Getting size

I'm in the meat of my training right now. Two weeks ago, I ran 95 miles. Last week was 101 miles. This will be another 100+ week. I have seven days to go. That'll be 3-1/2 weeks of real size, inside of a 5 week streak at 80+.

Last week I was running flat... I was tired. I was sore. I was constantly hungry. Complaining. I was getting annoyed with the milage. I just lost some of my key training partners. Motivation was really dragging. I wanted it to end.

As of right now, this week... in my peak week... I'm want to hammer.

I'm holding myself back.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still tired, sore, hungry, etc. But I'm less-so than last week, and the mileage no longer phases me. I feel myself getting stronger with each run. I've been upping the pace a little as well. Meaning more moderate mileage in the 6:30-6:45 range, as opposed to the garbage 7:00-7:15 range.

It's now or never. Push down on that accelerator and hope I can take it.

The only other time that I attempted a streak like this was for my 2010 NYC Marathon, and that resulted in me over training. I was ultra-fit then, but the wheels came off and it certainly showed in the marathon. I don't necessarily feel as fast as I did then (yet), but I do have the endurance and I'm much less sore with it.

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Back to Racing:

I ran the FLW 10K this past Sunday. This was my first race in about 6 months. It's kind of pathetic that it's taken me that long to line up again after such a good Shamrock.

FLW was more of a personal test than anything, especially on the heels of 50 miles in the prior 3 days and 101 miles on the week. I was absolutely dead tired and in a mentally rut. As much as I didn't want to do it, this race was just what I needed. I forced myself to run fast and just gut it out.

After the first quarter mile, I pretty much ran the race completely alone. I was comfortabely stuck between 3rd and 5th places. It was nice little personal victory, as my splits were extremely steady and didn't waiver at all, especially given the lack of any competition. I finshed feeling strong and completely unphased. A mere tempo run.

Immediately upon crossing the finish line, I ran the course again... averaging about a 6:45 pace. 15 miles total... aggressive... when I didn't even want to get out of bed.

1- 5:27.6

2- 5:41.1

3- 5:41.3

4- 5:41.6

5- 5:37.6

6- 5:40.4

.2- 1:09.0

34:58 / 4th O'all, 1st AG (excl a top 3 finish)

This is why I run.

Days like today...

Yesterday was complete garbage mileage after Wednesday's track workout. I'm a day away from having 95 miles on the week. It's a bump up, so I'm tired and sore.

I left the office building for an easy 10 miles at lunch. I was anticipating a snail's pace given how tired I felt. It took a few miles to get going and loosen up. At like 3 miles in, I started to think that I might go 11 miles instead of 10. At 4 miles in, I was thinking maybe I'd do 12. I still felt sluggish, but in a good way. Then I started to gradually pick up my pace. I passed the turn for 12 and decided I was going 13 miles. I completely shut everything around me out and got into a really nice rhythm.

Next thing I knew, I was doing a progression run and dropped 3 miles sub-6. So much for being sore and tired. It was so smooth. One of those rare days that only come every so often.

On my mile cool down through the city streets, I realized that I just ate a half marathon for lunch... and was still hungry for more.

This is why I run.

The Need for Speed

It's safe to say that my long/slow endurance is finally back on track. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my speed. Yeah, I know... I just ran a 15 miles the other day at MGP, but 1) the end of that 15 miles it really didn't feel all that great (I mean, heaven forbid I had to go 26.2!), and 2) last night's track workout shows that I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Last night we did 16x400's on the track, broken into sets of 4, with 200 recoveries between reps and standing recovery between each set. Each set was to progress: 75, 74, 73, 72. I stuck to the plan and made it through the workout. Actually, each rep was either right on or a tad fast. All in, I averaged 73.0. Given that I hit the targets, I guess it was a success. Probably my first reasonable track workout recently.

Am I happy with that though? No. Looking back at my last 3 big 400 workouts while training for Shamrock in the early spring and last fall's CIM, I had averaged closer to sub-72. I know I did a couple of those with spikes, and I didn't use the 200 recoveries, so maybe I shouldn't be worried?

Training for Philly has been very awkward though. I had a reasonable July and August build, which was intended for an October marathon, then busted at a really crucial time for 2 weeks. I then basically had to start from scratch again. It took me 4-5 weeks to recover from those 2 weeks off. And my roll back up hasn't been pretty... I've sacrificed quality for quantity and had random soreness either in my calves or my left knee (likely caused by ITB and a quick come back). Definitely not a clean training session.

Regardless, one thing is certain: I now need to get my speed back. From today, I have exactly 3 weeks of big-peak training followed by a gradually accelerating taper. That's something like 21-25 days to get my shit straight. Not impossible, but it's not gonna be easy.

THE Chicago Marathon

I'm still in my building phase for Philly, but today was Marathon Day here in Chicago.

The weather was absolutely perfect (it figures)... I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't able to race, but I was still able to have a great day and participate. I paced teammate, Scott Laumann for the first 15 miles of the race. We averaged 6:00.0, but had been gradually pulling the trigger all the way. First 3 miles were around 6:05ish, and the last 9 miles with him were at a 5:56 avg and getting faster. We pulled through the half at 1:18:40. For me, it was a great 15 mile workout that essentially averaged MGP.

Some seriously impressive results from 3 of my training partners...

Scott has been in break-out mode and has become an insanely fast masters runner. He's knocked about 40 minutes off of his marathon PR since he started training with us. Justin Jackson ran his very first marathon today... He's beyond my comprehension of the word fast and far more capable than what he ran, but had a very nice and conservative race. Not a lot of guys negative split on their first marathon! Anu Parekh also ran an extremely conservative race... another huge PR and probably one of the biggest negative splits that I've ever seen.

All three of these guys will be in Boston with me next year. I'm looking forward to training with them and seeing how much more they progress.

Scott Laumann - Half 1:18:40 / Full 2:37:29

Justin Jackson - Half 1:23:51 / Full 2:47:25

Anu Parekh - Half 1:27:23 / Full 2:50:41

Congrats to all Chicago Marathoners today!