, and said he didn’t think it was supposed to be windy today-? I said, "Welcome to Chicago racing."

Mile 15 - 6:09.9 - Lots of head wind, but we turned at the end of the mile.

We started heading back into the city. Turner was now in front of me. For the first time, I actually felt like I was starting to get into a race... as opposed to a mere execution of miles. I didn't want to go too hard too soon, but this was the beginning of some big kills. A number of the guys that had been with Verdo or between us, were slowly blowing up. Turner and I were picking them off. Just rolling right by them with ease. Some would try to run with us, but nobody would hang on.

Mile 16 - 6:06.6

Turner lit the fire. That was exactly what I needed. I took the lead and charged down the rest of Jackson to Halsted. He would ride on my back or at my side for most of the rest of the race. It eventually got annoying that he never took the lead, but he was still helping to push my effort. Cost benefit analysis: I’d rather have him than not have him. Some tail wind also helped a little for the 17th mile. I was slowly getting my shit together.

Mile 17 - 6:00.9

We killed probably 10 runners in that 2 mile stretch. I was still more concerned about pacing over killing though. As we entered University Village, I saw a giant prize up ahead! I couldn't ignore it. Two Brooks Hanson jerseys. It was one of the last girls on the course that I saw, with her pacer. She didn’t look like she was dying, but if she was going slower than us - then it wasn’t going as planned for a Brooks girl. Dead. I pulled up for a better look, then surged and dropped her. Turner matched my move. Monster Mike and some of the FF crew were on the sidelines screaming at me as it happened. I loved it!

Rounded the corner onto Taylor Street and headed away from the city again. I was looking for some help from Turner, but I got nothing. He clung to my shoulder and off my back. He wasn’t going carry any of the load as we went into the wind for the next mile. I needed to keep strong. Little Italy now. I saw the guy that started the race with us, and then hung with Verdo. I don’t recall his name, but he was a solid runner and he was toast. He even said it. I suspected that many of that pack were falling apart. We rolled on.

After the race, people complained about it being too cold for a marathon. It was 35 degrees. Sure there wind, but not blowing us off the course. All I could think of was my success back in the spring time - Cary and the Shamrock, as opposed to some of the heaters over the summer. I love racing in the cold! I don’t get dehydrated. This was my time to shine.

Mile 18 - 6:07.9 - The last of the wind for a while. It hurt. Turner didn’t help one bit.

I needed a breath of fresh energy. I knew that it would come. He had to be around here somewhere... He was waiting in the wings.

When I saw him towards the end of Taylor Street, where there were very few fans around. I was happy, but I was equally upset. I didn’t understand what he was doing. I thought he was making a mockery of my race. What the hell? Here I was, jamming 6 minute miles, 18 miles deep, trying to do meticulously execute something here, and "You are dressed as fucking Batman!?.... Dude?!?"

It took me a minute to settle down, and stop cussing and laughing. The crowds were scarce at the moment, so I didn’t get it right away. Then someone screamed at the top of his lungs, "GO BATMAN!!!!" This wasn’t a cheer for someone I didn’t know and didn’t like. I couldn't disapprove. He was screaming for the guy that was trying to help me. It became clear... I had my Dark Knight.

The masked man and I were going to blaze the streets. Turner would ride on our tails. We surged.

Pilsen was first to see us. About a half-mile stretch, and they fucking lit up!! Since there weren’t many other runners around us, it meant that much more to have the crowds get into the cheering.

Mile 19 - 5:58.5

Mile 20 - 6:02.2 - 2:02:19 deep, 10K in 38 min if I could hang on; Gu#3.

We passed a handful of guys since picking up Jason. We were just getting started. Turner clipped my heel. He was wearing out his welcome now that I had someone else to work with. He still never took the lead. He knew it, but he needed us and we were still stronger together.

Jason then asked an interesting question, "Do you want Verdo?" The thought didn’t even occur to me. I couldn’t see him, and I didn’t care. Jason said he was a minute ahead, and if we pushed then we might be able to catch him. I didn't want this to get out of control. I told him to keep it nice and steady. The last thing I needed was to start dropping 5:50's. Let him come to us. He merely became a target of a guy that I could've been running with, had I not stuck to my plan.

Mile 21 - 5:58.2

Chinatown blew up as we rolled through. They loved the Caped Crusader! The dragon was out in the streets, people were screaming at the tops of their lungs. Drums were beating. It was a very festive place for Batman and anyone else around him to be running. It made me smile and grimace at the same time... Was I happy or was I tired?

