Big-boy miles

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

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.

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?

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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!