I’ve spent the last six days or so in sunny Phoenix, which has lead to some great runs. I was lucky enough to be on a job that wasn’t as busy as some, and with some great people, so all in all, it was more conducive to training that I had any right to expect.
I arrived on Friday and checked on the website of my favorite running store here, Sole Sports, which I’ve written about in the past. What an awesome store, which great staff. This time I was closer to their Scottsdale location, which is much smaller than their Tempe store, but plenty of good stuff to spend money on. Money that I don’t have. Of course.
The store organizes a group run on Saturday morning, which is great because that’s when I usually do my long run anyway at home with the Taconics. I gathered from their site that the runs were about 6-8 miles, and, according to my plan, I wanted to do 18, which the last 8 at marathon pace. I talked to the fantastically fast Terri at the store who was only doing ten, but was happy to start with me. It wound up being perfect — she is oh so much faster than me, but she was had an easy day on her schedule so she could match my pre-marathon pace pace.
Although I didn’t talk to that many people, it seemed like a great group run — lots of folks (20-30), running a variety of different distances and paces. One person from the store sort of organizes the run and gives a little information download at the start of the run, which makes everyone feel welcome and loved.
The runs take place along the Arizona Canal which is about as good as it gets for running. Flat, packed direct. Alas, there are a few streets to cross, but all and all, it freakin rocks. I think for my 10 miles with Terri we averaged 7:58 pace, which is awesome. I stopped back at Sole Sports to grab a glass of water and buy a vizor for my last 8 miles. Emmett, the manager on duty in the store asked how long I was going out for in my final stage of my run in case I didn’t come back. ”An hour or so. I’m moving here. I love you people.”
I wanted to pick it up to around 7:24 for my marathon pace for the last eight miles, and I did hold on to the pace… 7:18 overall, which is great. It was about a million degrees out at the end, so I was glad I made it, and I was glad to be done. I was sweaty and dehydrated and felt kind of weird. Like death. “I’m no longer moving here,” I told a not-disappointed Emmett as I picked up my keys.
Two more speed workouts along the roads in Phoenix, a 4 mile tempo, averaging 6:57 and 3 @ 2k tempo intervals averaging around 6:45 pace. All right on target.
Why the obsession with numbers? The freaking marathon is less than two weeks away. Less year at this time I was in Berlin totally freaked out. Now I’m closer to home, not as freaked, but I am I working a lot harder on getting rest and staying as calm as possible. Good luck with that, Self. Good luck with that.
It was the inaugural run of Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon. It’s my first time running a virgin race, and I was a little nervous about logistics and the course. There was no elevation profile to obsess on, no lore of years gone by shared by other Taconics, no assurance that the porta potty count had been developed by years of planning and evolution. However, it was pretty awesome; it was very well organized by the Rivertown Runners, who did a great job. There was a little confusion out on the course, but nothing that won’t get sorted out next year, and they were able to execute a half marathon with I’d think about 500 runners without any major issues. Really well done.
I have to say that I was quietly hoping to do very well in the race. My Boston training has been going well, and in general I feel pretty relaxed. I thought, in a perfect world, I would be able to run 6:50 miles and break 1:30, which is a life-long dream. A quick aside, I freakin’ hate when people say “life-long dream” and they mean “something I’ve been thinking about for about a week.” While I’ve been thinking about it for longer than a week, it’s an exaggeration to suggest that I’ve been thinking of running a ninety minute half since birth. Luckily, since I didn’t hit it in this race, I can continue to dream.
I ran a great tempo this week, although it was a bit harder than I would have liked. In that run, as the sun was bearing down on me and I was dodging central Florida traffic, I started to develop a running mantra. Traditionally, I think these mantras are things that runners say in their head, something like “be strong”, or “stand tall” or “remember to pick up dinner” or something like that. But largely said in their head. Not aloud. As I was careening down Central Florida Parkway, no other pedestrians in sight, I decided to try screaming a mantra out loud. ”RELAX!” I kept telling myself. ”RELAX! RELAX! YOU BASTARD! RELAX!” Very relaxing. But it did seem to work, and I was happy with my run and my pace.