The first 21 miles weren’t a big deal. They rolled by. I barely flinched. This was starting to become a task now. Nothing was nagging. It was tiring and dealing with my old friend, Lactic Acid. Muscles were becoming numb. Arms started to weigh more. Foot falls became work. Ignore the pain and just follow the leader. Don't think, just run. We immediately took a few more road kills. There weren’t many left.

Mile 22 - 5:57.6

We ran along the Dan Ryan expressway for the next mile. This is typically a dead-zone for any crowd support of any kind. Runners become victim of their own mental collapse. Jason said "Lookie what I see!" To my surprise, Verdo was up ahead. I tried to ignore it. I wanted to ignore everything.

When we approached the turn at 33rd St, typically one of the most barren parts of the Chicago Marathon and only places where you could usually hear a pin drop... all we could hear was utter chaos. Music was blaring; easily a couple thousand people lined the street and overpass; a guy was screaming over a loud speaker... He kept hammering, "Batman and Robin everyone!!" The place absolutely exploded!! "Batman and Robin!"

It was impossible to ignore that thunderous mass! They practically threw us a half mile, from Wentworth to State Street.

Mile 23 - 05:56.6

I was exhausted after that. Once it quieted down to a thin line of fans on the streets, I had a brush back with reality. "I was blowing out sub 6 minute miles, Jesus." The lactic acid was real by now. No cramps though. Still OK. I told myself that I could deal with "only Lactic Acid." I didn’t want to think. Thinking burns calories. I didn’t have any calories to burn.

Verdo was getting closer now, he was 50m away. Then all of a sudden, Turner manned up. He was no joke either. He was done with us. As we turned from State onto 35th, he took us out. I felt was so used. That bastard. Ride on my ass for 11 miles, and now he crushes me. Sandbaggin, son of a bitch.

Jason recognized that I wasn't going to match him, so we kept it steady. We hit Michigan Ave. Wind immediately blasted us in the face. He jumped in front. I had to swat his cape a couple times. It was funny, but I didn’t have the energy to waste playing silly games.

About 3 1/2 miles to go. The next 2 or 2 1/2 would be the most difficult miles of the course. I needed to be strong as we approached to Verdo. I wanted him to work with us. I wanted to help him. I wanted him to help me. In my years of running, I’ve learned one very important thing: this is not an individual’s sport. It’s a collective effort. You’re stronger as a whole than as one. Unfortunately, it was too late here. We passed him, and he slowly fell of the back.

Mile 24 - 6:01.8 - Slow pace due to the wind.

No more water or Gatorade! I had my fill from all of the earlier stations. I had been drinking a little every other mile until now. I actually couldn't remember the last time I took any Gatorade? Maybe a couple stations ago? It didn't matter. The thought of it now made me sick, and yet these kids were crowding into the middle of the street trying to force it down my throat. No more! This was like letting go of my binky. I knew if it wasn’t in my tank now, with a little over 2 miles to go, then it wasn’t going to help.

We crossed over the Rte 55 expressway. My heart was pounding. Everything hurt now. The simple front-to-back and repeat movement was all I could do. I rode on Batman’s cape as much as I could. I tried to ignore everything else. Shut it all out. Jason not-so-kindly reminded me that the race wasn’t over yet. Many people quit here. Some very good runners. We were passing a number of them. We blew by Joe Guinness, another fellow Fleet Feet runner. Joe’s a much better runner than I am. He must have been having a very bad day; I was having a very good day.

Mile 25 - 06:02.4 - Wind.

I felt like molasses. Still, we blew by a guy that was hunched over, staggering. The lactic acid had become too much for him. His body was shutting down. I tried not look, for fear I'd become infected by his plague. I wasn’t ready to quit. No matter the struggle, I wasn't done. We were still maintaining pace, albeit with more effort. I knew at that moment that I was strong. Unlike 99.99% of people at this point of a marathon: I had confidence.

We passed by Pflip’s place, and amongst the masses of spectators was a whole crew of my friends going totally berserk as they saw Jason and I hammer by.

Jason turned to me, and screamed at the top of his lungs, "GOOO!!! Go into it! You’ve got 2:40, but you’re not done yet! Don’t give it up! GET AFTER IT!!!" He pealed off. I had just under a mile to go on my own.

It was like a rocket being fired out of a cannon!! Looking back at my splits, it didn’t improve much or at all. Mostly because of wind and Roosevelt hill, but the effort and intensity went through the roof. I felt like I was going faster then, than at any point during the race.

Crowds were ear-piercing by now. Didn’t matter. I was blind, deaf, and dumb at this point. All that mattered was getting to the finish as fast as I possibly could. I used a few guys in front of me to pull my way through. They had nothing on me. I took them at the turn onto Roosevelt, and buried a slew up the hill.

