Building a Plateau

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.