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!

Stalled

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

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

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!

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

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.