Trying to relax seems to be an important task for me. It’s not I’m so natural a runner that I wind up winning races just by relaxing, it’s more that I gain nothing by being tense and working extra hard. By telling myself to relax I hope that I can concentrate on good form, on cadence, or on pretty much anything other than “you suck, you’re going too slow, have a cheeseburger.”
However, in a race, I wasn’t quite so comfortable talking to myself, so I tried keeping my mantra to myself. ”relax” I thought. And I think it worked. I didn’t tense up, and I think it went pretty well.
I should say, for the record, that this is a HARD course. Mr. Garmin says there is 1,188 feet of climb. Man, that’s rough. Four or five major hills. And, in mile 6 through 8, it’s a long long long long (extra long for emphasis) climb up this slow grade. On a highway. The highway was closed to traffic. But let’s imagine it wasn’t. It was a long climb on a busy highway. In the summer sun. In the rain. OK, none of that is true. But it was a long climb on a highway. I had a quality 7:17 mile in there. That’s not so good.
At the end of the race, after the 12 mile split, I changed my mantra to “empty the tank, empty the thank, empty the tank” (extra empty the tank for emphasis). I was emptying the tank, rounded the corner, and found that there was a huge hill at the end. Empty the tank my ass. The tank was empty. And yet the hill. The hill. THE HILL!
I pushed through and finished in 1:31:38 for an average pace of 6:55. So I was off my target, but I still pushed hard and was happy. My fellow Taconics did well, with Karen getting first in her age — I know there were other winners from the team, but I cut out before the awards. I had stuff to do. And I placed 4th. I’m just saying.
I’d say the mantra worked. It was the mountain at the end that did me in!
Here, for anyone who has a love for numbers, is way too much information.
Too Much Information
I’m in Orlando, feeling guilty about missing yet another snow storm at home in New York. That being said, and expecting no sympathy from anyone at home, I should mention that it’s too freakin’ hot down here. Again, I can hear your groans. But it was 83° at 6pm today. Yesterday, it was even warmer. I went out running with my friend and colleague Paul, expecting to start with him, and then do a 4 mile tempo run. But it was just to hot. hot hot hot.
Today, I decided to give it another try. I drank water all day, vitamin zero, etc. I headed out once again, and the weather felt great. Nice.
I was trying to do a tempo run, a sustained effort for four miles, ideally at 7:00 pace. What the hell am I talking about? Here’s a fairly snarky article on the subject of tempo runs.The trafic lights weren’t with me with my tempo plan — I kept having to stop. Which feel like defeats the purpose of a threshold run. I was still fairly happy with the splits: 6:44, 6:38, 6:39, 6:44. At the end, I had to walk for a few minutes just to really cool down.
Then the fun began — I started to run back to my hotel, cut through a subdivision which turned out to be a dead end. My 15 minute run back to the hotel took 45 minutes. Ug.
I’m running a half marathon on Saturday, and I’m hoping to do well. That being said, running so hard today feels like a mistake. Stress! That being said, I’m happy to run in the warmth. Just don’t tell anyone up north.
Well, this weekend started off GREAT. I set my alarm for 5:30am Saturday (Dear Diary: running sucks), got up, and it was like 38°, which is a freakin’ heatwave based on the winter we’ve had. I met a bunch of folks at the pumphouse for a 20 miler.
It was a great group. Caitlin, famous blogger and great runner, brought her friend Sarah, so we had two new people right out of the gate. Bill and Karen and I have run together for one other 20, and have known each other for long enough that the conversation is always easy and awesome. We started off at a nice easy pace, lots of laughs, and warm weather.
Sarah has said that she wanted to do some sub 8 minute miles for the last 5k, which sounded awesome to me. Other than that, I think we all thought we were taking it slow. Alas, that’s not quite how it played out.
There are many schools of thoughts about pacing in the long run. Without intentionally plagiarizing anyone, let me suggest there are three basic approaches. One is to run 2 minutes slower than your targeted race pase, which for me would be around 9:30 a mile. Another approach is to run at least some of your run at your race pace (7:30 for me) and I guess the third approach is really a bunch of different approaches. For example, some people love the LSD run, which is long and oh so slow. Some people love to do progression runs, where you split the run up into thirds, starting easy, then exerting some efforts and then, at the end, killing yourself. Leaving yourself dead on the alter of the running deities as you contemplate your mortality and poor training. But I digress.
