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Yesterday, my plan was to head out for a 23 miler. It didn’t happen. My knee was hurting, I was tired from Friday night’s too-fast workout, and I just didn’t feel like wasting the $20 entry fee for today’s race by tiring myself out the day before. So, I ended up only doing 10.6 miles instead and then stretched a bunch when I got home.
This morning, I met up with Antonio on the corner a couple minutes after eight and then we began running towards the starting line. We were taking it real easy, like 8:15s, but my lungs were acting up and I was getting winded. Our warmup lasted 4.2 miles and left me feeling pretty fatigued. I was nervous about how the race would go.
The starting horn sounded and we were off in the midst of chaos. A woman fell and the crowd swirled around her. Tons of people who should have been nowhere near the front were. It was slow, hectic progress for the first few hundred yards. Around a half mile in, things improved a little, but not a lot. There were people everywhere and most of them had seriously overestimated their abilities and began dropping like flies as we neared the first mile. It was like a game of Frogger dodging them. My Garmin beeped just a bit before the marker, at 5:55.
The first half of mile 2 was a huge downhill. Baker passed me here along with several others. I was flying, but they were flying even faster. The leaders were just rounding the loop as I started on it. Wow, they were moving. After avoiding some nasty potholes and dealing with some overly aggressive runners and their elbows, I finished the loop too and was greeted with the monster hill that I had just run down. I started charging up it strong, but controlled. I focused on my arms and tried to push into the ground with my feet. At the top of the hill, my Garmin beeped (again in front of the marker) a 5:56 mile.
My arms were filling with lactic acid and it was becoming increasingly difficult to push hard. But, at the same time, focusing on the pain itself was keeping me going. I managed to stay consistent with my speed, but I didn’t have an extra gear that I could turn to. Luckily, most of this mile was downhill and I was able to just keep falling forward. My watch beeped at 5:54. I threw everything I had left out there at that point and crossed the line with the official clock saying 18:40, my watch saying 18:38 (and 3.15 miles), and me thinking that I had actually run an 18:37, but not sure. Whether or not I hit my goal was going to come down to seconds.
I met up with Baker and Antonio again after the race, we chatted a bit, and then Antonio and I started running back home. We decided to head back via our typical Wednesday route through the Bronx. We hadn’t been up there for a couple months and it was amazing to see the progress they are making on the demolition of the old Yankees Stadium. We both had to pause and look with awe as we were running by. We ended up back in East Harlem after 4.6 miles that, strangely enough, felt much easier than the ones during the warmup.
I didn’t have to wait long for the results. NYRR had them posted on the site by the time I got out of the shower… 18:36! A new P.R. and my sub-6:00/mile goal, despite my very tired legs and body, and a hilly course. Note: on the NYRR site, it says 6:00 pace, but when I put it into any of a half a dozen or so calculators it shows 5:59. I think that is because they are using 3.1 miles to calculate it and not 5 KM, which is actually a touch longer. Of course, I should just run one of these things a few seconds faster so there’s no question at all it was sub-6, but I’m going to go ahead and count this one.
Helen is in South Africa this week to run a race (in which she kicked ass, by the way), I have a ton of work to get done this weekend for one of my Ink Plant clients, and I was just plain tired from a long week, so I had absolutely no plans for my Friday night. I was just going to get some work done and try to catch up on sleep. But then, my Friday morning plans didn’t happen… Instead of waking up early and running before work, I abused the snooze button for an hour, drifting in and out of several bizarre dreams involving an ice cream truck and waffles. Today was an office day, so I couldn’t sneak in my run at lunch. Then, after work, I had errands to run downtown (exciting errands: giving my cable box back to Time Warner and then buying a cool new handheld water bottle and also unexciting errands: grocery store and laundry) and didn’t get home until well after 8. By the time I had gotten everything put away and changed into running clothes, it was almost 10 o’clock.
Right from the get go, I was moving quick. My first mile on the streets of Harlem towards the park was a 6:50. Whew, that 36 hours of rest really helped. I slowed down into the low 7’s for the next three miles, not wanting to push too hard. But, when I hit the south end of the park, I had tons of energy to burn and was just itching to go. So I went. The next 3.5 got progressively faster until I was doing 6:10’s. Wow. That was a big relief after a week filled with such mediocre runs. I probably shouldn’t have pushed so hard (I have a long run tomorrow morning then a 5K race on Sunday), but sometimes when it’s going that well it’s impossible to not just roll with it. I ended up doing 8.61 miles in 1:00:04, a 6:58/mile pace (even including the slow cooldown). Definitely the best run I’ve had in the past couple weeks.
