So, it's been exactly a week since I last checked-in here and it's been a tough one for me, for sure. Shortly after writing last week and thinking that things were getting back on track, I was greeted with a surprising occurrence at the dog park of all places. Long story short, a dog ran into me really hard, hitting me just below my left knee. It took me out completely, knocking me off of my feet and keeping me down for a bit. Turns out the dog had done a good bit of damage, since I could barely walk from Tuesday through Thursday. I think that it was hyper-extended, stressing a lot of the ligaments/muscles in the knee but luckily since then it has been getting back to normal pretty quickly.
All of the above said, I did NOT get much running in AGAIN last week and am uncertain as to how the original knee with the problems (the right one) is going to hold up. I got out for 3.5 miles on Saturday and then 8 yesterday. Aerobically, I feel awesome and my body seems to have a lot of spring to it, but as I get further into runs or push the pace, I can still feel that VMO in the right leg tugging on my knee and creating (a little bit of) pain.
Tonight I went about 8.75 miles at around 7:20 pace and tried to push a little faster for one mile. I didn't even feel the pushed-pace aerobically, but I felt like I was right up against the pain-barrier for this knee. Also only managed to go around 6:35 for that mile. I honestly don't know what to do at this point. I've talked to quite a few people about it and realize that it will not be the end of the world if I have to push the race date back to a January race, I'll just be disappointed if that is what I have to do. More than anything, I just wanted to be able to race in mid-November so that I could then take a few weeks off and relax before starting the off-season training in December. Ahhh well, my plan at this point is to continue running this week. Give it one faster paced effort on Thursday or Friday and then make the call. If I can get about a 6-miler in at near 6-minute pace, then I will add a 12-15 mile easy run on Saturday and just taper into next week but if there is any pain during that tempo run, then I will scrap the San Antonio race and wait for Houston or P.F. Chang's in January.
This coming weekend is the NYC Marathon. To all of my friends racing out there, good luck!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Down... But Not Out
Good News. My 'knee pain' is officially not actually knee pain. As I alluded to in my last post, my friend and doctor, Jason Glowney let me know on Friday that he thought it was referred pain from the VMO muscle. I wasn't sure that I believed it until yesterday. Yesterday's easy run finally felt a little bit better. Don't get me wrong the pain is definitely still present while running, but it is lessening...slightly. And that's a step in the right direction as far as I am concerned. I've been doing some trigger-point type stuff on my own at home as well as icing a lot. The entire VMO is extremely sore and tender to the touch, but besides when I'm running, or pushing on it, it doesn't hurt at all.
I went to see Jason again today and he really did a number on me. He started by doing A.R.T. directly to the muscle, and it was excruciating. I told him that it felt like he kept breaking my leg each time that he dug in and I bent my leg. I knew it was what needed to be done though so aside from a little yelling, I got through it without any random kicks to his face, or tears.
This morning, pre-doctors visit, I was able to survive my typical morning run loop of 3.75mi, and even did it in the realm of my normal time as well. Then this evening, despite the sore leg, I got out the door for another 5-miler at about 7:20 pace. While it's not ideal, as I missed my 3rd hard workout in the past 7 days, I can feel the leg improving and am just SO happy with the possibility of me recovering in time to save this race. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed at this point, but I did want to thank everyone that took the time to speak with me about the injury and give me their input. I've certainly got a great group of knowledgeable, fast friends!
I went to see Jason again today and he really did a number on me. He started by doing A.R.T. directly to the muscle, and it was excruciating. I told him that it felt like he kept breaking my leg each time that he dug in and I bent my leg. I knew it was what needed to be done though so aside from a little yelling, I got through it without any random kicks to his face, or tears.
This morning, pre-doctors visit, I was able to survive my typical morning run loop of 3.75mi, and even did it in the realm of my normal time as well. Then this evening, despite the sore leg, I got out the door for another 5-miler at about 7:20 pace. While it's not ideal, as I missed my 3rd hard workout in the past 7 days, I can feel the leg improving and am just SO happy with the possibility of me recovering in time to save this race. I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed at this point, but I did want to thank everyone that took the time to speak with me about the injury and give me their input. I've certainly got a great group of knowledgeable, fast friends!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Less Than Good
I've been putting off writing another entry on here because, honestly, I've been hoping that things would turn around. In my last post, on Monday, I reported the problems that I had been having with my right knee and how I hoped that a couple days of rest would get me moving again. Well, it's Saturday now, and things are not looking good.