We wound up running, get ready for it, fast. I don’t want to name names, and certainly wouldn’t call out a fellow blogger, but we ran fast. For the middle miles, it was awesome. We did a bunch of sub eight miles, and were having a great time. We were joined by some old friends and it was great to catch up.
In fact, the whole run was awesome. It’s great to be with new people, and pushing the pace is pretty rocking. So, faithful reader, what am I going to complain about? The day after! I wanted to do an easy six miles today, and once again I hopped out of bed to warm temperatures and hoped to have another great day. I drove to meet friends at FDR Park, and from the very first step into the run I knew I was doomed. I felt like I had no business walking much less running, and I was dragging right from the start.
Luckily, two nice friends, Leo and Ted, hung back with me and listened to my complaints. I wound up turning in early, and only did five miles. But I’m sincerely hoping that my moderation today, and a mandatory day off tomorrow, will make for a full recovery. I’m going to Atlanta tonight, and it’s got to be warm there, right? Hopefully, I find a nice suburban track where I can do some 800s on Tuesday.
There are so many lessons to be learned here. I think that even though it was poring down rain when I finished yesterday, I should have stretched out. Or maybe stretched out when I got home. Now that wouldn’t have hurt. I also could have had some chocolate milk or some sort of recovery drink. That might have been nice. I also could have done some sort of walking yesterday, rather than just sitting around the house all day.
Also, running an average of 7:40 for the final 14 miles of a 20 miler may not be the best idea. Live and learn. Or not.
Photo: Ted Pernicano
On Sunday, I ran the Boston Buildup 20k. This race, as the name might imply, is part of a series of races that are ostensibly for people training for Boston, but can be run by anyone. It’s a great series — this is only my second one, but I’m a big fan. I imagine there were about 100 runners in the race, and everyone was great. Super friendly, mostly serious runners, but a good group. And it was super mellow. Registration OPENS 30 minutes before the gun. Which is a nice change from NYRR, where the registration usually closes weeks before. The miles are marked, there are two or three water stops, what more could you want?
Warmer weather. That’s what. It wasn’t that bad, say 30° at the start, but I couldn’t decide what to wear. Ultimately, I decided to wear shorts. Because that’s what I always decide. I showed up, and everyone was in tights. Including my friend Karen. Who never wears tights. Except for this time. Oh, and the two guys I car pooled with. I walked by a woman before the race and she said “just looking at you makes me cold.” I get that a lot.
I had hoped to do well. I’ve been away for about three weeks, working in Las Vegas and Chicago. I’ve been busy, but I’ve been keeping up with my running pretty well. I had a run in 7° weather in Chicago, which was a great 30 minutes. Followed by 45 minutes of agony. But I did get the sense that Chicago would be a great running town. Except for right now.
The race was a 20k, which is, indeed, shorter than a half marathon. By about .6 miles. I looked up the distance in a predicted time chart — a great resource provided by Greg McMillian’s site, and it had me down for a 7:04 pace and a time of 1:27:37. So I decided to try to hit that number.
The first mile was good. Felt great. A little cold maybe. Especially my legs. Which were in shorts. 6:57.
Mile two and three, right on track at 6:59.
Mile 4, big hill. No really. 7:24. Mile 5, no hill. Felt guilty about mile 4. 6:58. Mile 6, 7:19. A little stressed now. Mile 7, 6:58. Mile 8, 6:40. Don’t know quite how that happend, but I’ll take it. Mile 8, 7:05. Mile 9, 6:42.
Mile 10. I could right a novel about Mile 10. Huge freakin hill. Pain. Misery. 7:32.
Mile 11, 6:39. End was in sight!
Overall time was 1:27:47, average pace of 7:02. Total distance from Mr Garmin of 12.5 miles. For whatever that’s worth.