Only bad thing is that I’m still completely amped up from this run and I really need to get to sleep soon. I’ll try reading a bit and hope that helps. Goodnight.
I’ve been thinking about my running a lot lately. My goals, my training, my races. Albany shook things up a bit. I’ve taken a step back and reevaluated how I want the rest of the year to play out.
Looking at my training log, I’ve come to realize that I can’t accomplish my bigger distance goals if I keep pausing to run (relatively) fast marathons the whole year. I ran just over 280 miles in January but, because of the marathon, only 203 in February. There were 3 weeks of taper followed by a week of recovery. And there were far fewer quality miles within those 203 than were in January’s 280. Even now, a week-and-a-half after the race, I’m still not getting 100% quality out on my runs.
My plan for 2010 was to build up some big mileage (at least 3,000 total for the year) and get some ultra running under my belt. I thought a fun way to hit that goal would be to load up the calendar with a bunch of marathons. But, I’m realizing now that marathons aren’t all that fun if you’re not running your hardest. (Not to mention that traveling out to them all is really expensive.) And it’s just not possible to run them all hard.
So, I went through my calendar (now a permanent page with a link up top) and aggressively cut out the marathons that weren’t essential. New Jersey and Boston were safe because I was already registered. Leadville and San Francisco both made the cut too because they coincided with trips to visit family that would need to be made anyway (and plus I’m really excited about both those courses). I’ve long had Leanhorse in my head as the spot for my first ultra and so I’ll still plan on heading out to South Dakota for that one.
And, of course, New York is still on the list. But I don’t want to jog through NYC. I want to run my heart out. There’s no way that I could handle being around that many other people running fast through my city without getting carried away myself. If I couldn’t hold it in check in Chicago, how could I possibly expect to here? And, realizing that this could potentially be my last year in the city makes me want to make the race all the more memorable. The only way I can do that is if NYCM is the last big race of the year.
So, the JFK 50 is out. So are Vermont City, Lake Placid, and probably Yonkers. Of course, this means that I’ll miss one of my goals for the year (the 10+ marathons/ultras one), but I’m okay with that. I think it’s necessary in order to achieve the other, more important goals. I need to focus on what is going to get me to Badwater. Or, more accurately, what is going to get me to the finish line on Mount Whitney. Running a bunch of marathons isn’t going to get me there. Building up my miles and running challenging races is.
With that in mind (along with a whole bunch of other things) I’ve decided to change my plans for Leanhorse from the 50 miler to the 100 miler. It’s a gutsy move, certainly not the smartest one, and it might backfire on me. But it’s what my instinct is telling me to do. And so I’m doing it.
I guess this is still a race report, even though I wasn’t really racing this morning. Helen wanted to run the Al Gordon 4 Miler and I agreed that it sounded like fun. I wasn’t sure when I signed up how seriously I’d take it, but by this morning there was no doubt in my mind that it was going to be a strictly easy and fun run. I’ve had a really tough week of recovery from Albany (considerably worse than with any previous marathon), only getting in 41 miles and struggling even for those. Even if I had wanted to run fast today, I don’t think I could have.
The morning was very relaxed. After coffee and a bagel, we jogged down to Prospect Park and lined up about ten minutes before the start. I didn’t even stretch and wasn’t nervous at all at the start. It was a pleasant change from the stomach-wrenching anxiety I normally feel at the start of these things.
We had lined up near the back of the blue corral, so there was a delay after the start before we were actually able to start running. Helen was feeling better than me and zoomed ahead as I settled into a 6:55 pace. When I got to the big hill, I picked up the pace and ran hard up it, but then slowed right back down at the top and let everyone that I had just passed pass me back.
Mile 2 was another 6:55, nice and easy. I was just enjoying the park, the snow, the sun. When mile 3 rolled around, I was feeling really good and decided to speed up just a bit. I ran a 6:35 and then a 6:28 the final mile. I felt a little bad about passing so many folks who were struggling then — it seemed almost like I was cheating somehow by running the first miles so easy and having so much fun with it.
I hadn’t been hitting the tangents at all (in fact I was running on the far outside the whole race) so I ended up with an extra .04 miles according to my Garmin. I finished up in 27:04, smiling, and walked through the chute towards Helen. She had run a 25:24, finishing 5th. We hung out for a bit chatting with her teammates and then ran into an old GMR teammate of mine before finally doing a super slow jog back.