This week has been a trial in my patience, which if you know me very well, you will know I have very little of to begin with. Training-wise I took Monday off, tried to run a little on Tuesday night, made it 3.5 miles and was met with pain. Wednesday I managed to push through 6.5 miles, Thursday I got up and tried to do a morning run but was done after half a mile. Friday was off again and then today I made it 3.5 miles running before I had to quit and go to the gym for 8 more miles on the elyptical machine.
I've now seen three doctors, my chiropractor, Active Release Technique (A.R.T.) guy and my friend Jason who is one of the head doctors at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. After two ART treatments and one session of dry-needling with Jason, I feel awesome EXCEPT when I get a couple miles into a run. All of these doctors have told me that they do not think that the problem actually has to do with my knee. Rather they all suggest that it is referred pain stemming from my VMO and quad muscles. The dry-needling seemed to have had some effect but didn't come close to healing me in one treatment.
I've have been talking to nearly every good runner that I know and they all seem to think that it is too early to think about pulling the plug on San Antonio (whew!), saying that my fitness will not go away that quickly and that I simply need to getting this better ASAP, even if it means a few days completely off. Mentally, that's just the tough part for me. I feel like when you put this much effort into a goal only to have the slightest thing go wrong so close to the test, it can just turn you into a complete headcase and cause you to make bad/irrational decisions. I've seen it time and again with friends and that's why I'm trying to instead take the advice of my friends and doctors so that I can get through it and hopefully be good to go in 22 days when I am meant to toe the line in San Antonio.
All of that said, this has been a tough week and an extremely depressing post to have to write but I wanted to keep everyone out there reading this up-to-date on how things are progressing. Unfortunately, it's just all part of marathon training at this point. One things for sure, I think I can conclude that the while the Jack Daniel's formula had gotten me into excellent shape, without more/any time off written into the schedule, it was simply too much for my body. In the future, I will have to do some tweaking if I try to use it again. Thanks for reading. Happy Training!
This week has been a trial in my patience, which if you know me very well, you will know I have very little of to begin with. Training-wise I took Monday off, tried to run a little on Tuesday night, made it 3.5 miles and was met with pain. Wednesday I managed to push through 6.5 miles, Thursday I got up and tried to do a morning run but was done after half a mile. Friday was off again and then today I made it 3.5 miles running before I had to quit and go to the gym for 8 more miles on the elyptical machine.
I've now seen three doctors, my chiropractor, Active Release Technique (A.R.T.) guy and my friend Jason who is one of the head doctors at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. After two ART treatments and one session of dry-needling with Jason, I feel awesome EXCEPT when I get a couple miles into a run. All of these doctors have told me that they do not think that the problem actually has to do with my knee. Rather they all suggest that it is referred pain stemming from my VMO and quad muscles. The dry-needling seemed to have had some effect but didn't come close to healing me in one treatment.
I've have been talking to nearly every good runner that I know and they all seem to think that it is too early to think about pulling the plug on San Antonio (whew!), saying that my fitness will not go away that quickly and that I simply need to getting this better ASAP, even if it means a few days completely off. Mentally, that's just the tough part for me. I feel like when you put this much effort into a goal only to have the slightest thing go wrong so close to the test, it can just turn you into a complete headcase and cause you to make bad/irrational decisions. I've seen it time and again with friends and that's why I'm trying to instead take the advice of my friends and doctors so that I can get through it and hopefully be good to go in 22 days when I am meant to toe the line in San Antonio.