Mile 26 - 6:02.5 - Hill.

I finished the hill, and rounded the corner onto Columbus. My heart was screaming out of my chest. My body wanted it to be over. This push wasn't kind. My mind wouldn’t let go. I barreled down the straight. One last guy in front of me, but there was no way I could catch him. He kicked just as hard as I did.

A hundred meters to go now. All in. Every second counts. I saw the clock as I approached the finish line, and I knew - I was under 2:40!

Finish read 2:39:52, but I had 15 seconds of cushion on the clock. 2:39:38 was the official time.

I couldn’t believe it. I fucking crushed that thing!!

Turner finished about 40 seconds ahead of me - he had to have thrown down sub-5:50’s in the last 2-3 miles to get that. I never saw him in the chutes to Congratulate him / Thank him / Tell him "You’re welcome!"

Verdo rolled up a few guys behind me. As much as he hates to admit it, he had an awesome race considering he just ran 2:47 in Berlin a few weeks earlier. He split in 1:20:08, and finished 2:39:58. An 18 second negative split! Very solid, though I know he wanted faster and was disappointed.

Split recap:

.......SPLIT.../...LAP.../...PACE
5K – 0:19:22 /19:22 / 6:14
10K - 0:38:18 / 18:56 / 6:06
15K - 0:57:21 / 19:03 / 6:08
20K - 1:16:22 / 19:01 / 6:07
HALF - 1:20:29 / 6:08
25K - 1:35:19 / 18:57 / 6:06
30K - 1:54:09 / 18:50 / 6:04
35K - 2:12:45 / 18:36 /5:59
40K - 2:31:22 / 18:37 / 6:00
2nd HALF - 1:19:09 / 6:02
OVERALL - 2:39:38 / 6:05.3

82 second negative split!

180th Place out of 34,000 finishers
169th Male, only 11 Women ahead of me
32nd Age Group
3rd State/Age

An absolutely perfectly executed race!!
If I was an artist, this would be my masterpiece.

When I finished the race, I still had energy. For some dumb reason, just like after Boston... I felt great! I trotted through the recovery area. I bounced around for a few minutes. I eventually settled down, and received a great big hug and kiss from Sarah at the end of the recovery area. Chris Woods was also waiting there - no kisses for him, but definitely a hug.

Once I calmed down - I recognized how cold it actually was. I mean 35 degrees in a singlet and short shorts isn't all that comfortable. The pain would soon settle in, but it was soooooo worth it!

After party at Stanley’s was as nuts as a bunch of tired marathoners could’ve made it. Many beers, and a giant team Car Bomb in honor of numerous PR’s.

A huge thank you to all of my friends that braved the cold and came out to cheer on the runners on! Especially thank you to Jason and Chris for pacing me though the thing. You immensely helped!

A week later, and I'm still on cloud-9.

It was truly MY CHICAGO MARATHON.

12 hours until...

2009-10-10T19:01:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Marathon

This is my 10th go at the marathon... Chicago # 5.

You'd think I'd know what I'm getting myself into and would be able to relax a little. But all I have to say is that I'm still nervous as hell. Butterflies like mad in my stomach until the gun goes off at 7:30AM.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt a ridiculous effort. I'm afraid to even talk about it because I'm concerned that I'll jinx myself. When all is said and done, this should be a large PR.

Before that happens though, I have to continue to deal with going stir crazy.

----------------------------

The other day, I ran a 4:58 mile on the track. Not especially something to cheer about, but it was my mile PR and I'm happy to have cracked the 5 minute mark. Far from what I should be able to run. It was 6 seconds faster than the OMM a few months ago though (we'll ignore the fact that was done after a long run). It was also about 4 seconds faster than my fastest mile last year.

Point being: in the last 20 weeks, I've run a shit ton of miles - more than I ever have. I feel like my training has been solid and smart. I've improved my stride a ton, and for the most part, I am injury free.

As for the race itself: The weather is looking to be colder (high 30's) with some light wind (but probably the typical steady Chicago wind)... but nothing game breaking. I'll have some pacing help from Mr Woods, Mr Creamers, and hopefully Mr Giorty. As long as I can keep things calm, cool, and under control... I should be set up for an incredible run.

The 2 Week Itch

2009-10-01T10:01:00.000-05:00

The Itch is starting to set in.

In spite of being a far cry from my peak, I still ran 61 miles in the last 7 days. I'm only a week an a half a way from the marathon. I want to run more - I'm hungry today, but I need to cut back. I'm gonna have to take the day off. I'd like to take 2 days off, but I don't think that'll happen. I'm itching like a crack addict right now.