All in all, a very enjoyable Sunday morning run.
 Thanks to yet another big snowstorm, NYC schools were closed yesterday which meant that Helen and I were able to head out for an afternoon run during my lunch break. (I still had to work; one of the few bummers about being able to work from home is that you never get snow days…) We headed east to the river, then started slowly working our way downtown through almost a foot of heavy, wet snow. There were already a few tracks, so it only slowed us down to about 8:30’s, but it was still a hell of a workout for the legs. At about 96th St, we reached the part of the path that had been plowed and it seemed like we were suddenly flying without the weight of the snow. We ran through a couple snowball fights up the hill, past kids building snowmen, and then turned right into the Upper East Side. Every intersection was like a little brain teaser: How am I going to navigate this one without filling my shoe up with water? We reached the New York Road Runners building, picked up our bibs from volunteers who told us we were crazy for running in this weather, and then headed back outside. Helen said she didn’t want to run through the snow by the river again, so we headed into the park instead. Great decision. As soon as we passed the Fred Lebow statue, it was like we were in a winter wonderland. The sun was shining but there was snow in every direction and tons of happy people running around sledding, throwing snowballs, and just generally enjoying the day. I had to chuckle at how much everyone had been complaining about this storm. I mean, how could you not like this? Eventually, we passed the Meer and exited the park, heading back into Harlem and again navigating slushy intersections. We got back in just under an hour. When I sat back down at my desk, I saw on my computer screen an instant message from my boss in response to my away message, “Are you really out running in this weather?” Yep.
I ran my fifth marathon today and ended up with my second worst time ever, a 3:07:14. Obviously, this is nowhere near my goal time of 2:55:00 but I’m not nearly as upset by it as you would think. I made some big mistakes today, but I learned a lot of good lessons and discovered some important things about me as a distance runner. Plus, our weekend up in Albany as a whole was so good that even a disastrous race wouldn’t have been able to bring my spirits down.
So, what went wrong out there on the course?
- I went out too fast. My first miles ranged from 6:16 to 6:30, much faster than the planned 6:40s. I wasn’t sure how much the wind (which was then at my back) was pushing me, so I didn’t slow myself down as much as I should have. Also, I may have gotten cocky and thought I was capable of more than I actually was. Either way, I hit the wall hard at mile 8. (Advice: Bonking at mile 8 in a marathon sucks. Don’t do it. Ever.) My pace immediately started to spiral downwards and I was struggling just to put one foot in front of the other the whole last half of the race.
- Wind. I don’t want to make excuses, but the wind was brutal. I completely underestimated how much harder it would make running, even though we were on a loop. I missed a couple good opportunities to draft too early on because I was worried about hitting exact paces. Looking back, slowing a bit there and avoiding the wind would have made a huge difference.
- Not enough calories. Because I was scared of digestive issues, I only had a Powerbar and a single gel for breakfast. I had two more gels during the race, plus a few tiny glasses of Gatorade, but it wasn’t nearly enough, especially with the late morning start.
I came closer to DNF’ing today than I ever have before in a marathon. It was a five loop course and I came incredibly close to throwing in the towel at mile 20. Frankly, I was worried that if I headed out for the final loop, I might not make it back. I was hurting that bad. There was a moment when I had to decide which would be least damaging to both my mind and body: finishing with a shitty time or not finishing at all. I chose the first and am so glad I did. Knowing that I could fight through and run 18 miles of complete agony was actually a real big mental boost after it was over. Anyone can finish when it’s going good, but it almost takes more to finish up the lousy ones.
Another big thing I learned today was that I’m not going to be happy running so many marathons half-assed. I think that I need to scale back the calendar a bit and focus on fewer, but higher quality, races. If I’m going to be running slow, I might as well just do the run as training on my own. No sense in going out and spending a small fortune on race registrations and travel. There are still five more marathons on my calendar this year that I’m planning on running (almost) for sure because registration/travel plans have already been made, but some of the others are probably going to get cut. More on this later.
And now for the silver lining: Even though I blew up, I still finished 9th overall (gotta love those super small races) and ran a Boston qualifying time. Helen finished 14th overall and 3rd female with an amazing 3:19:37, even though she didn’t train seriously and was planning on just running a slow long run to keep busy while I was racing.