All of that said, this has been a tough week and an extremely depressing post to have to write but I wanted to keep everyone out there reading this up-to-date on how things are progressing. Unfortunately, it's just all part of marathon training at this point. One things for sure, I think I can conclude that the while the Jack Daniel's formula had gotten me into excellent shape, without more/any time off written into the schedule, it was simply too much for my body. In the future, I will have to do some tweaking if I try to use it again. Thanks for reading. Happy Training!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Ugh-Oh
I've always thought of marathon training as a tightrope act... a balance between training volume and injury. Just doing enough to get you to that peak of fitness, while still holding back just enough to stay healthy and avoid injury. Until last week, I thought I was doing a pretty damn good job of balancing and everything was coming along very well.
When I checked in last Wednesday night, everything was feeling good. The race had gone well over the weekend, my workout had gone well that night, and I was pretty happy with my progress. The next morning, however, I got up to do my morning run and about a half-mile into it my world exploded. I started having sharp pains in my right knee. The pain is coming from the front of the knee and is a pain that seems to only be present when I run or walk down stairs. I made it through that short (3.75mi) run and didn't think too much of it at that point. Later in the day I headed out for my second run though and the pain was there within feet of starting. I made it through 1.25mi and called it a day.
I was headed to the mountains for a relaxing break with my parents on Thursday night, so I planned to do my easy Friday workout on the elyptical to give the knee a rest from the pounding. It was feeling pretty good by Friday night, so Saturday morning I decided to give the run a shot on a treadmill and just see how it held up. I chose the treadmill so that just in case it started to hurt too much I could jump off and get on the elyptical. I survived the workout, going 17.25 miles on a treadmill at 8,400ft elevation while watching the entire history of Pirates on the History channel. It was a brutal experience. Unfortunately, it also put my knee into a pretty big amount of pain.
By Saturday afternoon it would hurt, but only when I was trying to walk down stairs, or bending my leg slightly. Sunday I went easy on the elyptical again.
I have now run for 77 days (11 weeks) straight, without one day off and although this week was to be my last really big week of training, I've got to make a big change to get my knee back in the game. I'm taking today completely off and will see what it's feeling like tomorrow to determine whether I will just run a little or will again take the day completely off. How freakin' depressing! I'm trying to tell myself that it's not a big deal and that after a couple easy days it'll be back to normal and good to go for the homestretch of training. I think this is where the mental craziness of endurance sports begins to play a role. I know that looking at the big picture, a couple of days is not a big deal, but it's extremely tough not to feel extremely down while I'm in it. I've put in so much effort to get fit... I just don't want to lose it, and more importantly, I want it to payoff! Ahhh well, if anyone out there knows any great things that I can be doing for it in the interim, please let me know ASAP. I hope training is going better for all of you at this point! Happy training!
When I checked in last Wednesday night, everything was feeling good. The race had gone well over the weekend, my workout had gone well that night, and I was pretty happy with my progress. The next morning, however, I got up to do my morning run and about a half-mile into it my world exploded. I started having sharp pains in my right knee. The pain is coming from the front of the knee and is a pain that seems to only be present when I run or walk down stairs. I made it through that short (3.75mi) run and didn't think too much of it at that point. Later in the day I headed out for my second run though and the pain was there within feet of starting. I made it through 1.25mi and called it a day.
I was headed to the mountains for a relaxing break with my parents on Thursday night, so I planned to do my easy Friday workout on the elyptical to give the knee a rest from the pounding. It was feeling pretty good by Friday night, so Saturday morning I decided to give the run a shot on a treadmill and just see how it held up. I chose the treadmill so that just in case it started to hurt too much I could jump off and get on the elyptical. I survived the workout, going 17.25 miles on a treadmill at 8,400ft elevation while watching the entire history of Pirates on the History channel. It was a brutal experience. Unfortunately, it also put my knee into a pretty big amount of pain.
By Saturday afternoon it would hurt, but only when I was trying to walk down stairs, or bending my leg slightly. Sunday I went easy on the elyptical again.