Irrational behavior begins in the marathon taper. I've mentioned this in the past, with Boston. A marathoner will start obsession about his race... and pretty much anything that revolves around it. So far this week I've been good, but the itch will start soon enough. The fact that I'm even writing about this means it's already begun.

I'll soon wind up being completely useless at work... spending the entire day building excel models that try to give me a mile-by-mile strategy... Of course, the weather could fuck that up so I'll have to spend hours staring at 5 different internet weather sites. Obsessing about everything. I'll start shopping for gear that I don't need. I'll probably make some sort of big purchase (actually, I already did - I bought Sarah a sweet camera last week)... so I'll make another one. I also attempted to buy some Vibram Five-Fingers. Those are very cool and I think could be a useful too - but they certainly won't help my taper. Someday. Probably won't work well going into the winter either though...? WTF? Why would I even look at them? Fortunately, they were out of stock in my size. This will go on and on and on. I'm gonna go stir crazy.

Anyway, in the last week I've had a few solid runs:

Last Saturday's long run was 17 miles w/ about 12 at race pace'ish. I'm not really sure the actual pace because I didn't have markers. It felt smooth and fast. Some of it was probably faster than race pace.

Monday night tempo was at race pace again. 8 miles worth. The temperature has finally started to drop a little, so it made for a very pleasant run... minus the 20-30mph winds from every direction. It was pretty much a futile effort. My 1/2 mile splits were anywhere from 2:50's to 3:20's. I hammered the last mile at 5:40 though... and into the wind. So much for knowing what race pace under ideal conditions feels like.

Wednesday night's speed - absolutely perfect marathon weather!! (See I'm obsessing about this!) 5x 3x200 cut-downs. It was all about quick feet, a smooth stride, and pushing the pace... but not draining myself too much. The last 200 was at 30 seconds. It left me wanting more. Hence, I'm itching today.

Over the next week, it'll be a handful of easy runs, probably 1 more shorter goal-pace run (just to wake my legs up a bit), and 1 more short distance track workout next Wednesday (the 1600 should be interesting).

In the mean time, my ADHD and OCD is clearly taking over.

Yeah, so... ?

2009-09-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

Last bigger track workout before the marathon.
Yasso's 10x 800's... run at 2:35 pace w/ 1:30 seconds of rest.

I've done this workout a number of times. The last time I did it, it was 10x 800 back in August at basically the same pace (...If I remember correctly, it may have actually been marginally better weather though - last night was cooler but extremely humid).

Bart Yasso's theory is that if you can run 10x 800 before your marathon, you should be able to run the marathon at the pace of your 800's. Such as, if I can run at a consistent pace of 2:35 without being destroyed, then I could shoot for a 2:35 marathon. From experience, I know this isn't true... at least not for me. But it's definitely fair to say that if I couldn't run a 2:35 workout, then I have no business even attempting a 2:35 marathon... or a 2:40 marathon, for that matter.

Point being - I ran the workout faster than I intend on even attempting the marathon. 2:35 is way out of my league right now. But 2:40 may not be. Let's call that 5 seconds of cushion built into Yasso's theory.

In spite of the humidity and being sluggish for the warm up and first rep, I felt pretty smooth and comfortable for the entire workout. The consistency in my splits shows this. After the cool down, I was still hungry for more miles, and the thought occurred to me after that maybe I should have done 12 reps instead of 10? I don't think it would've been a problem. Oh well... after all, I am in a taper.

Splits:
1 - 2:40.5
2 - 2:35.4
3 - 2:35.6
4 - 2:35.7
5 - 2:35.5
6 - 2:36.8
7 - 2:35.8
8 - 2:34.6
9 - 2:35.3
10 - 2:30.1
2:35.5avg (77.5 pace)

The only thing I have to fear, is fear itself.

2009-09-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

Last night's tempo run was ridiculous. Hands down, it was the best workout I've had all year.

I was sweating the run all day. I was tired. I was still feeling last week’s mileage. I was especially still feeling some remnants of Sunday's nasty hangover. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pull together mid-5:40's for a total tempo of 8 or 9 miles.

Once I finally got moving though, that pressure let up. My body woke up from its self-induced coma. On the warm up, I started to realize that maybe I needed to man-up and hang with the big boys. Rob Chenoweth and a few others were going an eye popping 10. I've never done a 10 tempo before...