So I was thrilled with my time — right were I wanted to be. Now am worried I should have pushed harder. That being said, Monday, the day after the race, I decided to celebrate my race with a nice recovery run. Made it to the driveway past my own before I realized I was in too much pain. So I came home and ate. That was my recovery jog.
Overall, the race was unique — it felt both supportive and competitive, but at the same time it felt like everyone was running their own race. I was passed a lot in the middle of the race, which surprised me. Most times I find shifting in position come very early on or very close to the end, or if someone gets injured or is having a bad day. I wonder if different runners were attacking the race different, some folks trying to do negative splits (in a 20k?) or were doing a progression run or whatever. But it was a great feel, nonetheless. When I crossed the finish line, there were handshakes all around. One guy, who tried to pass me in the last 20 yards, was all smiles. As was I. He asked my time, I guess he wanted to add a few seconds to it to write down his own.
We took a nice picture afterwards. I put on long pants as soon as the run was over. I was much warmer.
Vegas doesn’t suck. There is a lot of good stuff here — great people, good food. But as I’ve written in the past, it’s not a great place to run. That’s not even really true — I have a friend and colleague who lives here and has turned me on to some great places to run. But none of them are close the strip, which is pretty much where all of my work takes place.
It’s the 4th week of January, and this is my third week this year in Vegas. I was out here for CES, home for a week, and now I’m back again. I’m doing two jobs in a row, and so I’m here for 14 days. I’ve been trying to keep my running up, and so far it’s been fine. A good tempo, and a 13 miler last week, but as I looked at my training plan, and wondered if I was working hard enough. I’ve always done about 3 for a marathon, but this year I’m trying to change things around, and wrote my own training plan this year a few weeks ago. I was worried about volume overall, and I took at look at one of Bob Glover’s training plans and he had a 20 slated for this week. So, I thought to myself, “self, why not do a 20?”
Once I realized what I had in store, I realized I need to talk about a route. Not because that talking about it would make it any better, but because talking about it would somehow put off the pain for longer. I asked on facebook if anyone had any ideas of where to run in vegas, I got about 30 responses. Only one or two of the posts could be considered running advice, but there was a lot of awesome advice. Not all of it completely practical, and much of it involving getting on a plane.
I decided to run south of the strip and then slightly east, which turned out to be great. Quiet streets, a few other runners, and, thankfully, a friendly connivence store where I could get water and use the toilet. Without rushing. I’m just saying.
It was a tough one — it’s hard being alone for 3 hours or so without the internet. I listened to audio books, podcasts, and music. And I ran slowly. 9:46 pace. Last year, my final 20 miler was at 8:23 pace. But least year I wasn’t alone, I was with other people. Runners, for example. It’s a lot easier to run fast and long with other people. Alone, I decided that I was doing an LSD run. No, really, that’s a real thing — Long Slow Distance. Click on the link. It’s on wikipedia, so it has to be real.
If I undertand it correctly, the idea of a long slow run is to allow you to train your body to run for a long time and by running slowly you can run longer. As you get further into the run, and you’ve depleted your glycogen stores, you teach your body to deal with the fatigue of a race and to better burn fat. Which is all that’s left.
It seemed to work. Well, I don’t know how much better I am at running fast, but I did feel a lot less dead after running this 20 than I ever had before.
That being said, I did what I thought was going to be an easy hour this morning, and I felt horrible. Sluggish. Like giving up running.
Tomorrow, I’m hoping to do another dreaded 4 mile tempo. We’ll see how I feel. And Saturday at 6am has got to be OK in Vegas. It’ll be quiet. It’ll be great. I just have to remember to run short fast distance. SFD? Doesn’t sound as good.
I’m in Detroit doing the fantastic autoshow. For those of you who may not be aware, Detroit is very far west in the eastern time zone. What does that mean, you may ask. It means the freakin’ sun doesn’t come up until about 8am.
I love running in the dark as much as the next guy. But in Detroit, there are some added challenges. For one, the infastructure here is a little rough. They don’t really plow the streets often. The sidewalk is uneven. And it’s pretty dangerous. CNN says it’s one of the most dangerous citys in the world. You know, like Baghdad, or Juarez. I had some great runs here in the fall, but now there is no one around. I guess I’m more worried about tripping in the dark and not being found for hours rather than getting killed by gun play. But these are all issues.