I have now run for 77 days (11 weeks) straight, without one day off and although this week was to be my last really big week of training, I've got to make a big change to get my knee back in the game. I'm taking today completely off and will see what it's feeling like tomorrow to determine whether I will just run a little or will again take the day completely off. How freakin' depressing! I'm trying to tell myself that it's not a big deal and that after a couple easy days it'll be back to normal and good to go for the homestretch of training. I think this is where the mental craziness of endurance sports begins to play a role. I know that looking at the big picture, a couple of days is not a big deal, but it's extremely tough not to feel extremely down while I'm in it. I've put in so much effort to get fit... I just don't want to lose it, and more importantly, I want it to payoff! Ahhh well, if anyone out there knows any great things that I can be doing for it in the interim, please let me know ASAP. I hope training is going better for all of you at this point! Happy training!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Back At It
After Sunday's race I spent some time in the hot tub and recovering with the family up in Beaver Creek. Sunday I got in a lite 5 mile morning run in Beaver Creek followed by an evening run back in Denver of 3.5 miles. Felt good and wasn't even sore from the previous day. Tuesday was another easy day (6 miles) and today I got back into it with a fairly tough workout tonight on the rolling hills of the Highline Canal path.
I'm getting used to doing all of these long, hard workouts on my own and think that it is probably going to be a benefit if the San Antonio course turns out to be as lonely/desolate as I've heard it can be in the back half of the race. Anyway, tonight's workout was 2mi warmup, 8 x 1mile at T-pace (5:50*) on 30 seconds rest, 2mi warm down. I was a bit anxious heading to the workout on the warmup because I really didn't know how the legs would respond, but it went pretty well. My splits were:
Mile 1: 5:54 Mile 5: 5:50
Mile 2: 5:52 Mile 6: 5:48
Mile 3: 5:50 Mile 7: 5:53
Mile 4: 5:46 Mile 8: 5:59
Avg pace = 5:51
Fell off a little bit at the end there, but tonight I think it mainly was because I was just so looking forward to it being done.
** Now, I should mention that after the weekend's race and kind-of the confirmation that I am in better shape now, I have decided to bump my training paces up one more VDOT level for the last 4 week push of my training. For the first month of my training I had started at a VDOT level of 59 in order to be conservative and try to account for the fact that I am training at 5,280+ foot elevation. After about 4-5 weeks I bumped the level to 60 and I have been training there for the past 5 weeks. Now I am going to bump it again, so these will be my new paces:
E pace: 7:16 I pace: 400m: 1:20 R pace: 200m: :36
M pace: 6:09 1,000m: 3:20 400m: 1:14
T pace: 5:50 1,200m: 4:00 800m: 2:28
If I were training at Sea Level, I would be training at a VDOT of 64 given my current fitness, making tempo pace 5:36/mile, etc. But I could never hang with that up here. So... that's why you'll see me striving for different numbers now in workouts as I edge closer to race day, just 32 days from now.
Lastly, I nabbed some of this weekends race photo's off of Brightroom... Here are a couple:
HAPPY TRAINING!
I'm getting used to doing all of these long, hard workouts on my own and think that it is probably going to be a benefit if the San Antonio course turns out to be as lonely/desolate as I've heard it can be in the back half of the race. Anyway, tonight's workout was 2mi warmup, 8 x 1mile at T-pace (5:50*) on 30 seconds rest, 2mi warm down. I was a bit anxious heading to the workout on the warmup because I really didn't know how the legs would respond, but it went pretty well. My splits were:
Mile 1: 5:54 Mile 5: 5:50
Mile 2: 5:52 Mile 6: 5:48
Mile 3: 5:50 Mile 7: 5:53
Mile 4: 5:46 Mile 8: 5:59
Avg pace = 5:51
Fell off a little bit at the end there, but tonight I think it mainly was because I was just so looking forward to it being done.
** Now, I should mention that after the weekend's race and kind-of the confirmation that I am in better shape now, I have decided to bump my training paces up one more VDOT level for the last 4 week push of my training. For the first month of my training I had started at a VDOT level of 59 in order to be conservative and try to account for the fact that I am training at 5,280+ foot elevation. After about 4-5 weeks I bumped the level to 60 and I have been training there for the past 5 weeks. Now I am going to bump it again, so these will be my new paces:
E pace: 7:16 I pace: 400m: 1:20 R pace: 200m: :36
M pace: 6:09 1,000m: 3:20 400m: 1:14
T pace: 5:50 1,200m: 4:00 800m: 2:28
If I were training at Sea Level, I would be training at a VDOT of 64 given my current fitness, making tempo pace 5:36/mile, etc. But I could never hang with that up here. So... that's why you'll see me striving for different numbers now in workouts as I edge closer to race day, just 32 days from now.