It was myself, Rob, Derek Holland, Mark Wherman, and another guy. They're all faster and more experienced runners than I am. Since we were basically going out with my half pace, I figured I should be able to hang with them to the turn and then see what happens from there. The goal would then become to hold that pace until the finish.

I never really fell off the back of the pack. Everything was going smoothly. I was particularly paying attention to holding my stride together... and it did! The pack eventually shook up around me. Derek went shorter and starting hammering some blistering sub 5:20’s; Rob dropped off after 6 with some stomach issues; and I rode with Mark and the other guy until they dropped the hammer at 8.5. Myself: There was no way I was able to hold Mark’s pace at the end but I pulled my own trigger late in the run. I went from 5:40's to posting a nice 5:36 in the last mile. I have to admit it was pretty motivating to roll with them, and hang on the way I did.

We rolled about 9.95mi (the 2nd and 9th mile are a little short). 57:09 total, 5:43 average, a big 41 sec negative split! Not only was it my longest, but also one of my fastest tempos of the year! It was also roughly my 10mi PR to boot. Not too shabby considering it was on the heels of my peak week. A nice consolation prize for my Chicago 1/2.

I'm gradually pulling together what looks to be a potential ballz-to-the-wall marathon in 3 weeks time.

Splits:
1 - 5:55.6
2 - 5:38.4
3 - 5:47.5
4 - 5:41.3
5 - 5:52.2
6 - 5:40.1
7 - 5:40.0
8 - 5:41.0
9 - 5:36.3
10 - 5:36.7
Total - 57:09.1
5:42.9 avg, 41sec neg split

100

2009-09-20T14:01:00.000-05:00

ONE HUNDRED.

100.

It is such a nice number. So clean. So round. So big!

Years ago, this would've been an unfathomable goal for me. I would've called bullshit anytime I heard that anyone ran over 100 miles in a week. How’s that even possible? Isn’t it like 15 miles in a day??

Then as I ran more, I thought only true studs hit 100. Certainly not me. Disclosure: I’m not saying that everyone who runs 100 is a stud, nor that you can't be a stud if you run fewer than 100... I'm just saying... It’s a shitload of miles. Most guys that do it AND can live to tell about it 2 or 3 weeks later… are kind of in good shape.

100 really wasn't even a goal in my current training. When I built my marathon schedule back in the spring, I was planning on only topping out around 90 miles. However, after feeling comfortable pushing well into the 90's over a 7 day period at the cabin, I decided that I needed to make a go for 100.

After last Sunday's 1/2 marathon I was pretty banged up. My right ITB got knotted up. Both calves were a mess at one point or another. I had something with my left achilles for a day. The top of my left foot had some sort of soreness...(And still does?)... Going for 100 in my peak week seemed once again improbable.

I'd be lying if I told you it felt good. It's debatable if it was a smart thing to do. Only time will tell. Recovery from that half was a big struggle. Garbage sleep didn’t help the cause. 3 of my runs felt like death marches by the final mile. I did have some good runs though.

So did it hurt? Yes.

Was it fun? No.

How's my social life? Yeah, take a guess. If you need help, ask my girlfriend, Sarah, or ask Myra.

Did I need to go 100? Probably not.

Did I consider bailing on this stupid goal? Every day. But fuck it, it had to happen at some point. Be a man.

That glowing, shiny “1-double-0” kept staring at me. Now was as good of a time as any.

That was my motivation.

So I did it. I clocked 100 miles in a week. I'm proud of it. I've come a long way. If nothing else, I can say at the end of the day (or week) that I can run 100 miles

An HUGE special thank you to Sarah! She gave me two much needed massages during the week. After the 1/2 marathon, that made it possible to keep going. By the time Saturday's 24 miler rolled around, I was pretty much back to normal.
The 24 was mostly at an easier 7:15 pace, and then I felt totally fine picking it up and hitting a 6:10s for the last 3 miles. I felt like I could've easily (if that's possible) gone another 5 or 6 miles. But I had to stop at some point... I mean come on, that would've been overkill! 100 was good enough.

The peak is in. Now I taper my mileage for 3 weeks, then it's Chicago Marathon #5. Marathon #10.

Chicago 1/2 Marathon

2009-09-15T10:33:00.000-05:00

The Chicago 1/2 Marathon was my first decent race since the Boston Marathon. It was also my first opportunity to gauge how well my training has been going. Unfortunately, I don't think it was an accurate gauge.

The race took place on the south side of the city - near Jackson/Hyde Park area. It’s a large competitive race (nearly 20,000), but unfortunately the directors and sponsors have changed hands a number of times in the last few years. As best I can estimate, the course was a little long - probably by about 150-200m (or 30-45 seconds). The fact that the race started 15 minutes late also gives a little validity to my lament. An attempt to re-draw the course on USATF.

