Tempo

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'

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.