Lastly, I nabbed some of this weekends race photo's off of Brightroom... Here are a couple:
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Another Step in the Right Direction
YES!! Denver 1/2 Marathon was this morning and I'm happy to report that it went precisely according to plan. Heading into this I had a couple of goals:
- Run a smart race with even effort
- Maintain focus throughout
- Goal time was sub-1:17 w/a goal pace of 5:52's (I went 5:54 pace at the 10-Miler 5 weeks ago, so I thought this was reasonable for a longer (tougher) course)
Leading into the race this week, I just pulled back a little bit as I mentioned in my earlier Blog on Wednesday. After that short workout I got in the following for the rest of the week: Thurs - 6 miles ez, Fri - 8.25mi ez, Sat - 4.75mi ez. So while I wasn't feeling extremely fresh (or tapered) heading into today's 1/2, I definitely felt a little better than I do on a typical day.
Anyway, the weather had been horrible yesterday, but we were all fortunate and woke up to significantly improved weather this morning. It was 37 degrees when I left the house at 6:15am, but it was dry and there was no wind. Almost perfect running weather.
If you haven't run the Denver course, it is definitely not an easy one. While it opens up and ends with downhill miles, almost everything in between is rolling (mile 6-9 are pretty flat though). Here's an elevation profile:
That said, I wasn't trying to run even mile splits today as there were obviously miles where I would run significantly faster (and slower) than goal pace. Instead, I just wanted to keep my effort even and try to push the whole way. Additionally, I really put an emphasis on staying focused during this race. My friend, Ryan Whitehead had given me some input yesterday (RE: my recent 'bonks' in the longer workouts) about how he has noticed that when he loses focus (or bonks), it's often associated with a lack of nutrition. He made a really good point and it was something that I hadn't thought about before. Seriously, I was doing 16-18 mile hard workouts and hadn't even thought about my nutrition!!! How stupid can I be, right?! Well, I guess that comes from years of doing shorter (<12 mile workouts) and only considering nutrition during races.
Back to the point... So, I decided that I would bring one gel with today and put it down between mile 8 and 10. I also focused on taking in fluids at every water stop. Alternating water at one, sportsdrink (CytoMax today) at the next, throughout the race. Luckily this worked out really well. I first noticed myself beginning to lose focus at about 7.5 miles in... and when I say 'lose focus' I mean, that I start thinking about other stuff besides racing, effort, monitoring body systems, etc. Instead I start thinking about stupid stuff like the geese in City park, what I'm going to eat after the race, how my friends are doing or other stuff that leads to me letting up and slowing down. SO, when I first noticed it today I immediately opened the gel and began taking in a portion of it. Over the next 3 miles or so I held it in my hand and every time my mind began to drift I would mentally catch myself and say FOCUS!!!, eat some gel and push. Interestingly enough, during that period, I also managed to drop the 2 guys that were running near me, run off into 'No Man's Land' and increase my pace as much as 25 seconds/mile!! Ryan, thanks for making me think. It was a huge help and taught me A LOT to use next month in the big race.
So, without further ado, my final time today was 1:16:53 (5:52 pace) --- Altitude converted this would be roughly a 1:13:39 (or 5:37/mi pace). I finished somewhere between 10th and 13th overall, and most importantly, I ran my own race, running completely on my own from mile 8 to the finish.
Mile 1: 5:39
Mile 2: 5:41
Mile 3: 5:51
Mile 4: 5:58
Mile 5: 5:56
Mile 6: 5:53
Mile 7: 6:02
Mile 8: 6:02
Mile 9: 6:12
Mile 10: 5:42
Mile 11: 5:36
Mile 12: 5:59
Mile 13: 5:42
1:33
TOTAL: 1:16:53
I'm super excited about the result especially given the fact that I was not rested, was at altitude and was on a tough course. I am really looking forward to the taper and the return to sea-level for San Antonio. Just 5 more weeks of hard work till the big day!! Thanks to everybody who put comments on Facebook or wished me luck. I'm not real sure WHY this marathon has become such a major focus for me, but I don't think I've ever trained as hard for ONE particular race as I have for this one so I'm really hoping to hit my goal! If you also raced today, I hope that it went well and that you learned a lot from your experience for future races as well! Happy Training!