I wound up finishing 1:16:43, in 32nd place, 7th age group. I'm guessing I would've come close or broke 1:16 if the course was accurately measured. That would’ve been faster than my Cary 1/2 back in March.

Mind you, I’m not crying about my time. More importantly, I just wanted some sort of measure of my current fitness. I haven’t had much in the way of tempo or track work since August. I certainly have had my share of hill work and distance though. From as best I could tell, I ran this race with an honest / even effort and pace. Knowing that, gives me a little confidence in my training.

Race recap:
I went out somewhat easy through the first three miles and then settled into a steady mid-to-high 5:40’s effort. Weather was warm and sunny (maybe 70 for the race); wind was a steady 10mph from the north.

The first three miles snaked its way around Jackson Park, before going on a five mile out and back on LSD. By the time I hit LSD, I had set myself up to draft off a string of 10-15 runners while heading into the wind for the next 5 miles. Packs were far and few between by now, but 2 or 3 of us were able to work together for quite some time as we jumped from wind-blocker to wind-blocker.

Here's the annoying part: Mile 8 was blatantly long. In spite of a small side-stitch from drinking too much gatorade, I don’t believe my pace ever faded. In fact I had a small group of 3 that I was working with at the time, and none of us were giving anything up. Yet the 6:11 split was way off! For all I know, we even picked it up? I don't remember getting a jump back on the following miles either. By the time mile 12 rolled around, I was having some tightness in my ITB. But again - here I was actually pressing the pace and gaining ground on anyone near or ahead of me. Somehow that was clocked at 5:59. That had to be off. Mile 13 could also be suspect...? It's difficult to tell if any of the other miles were 'obviously short or long' though.

Bottom line: After talking to a few others with GPS watches and re-drawing the course on USATF or mapmyrun.com, I have slightly more confidence that the course was in fact long. And hence, I'm less concerned about the 1:16:43 time and could say that I might be in similar condition -if not better than I was back in the spring. That gives me a lot of comfort in my current training. I suspect I have a lot more endurance at this point though. I'm certainly putting in more miles right now.

This next week is my peak week of training. I’m sore from the 1/2, but I’m forging ahead with an attempt for 100 miles.

Split recap:
1 - 05:47.4
2 - 05:50.2
3 - 05:52.4
4 - 05:45.7
5 - 05:45.5
6 - 05:53.5
7 - 05:45.8
8 - 06:11.7*Long
9 - 05:48.8
10 - 05:48.8
11 - 05:43.3
12 - 05:59.6*Long
13 - 05:53.4
13.? - 00:37.2
Finish - 1:16:43

ADK Running Camp

2009-09-08T13:34:00.000-05:00

Since 2004, my annual pilgrimage up to the family cabin in the Adirondacks has been turned into my own personal running boot-camp.

The landscape is a deep forest chalk full of rolling hills, mountains, dirt roads, trails, lakes, and rivers... my typical 16 mile loop has 2400 feet of elevation change... all perfect for beating the hell out of my body. I've always been hyper-active up here, but in each of the past 5 years I've pushed the limits.

Since I started running more aggressively, I typically try to hit my peak or near peak mileage in the Adirondacks in preparation for a fall marathon. I then ice over the running with water skiing, swimming, bridge jumping, cliff diving, rock climbing, four wheeling, hiking, tree clearing, log splitting, building, and busting my ass with countless other chores around the cabin. ....And in each of the past few years, I've wound up breaking those limits in one sense or another. I've often gone home with some sort of aggravated injury, or chalk full of difficult to cure knots.

This year was different (aside from rolling the four wheeler and almost killing myself)....

It's a great testament to the "base" mileage that I've put together in the last 8 months, and 5 years... This is bigger than my recent two months of basing. My hip injury from the Boston training has forced me to improve my stride and clean up some of my weaknesses, namely in the glutes and my core. For the first time since Boston, I can say that the injury has actually helped me to be a stronger runner. ADK proved that.

My ADK milestones this year: From 8/17-9/3, I streaked for 18 days. A total of 225 miles. I peaked with 97 miles over a 7 day period.... the most I've ever put in a week. 225 miles over 3 weeks isn't anything new to me, but it was steady build that included days off at the beginning and end of the 3 weeks; and all of those miles were on the hills. It used to be that if I touched 80, I'd cry like a baby. That's now a thing of the past. 97 miles and not one double... and it left me chomping at the bit for more.