So I’m hitting the treadmill. I couldn’t bring myself to go long on the treadmill, but I’ve been doing about 7 miles a day in the gym, which has been not quite as horrible as I remembered. I pressed the “hill workout” button on my speed day (Thursday), and it was a pretty rocking work out. And, even when I’m going more slowly. I find that I’m sweating a lot more than usual. That means I’m working hard, right?
I’ve been talking to some great runners about the treadmill, and most people hate it, of course. But Joe from the Taconics ran through a major injury last year on the treadmill, and he now turns to it when the weather is too horrible to go outside. I’m not saying anyone is happy with it, but when it’s 12° and snowing, being inside watching TV can be a great distraction. And, now, is my great lesson learned on this trip. I’ve started checking the TV listings, and hitting the gym right when Law and Order starts. I get a good murder, some cop on cop action (wait, that doesn’t sound right), some fancy big city lawyering, and a conviction. And 7 miles. That’s a pretty good morning.
I’m in Phoenix for the holidays (don’t hate me) and made a quick trip down to Sole Sports Running Zone in Tempe. Just fantastic. By our east coast standards, it’s freakin’ huge. Lots of apparel, lots of shoes, but also a great staff of runners who seem to care deeply about the spot. I can’t recommend it enough!
Bought a few fuel belt bottles as I’m going long Sunday. Alone. Gasp. Also got some Gu, and some Gatorade freebees.
Give these guys a try if you’re in Phoenix, you’ll love them as I do!
Very much a work in progress, but 16 weeks till Boston, more or less. This is what I’m thinking. It’s a blend of the McMillian plan I used last year with some stuff from Advanced Marathoning
I’m trying to do a tempo each week this year, as well as a speed workout. I hope this helps with success rather than guaranteeing injury. Below is a link to the document online, you can zoom in, etc. Or look at it here on google. But please don’t hesitate to comment. I’d love to get as much feedback as I can — to aid in my soul searching and insecurity. Too little volume? Too much speed? So many issues!
I was at a dinner with a bunch of other runners the other night, and my friend Karen mentioned that it was only 18 weeks until Boston, and that her tried and true plan started at 18 weeks. I, of course, spit out whatever food was in my mouth, yelled “CRAP!” at the top of my lungs, changed into shorts, and started doing 100m strides around the parking lot. Well, not really. But I have to say it did kind of take me by surprise.
Last year I did a 16 week program, which started, thankfully, right after New Years. I used a custom training plan from McMillian, and enjoyed it a lot. He does a great job of explaining every work out, its reason for being and its possible benefit. I may go back to his plan this year as well, but I’m thinking I’ll follow in Karen’s footsteps and try the 55 mile plan from Advanced Marathoning
The biggest issue for me is many of the runs are longer than 7 miles, mid week. It’s hard to escape from work for that long, so I’m worried I won’t be able to keep it up. When I travel, which is far too often, I usually go running at like 6am, when the sun is just coming up. I can’t imagine running any earlier than that. Honestly, as I read through the book a lot of it I’m not sure can work, but at least for the first two weeks, I’m giving it a try.
Started on Tuesday with a 8mi lactate threshold run — looks a lot like a tempo to me. 2 miles warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace, and then 2 miles cool down. I met a friend Bill at noon at the Pumphouse. It was, I have to say, cold as crap, like 20° or so. The two miles were easy, and then we picked it up. It’s not a great tempo course, some incline to be sure. However, it feels uphill going out and downhill coming back, which has got to be better than the alternative. Bill is a great guy to run with, because he’s a great runner, but he’s also great to talk to. And in this case, by talk I mean I was breathing too hard to do anything other than grunt, but he kept me entertained.
We were trying to hit 7 minute pace. We wound up with 7:00, 6:53, 6:56, and 6:39. Hmmmmm.. Dear Diary: too fast. At the end, Bill was well in front of me and the guise of conversation was over.
The rest of the week has been great — I met Tom yesterday and Caroline today. Meeting up with people seems to be a great way to get through the winter months.
So, here we go. 18 weeks till Boston. Game on.