- Run a smart race with even effort
- Maintain focus throughout
- Goal time was sub-1:17 w/a goal pace of 5:52's (I went 5:54 pace at the 10-Miler 5 weeks ago, so I thought this was reasonable for a longer (tougher) course)
Leading into the race this week, I just pulled back a little bit as I mentioned in my earlier Blog on Wednesday. After that short workout I got in the following for the rest of the week: Thurs - 6 miles ez, Fri - 8.25mi ez, Sat - 4.75mi ez. So while I wasn't feeling extremely fresh (or tapered) heading into today's 1/2, I definitely felt a little better than I do on a typical day.
Anyway, the weather had been horrible yesterday, but we were all fortunate and woke up to significantly improved weather this morning. It was 37 degrees when I left the house at 6:15am, but it was dry and there was no wind. Almost perfect running weather.
If you haven't run the Denver course, it is definitely not an easy one. While it opens up and ends with downhill miles, almost everything in between is rolling (mile 6-9 are pretty flat though). Here's an elevation profile:
That said, I wasn't trying to run even mile splits today as there were obviously miles where I would run significantly faster (and slower) than goal pace. Instead, I just wanted to keep my effort even and try to push the whole way. Additionally, I really put an emphasis on staying focused during this race. My friend, Ryan Whitehead had given me some input yesterday (RE: my recent 'bonks' in the longer workouts) about how he has noticed that when he loses focus (or bonks), it's often associated with a lack of nutrition. He made a really good point and it was something that I hadn't thought about before. Seriously, I was doing 16-18 mile hard workouts and hadn't even thought about my nutrition!!! How stupid can I be, right?! Well, I guess that comes from years of doing shorter (<12 mile workouts) and only considering nutrition during races.
Back to the point... So, I decided that I would bring one gel with today and put it down between mile 8 and 10. I also focused on taking in fluids at every water stop. Alternating water at one, sportsdrink (CytoMax today) at the next, throughout the race. Luckily this worked out really well. I first noticed myself beginning to lose focus at about 7.5 miles in... and when I say 'lose focus' I mean, that I start thinking about other stuff besides racing, effort, monitoring body systems, etc. Instead I start thinking about stupid stuff like the geese in City park, what I'm going to eat after the race, how my friends are doing or other stuff that leads to me letting up and slowing down. SO, when I first noticed it today I immediately opened the gel and began taking in a portion of it. Over the next 3 miles or so I held it in my hand and every time my mind began to drift I would mentally catch myself and say FOCUS!!!, eat some gel and push. Interestingly enough, during that period, I also managed to drop the 2 guys that were running near me, run off into 'No Man's Land' and increase my pace as much as 25 seconds/mile!! Ryan, thanks for making me think. It was a huge help and taught me A LOT to use next month in the big race.
So, without further ado, my final time today was 1:16:53 (5:52 pace) --- Altitude converted this would be roughly a 1:13:39 (or 5:37/mi pace). I finished somewhere between 10th and 13th overall, and most importantly, I ran my own race, running completely on my own from mile 8 to the finish.
Mile 1: 5:39
Mile 2: 5:41
Mile 3: 5:51
Mile 4: 5:58
Mile 5: 5:56
Mile 6: 5:53
Mile 7: 6:02
Mile 8: 6:02
Mile 9: 6:12
Mile 10: 5:42
Mile 11: 5:36
Mile 12: 5:59
Mile 13: 5:42
1:33
TOTAL: 1:16:53
I'm super excited about the result especially given the fact that I was not rested, was at altitude and was on a tough course. I am really looking forward to the taper and the return to sea-level for San Antonio. Just 5 more weeks of hard work till the big day!! Thanks to everybody who put comments on Facebook or wished me luck. I'm not real sure WHY this marathon has become such a major focus for me, but I don't think I've ever trained as hard for ONE particular race as I have for this one so I'm really hoping to hit my goal! If you also raced today, I hope that it went well and that you learned a lot from your experience for future races as well! Happy Training!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
San Antonio It Is!!