Since then, I've taken 2 days off. Then turned around and ran 2 doubles, 2 days in a row. I'm often afraid to say this, but I'm feeling good. Aside from some occasional side stitch/psoas problems, I'm rolling. Coming back to the flat lands of Chicago seem like a joke after climbing thousands of feet.

My first post camp test comes this weekend: the Chicago 1/2 Marathon. It should be a flat and fast course (I believe only 1 hair-pin turn). Weather can be a bit dicey in September - hot, humid, raining, windy... whatever. There's no telling. This is my first 1/2 since Cary. My favorite distance. I'm going into it as a training / long tempo run. But if I feel good, I'll roll.

Next week will be my peak week. I'll give it another go for 100 miles.

The King, Norb, and a big 8

2009-08-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

August enters with a few bangs. Last week, I hit 80 miles for the first time in this round of training. It included the Elvis is Alive 5K, and 21 miles up at Ras's homestead... revisiting our old friend, Norb. And after a long 8 mile tempo run last night, I'm actually feeling pretty good today.

Some highlights:

Last Monday (8/3) was a pretty cool run with w/ Claudia, Paul, and Jason. Excluding a warm up and cool down, we ran 10 miles at about 7ish. We then ran 5x 400's. Theory was to simulate finishing very strong at the end of a 1/2 marathon. To my surprise, I blazed the 400's. 77, 77, 75, 73, 68. That 68 was awesome! For some dumb reason, I felt great. After that many miles, I would've expected to be dead.
I think I'll try to incorporate this workout up at the cabin, over the next 3 weeks...

Thursday night race: Elvis is Alive 5K
This was a majorly disappointing race for me. More like bomb, not bang. I was hoping that I'd be able to redeem myself after the Bastille Day Massacre. In theory, I should be able to run a 5K somewhere around 16:30ish. With Elvis, I went out thinking mid-5:20's, and then push for 5:20 in mile 3. That should put me around 16:30. Instead, I choked a 16:55. It may have been a PR, but it's not worthy of counting it as one.

Mile 1 was 5:26ish. It seemed to feel good. Too good though... Unfortunately, once I settled into my pace (just before passing the 1 mile), it took another mile to figure figure out that I was rolling too slow. Mile 2 wound up 5:31. Since I didn't have a soul around to push me, I just sucked it up and tried to get to the finish. A far cry from dropping the hammer. I'm guessing 3 was about 5:27-28, and a 30 second kick. I ran 16:55/56.

I let the heat wear on me (which really wasn't all that bad), and a lack of motivation get the better of me. My excuse is that I've only had 1 month of good training... maybe a month and a half. But in the end, it was a flop. I've got to stop coming up with lame excuses in these 5K's. I've been hammering my tempo runs and getting some good distance. My racing has been pathetic lately though.

Saturday was I went up to Wisconsin with Ras, C-well, and Creamers. We ran the Ras circuit: a 21 mile route in the hills. In spite of the down pour early in the morning and humidity that followed, I still managed to have a strong run.

Splits from last night's 8 mile tempo, which works out to be my last tempo before going to the cabin:
1 - 6:06.5
2 - 5:46.5
3 - 5:47.5
4 - 5:48.9
5 - 5:51.0
6 - 5:49.0
7 - 5:46.5
8 - 5:44.3
5:50 avg, 19sec neg split.

July Basing

2009-08-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

My wheels are slowly starting to come back, and so are my miles. Through the end of July, I had 5 good weeks of basing with 60+ miles each week (including 2 weeks at 70+). In the process I've had some decent tempos, track workouts, the disappointing Bastille Day 5k, and a so-so Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 miler. In all, I feel "decent". The hip isn't bothering me as much. No other major aches or pains to speak of, aside from a reoccurring side stitch and some consistently chronic dehydration. I'm still not feeling fast, and the couple races that I've run were slower/less intense than I wanted, but I'm slowly getting there.

Recap:

Tempo run, 7/20th:
1 - 5:54.6
2 - 5:46.7 (short)
3 - 5:45.0
4 - 5:37.5
5 - 5:33.6 (short)
6 - 5:35.9
5:42 avg, 39 sec neg split

All in all, a great run. The thought crossed my mind to push for 7 miles, but held back. It was hot. I might've died with that pace too, as we started out pretty aggressive (and taken away from my 10 miler). 6 was a good call. 7's will roll in August.

Track workout, 7/22:
8x 800's at 78 avg w/ 80 rest. It was shaping up to be a great workout. I felt comfortable rolling through the first 6, but bombed the last couple reps w/ a nasty side stitch.

Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10mi, 7/25:
Well it lived up to its name. A hot and humid July race, with a XC start for the first mile, a number of rolling hills including the last couple miles being up hill, and a nasty XC finish in the last 1200.

My straight up goal for this race was to break 60 minutes. I did that. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't run harder in the last couple miles. Looking back, I certainly could've, but I wasn't motivated for some reason. Also, I was out kicked by a guy that I had been chasing in the last 3 miles, and finally passed with a mile to go. He passed me back in the last 400. I easily should've buried him. I just didn't have it...? Lame.

1 - 5:46.9
2 - 5:58.7
3 - 6:02.5
4 - 6:05.6
5 - 6:00.9
6 - 5:45.2
7 - 5:48.6
8 - 5:47.7
9 - 6:07.6
10 - 6:08.2
59:30, 5:57 avg, 17 sec neg split

Track workout, 7/29:
17x 400's at 76 avg w/ 75 rest. Goal was to actually start out closer to 80, then push towards 75. I started a little faster (77), and still finished faster than expected (the few sub 75). My strength was a good confidence booster.

1 - 1:17.5
2 - 1:17.9
3 - 1:17.9
4 - 1:16.6
5 - 1:17.7
6 - 1:16.6
7 - 1:15.6
8 - 1:16.3
9 - 1:16.4
10 - 1:16.7
11 - 1:15.6
12 - 1:15.9
13 - 1:16.2
14 - 1:13.8
15 - 1:14.1
16 - 1:15.3
17 - 1:11.3
1:16.0 avg

20 mi Long run, 8/1:
This was my first 20 mile run. I ran alone, with the help of a hot water girl tailing me on the bike (Thank you, Sarah!!). First half was into the wind, and the first several miles were around 7:15, then 7's. As I got about 5 deep, I started slowly pushing sub 7. By the turn, I was hitting 6:45's. Then with the wind at my back, it started flowing. By about 13, I was committed to pushing sub 6:30 thru 18. 7/7:15 for the cool down. A very solid, progressing long run. I was dead by the end, but I felt better than some of my previous long runs. The big speed may not be there, but endurance is definitely coming back.

Progress this week

2009-07-16T21:24:00.000-05:00

I've had a bit of a roller coaster in the past week, but things are starting to look up.

I was getting some nasty dehydration issues a week ago that I was never able to overcome.

It seems like Tuesday tipped it off. Whatever I ate for lunch was causing me some cramping and dehydrated me before the track workout. I don't think I ever fully recovered from that. After that, Bastille Day 5K was a flop. Then Friday night's 10 miler was supposed to be an "easy" run with Jason, but it was far from easy. The humidity hurt. Could've been worse though, I guess I could've been hurled over on the side of the path sticking my finger down my throat...?

Saturday's 18 was the low point... I didn't get a lot of sleep Friday night, and I swear everything I drank to rehydrated myself went in one end and right out the other end.
I was supposed to do a long workout with Mike and Jason, but pulled the plug before we even kicked it off. It was a good thing too. I would've died. I instead hung back and still had a death march in the last few miles. That was my ugliest and most difficult long run in a month.

A couple good nights of sleep, and swamping my system w/ fluids put me back on the map though...

Monday night's tempo was great. Whatever recovery I did since Saturday worked wonders. It was the first time in a while that I actually felt fast + strong. Splits were 5:49, 5:40, 5:47, 5:44, 5:30, 5:34... (those are Chicago miles, so #'s 2 and 5 are short by probably 6 to 8 seconds).... but the important point is, I did the same exact workout a couple weeks earlier in some nasty heat and pulled a positive 30 split. This week, the weather was slightly better and I was now a negative 28 split... and had gas in the tank. That was a big and much needed confidence booster after some of the recent garbage runs.

Wednesday night we did a time trial at the track for Claudia. Goal was 3200 w/ laps 1-5 @ 82, #6 @ 81, #7 @ 80, #8 sub 80.

We loosened up with 4x 200 @ 36+37's w/ 200 outs. Then a 5 minute recovery.

3200 went 79.6, 82.5, 82.7, 83, 83.5, 80.9, 82.4, 75.9 = 10:50.7 First 200 was a little fast, and a couple of the laps with some strong head winds in the final 100, but otherwise it was about as perfect as we could've run it.

Topped it off with 4 nice 400's @ 73.4, 72.2, 71.4, 70.4 w/ 60 rest. I think I was actually more happy with the 400's than the 3200 - each was 1 second faster than the prior.

That was a very cool workout! I'm going to try it at least 1 more time before October.

Saturday will be my first long run w/ hills. Going out to Waterfall Glenn. We're going to run two laps of the Xtreme 10's route.