It's official, yesterday I booked my plane ticket and made the final decision that I will be racing in San Antonio on 11/13 rather than Richmond. I had initially been leaning towards Richmond due to the weather and the fact that the field was a little deeper but the economics and logistics of the two trips pretty much made the decision for me. Add to that the fact that my buddy Pete Mallett (who lives in Austin) will also be coming over to watch the race and hang out, and it just made more sense. Jon Hiatt ran the race last year and is hopefully going to give me some pointers for the course.
Otherwise, I'm just going to hope for cool weather on race day like they had last year! The race website can be found HERE if you'd like to see the course map or get more info. If you're in the area that weekend let me know and we'll definitely get together!
Otherwise, I'm just going to hope for cool weather on race day like they had last year! The race website can be found HERE if you'd like to see the course map or get more info. If you're in the area that weekend let me know and we'll definitely get together!
Worn Out!
Man oh man, I think that the miles are beginning to get to me. After 2 weeks at 75+ miles including over 15+ miles at tempo-pace and a long run from 18-21 miles, my legs are finally feeling fried. They definitely haven't treated me well this week.
Monday night, 2 days after my 2.5hr run on Saturday, I had another big workout... and the fatigue from the long run made itself known from the start. The workout was:
2mi warmup
2 x 2mi @ T-pace (5:54) w/3min rest
1hr @ E-pace (7:22)
2mi @ T-pace
2mi Warmdown
Total: 18 miles
After the 2 mile warmup it was clear that 18 miles wasn't going to happen (and wouldn't be smart to do) so I shortened it a little bit... doing the following:
2mi warmup
2 x 2mi @ T-pace (5:49, 5:52), (5:44, 5:55) w/3min rest
6mi @ E-pace
2mi @ T-pace (6:13, 6:06)
2mi Warmdown
Total: 16 miles
Obviously the fatigue became apparent late in the run. That last 2mi tempo effort was horrible. It felt like I was running the same pace as earlier, but the watch shocked me by showing otherwise. There simply wasn't anything left. I feel like I'm generally getting a little better at feeling my pace, but still have some work to get it really accurate.These longer workouts continue to show me, however, that I need to work on keeping my focus in the late miles of long, hard efforts more than anything. Whether it's this workout, a long continuous tempo, or any of the other 15+ mile workouts, I keep losing focus, and thus slowing in the late miles.
Anyway, Tuesday I took it easy with a 6-mile easy run and then tonight I had another bout of speedwork on the agenda. It was supposed to have been a 12 mile run with 2 by 20-minutes at T-pace but considering how beat my legs felt AND the fact that I am trying to race this Sunday I thought better of it and just did 20 minutes at about 6min pace. I am very happy to be able to cut mileage back a bit now with just easy runs from now until Sunday and the race. I'm thinking that this week, and next, I will just keep mileage in the 60-65 mile range before doing maybe 1-2 more weeks around 75 and then cutting it way down for the big race in November. As everyone else is racing now, it's starting to make me a little impatient to get to mine but hey, I'd rather be impatient now, then having to have started training 6 weeks earlier in the summer and running in the heat that much longer!!
Monday night, 2 days after my 2.5hr run on Saturday, I had another big workout... and the fatigue from the long run made itself known from the start. The workout was:
2mi warmup
2 x 2mi @ T-pace (5:54) w/3min rest
1hr @ E-pace (7:22)
2mi @ T-pace
2mi Warmdown
Total: 18 miles
After the 2 mile warmup it was clear that 18 miles wasn't going to happen (and wouldn't be smart to do) so I shortened it a little bit... doing the following:
2mi warmup
2 x 2mi @ T-pace (5:49, 5:52), (5:44, 5:55) w/3min rest
6mi @ E-pace
2mi @ T-pace (6:13, 6:06)
2mi Warmdown
Total: 16 miles
Obviously the fatigue became apparent late in the run. That last 2mi tempo effort was horrible. It felt like I was running the same pace as earlier, but the watch shocked me by showing otherwise. There simply wasn't anything left. I feel like I'm generally getting a little better at feeling my pace, but still have some work to get it really accurate.These longer workouts continue to show me, however, that I need to work on keeping my focus in the late miles of long, hard efforts more than anything. Whether it's this workout, a long continuous tempo, or any of the other 15+ mile workouts, I keep losing focus, and thus slowing in the late miles.
Anyway, Tuesday I took it easy with a 6-mile easy run and then tonight I had another bout of speedwork on the agenda. It was supposed to have been a 12 mile run with 2 by 20-minutes at T-pace but considering how beat my legs felt AND the fact that I am trying to race this Sunday I thought better of it and just did 20 minutes at about 6min pace. I am very happy to be able to cut mileage back a bit now with just easy runs from now until Sunday and the race. I'm thinking that this week, and next, I will just keep mileage in the 60-65 mile range before doing maybe 1-2 more weeks around 75 and then cutting it way down for the big race in November. As everyone else is racing now, it's starting to make me a little impatient to get to mine but hey, I'd rather be impatient now, then having to have started training 6 weeks earlier in the summer and running in the heat that much longer!!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Another big week in the books
Wow, I was really bad at updating the BLOG last week... sorry, to anyone that reads this. It was a busy week at work and running. It won't happen again!! So... to pick up where I left off. Monday night had been a rough, long workout, which left my legs cashed for a couple days. Surprisingly they felt reasonable on my Tuesday recovery run, so I actually knocked out 8 miles that night. Wednesday was to be another monstrous workout, however and when I woke up on Wednesday morning I knew that I was in for it since my legs were then feeling like garbage.
Ahh well, I headed over to Highline again to get in this long workout and tried to take it a step at a time. The workout was meant to be as follows:
2mi warmup2 x (3mi @ T-pace (5:54)) w/ 3min rest
2mi @ T-pace
2mi warmdown
Total = 12 miles
By the time I got my warmup in though, I knew that I was in trouble. My actual workout consisted of:
2mi warmup
2.5mi @ T-pace (5:58, 6:01, 3:00)
1mi moderate
2mi @ T (5:44 (WTF?!?), 5:52)
.5mi moderate
1mi @ T (5:54)
2mi warmdown
Total = 11 miles
This was my first real explosion during a workout but considering the fact that I had done the hard workout two days before, my total volume had been high, and I'm working full-time, I didn't let it get to me too much. I took it easy on both Thursday & Friday, just doing short doubles each day to get in 9mi each day. Then Saturday it was time for my first really long run.
I headed out the door with the intention of going 20 but luckily felt amazing throughout the run and ended up tacking on a bit to get in a total of 21.25 miles that morning. I ran it in 2:35:18... just about 2 minutes quicker than my projected marathon time. I am happy to still be 6 weeks out from the race and have already ran pretty much the entire duration of the race, if not the distance. I feel like that has been a big part of my issues in the marathon in the past. Not being prepared to be running for 2.5 hours can be tough. Now I know I can do the time... I just need to work on the endurance as it relates to me running at race pace. I am feeling extremely confident again after Saturday's long run. Here's a look at the elevation of the run. Def not a flat one. Avg'd 7:21's throughout but pushed the pace for the last 3-4 miles getting down around 6:45's for a bit.
Sunday, I got in another 5.5 mile easy run and that made for my biggest week in quite awhile. 77.25 miles. Now to ratchet it back a bit for this Sunday's upcoming Rock and Roll Denver 1/2 Marathon. Definitely not tapering for this one, but will lower mileage to the low- to mid-60's this week and try to see what I've got in the tanks next weekend.
As a sidenote, I had some friends racing at Twin Cities last weekend and they all killed it! Rob (who is 42!!) went 2:35, John 2:43, Lorne hit 2:50 and Michelle went 3:06!! Pr's for only a couple but great races all around! Nice work to everyone who raced!! Next up, Denver, Chicago, Portland, Rev3 SC and Kona this coming weekend!! Can't wait to watch/participate!!
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