And, the actual race itself was almost perfect. Huge praise goes to Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club for putting on such a great event. Registration was only $20 but we got great sweatshirts and tons of food at the start and finish. There was Gatorade and gels out on the course and the volunteers were very well organized. The five loop course annoyed some, but I loved getting into a routine and knowing exactly what was coming up. This is definitely a marathon I’d consider running again in future years.
Here’s a photo of Helen and Me (white jacket, blue striped hat) at the starting line courtesy of The Happy Runner.
My first marathon of the year is two days away. We’re headed up to Albany in less than an hour. That means it’s time to solidify goals. Gulp.
The weather report for Sunday is looking almost perfect. It’s supposed to be a high of 37, cloudy, with only a 10% chance of precipitation. Shorts weather. There’s some wind, but the course is a series of small loops, so the wind shouldn’t be too big of a factor. In other words, I can’t blame the weather if I post a shitty time.
There is nothing on the radar as far as injuries. I went for an 11.3 mile run this morning and it was easy as cake. I didn’t really even begin to get fatigued and had no joint or muscle pain. That means I can’t blame injury or say that my legs weren’t fresh enough.
As far as training, there’s definitely nothing that can be blamed there. I went back through my logs and compared my training numbers from the time between Philly and tomorrow with the time between Delaware and Philly (the previous training cycle, which led to a 2:57:52 marathon) and found some very interesting trends.
| Dates |
Days |
Miles |
Miles/Day |
Avg. Pace |
| Nov. 23 – Feb. 20 |
90 |
715.2 |
7.95 |
7:43 |
| May 18 – Nov. 21 |
188 |
1036.3 |
5.51 |
7:34 |
My daily mileage increased by 44% this time around! And, when you consider the fact that this cycle included lots of slow snowy runs and jogs to and from stair workouts (while the previous one did not), the “real” pace actually probably increased or, at the least, stayed flat. So, I can’t blame lack of training if things don’t go well.
One last indicator: My last half marathon before going into Philadelphia was a 1:31:18 and my personal best to that point was a 1:27:30. A month ago, I ran a 1:23:46. That’s a huge improvement. Clearly I can’t blame a slump either — one doesn’t exist.
Not having anything to hide behind is a little scary. But, then again, it might be just the motivation I need out there in the late miles when it really starts to get tough. And I’m posting all this here as extra incentive not to back down from the struggle.
In the past, I’ve always come up with a series of graded goals. Not this time — I’ll be running this one pass/fail. A 2:55:00, a 6:40/mile pace, or better will count as success. I want that NYCM qualifier.
Time to lay it all on the line and see what happens…
 Helen and I headed up to her hometown in western Massachusetts this weekend. The trip went really well, nothing like Meet the Parents (phew…) and provided a nice escape from the city. We got in solid runs both days we were up there. The scenery was beautiful and the hills were intense.
As we were getting ready to head out Saturday, I realized that I had managed to forget running shorts. So I ended up wearing a super-stylish bright purple pair of Helen’s old cross country shorts. The elastic was gone from the waistband so I had to safety pin them to my tights. Comical.
I had taken two nasty falls last week (neither while running) and had a ridiculous cramp in my calf (also not from running) that was lingering so I was feeling pretty beat up even before we started on Saturday.
 Then, a couple miles into the run, after already tackling bigger hills than exist anywhere in NYC, Helen informed me that we were about to run up a hill called Agony. We did, and then I discovered that it was at the foot of another even bigger hill which we were also to run up. The whole first five miles or so were almost solid climbing. I was definitely enjoying the route, but it was tough — I’m just not used to those big hills. The next rest was a mix of up and down and we picked up the pace quite a bit, finishing the 14.7 miles in under 8’s, which I was very happy with.
That run took more out of me than I realized. Our plan was to do 10 yesterday, but a few miles into it, I asked if we could shorten it to 8. It was more beautiful scenery and more big fun hills, but my legs were super sore and I didn’t want to push it the week before the marathon. The run was super casual and we even made a couple stops for photos. I just couldn’t get over how good it felt to be running out among the trees, the snow, and the blue sky.
With those, I finished the week with 47.6 miles. It was definitely light on mileage quantity, but that was the plan. And, there were some quality runs in there, so I feel really good about it. Less than one week of the taper left now…
I wasn’t planning on running the mile again so soon. The last one took too much out of me — both mentally and physically. But, last night, riding the subway to Brooklyn, it suddenly seemed like a good idea to give it another shot. My legs were feeling good, I got in a solid workout on Tuesday, and I knew that I could approach this with a little more knowledge than I had the last one. We chatted about it and I decided that I’d head up to the Armory, but that my goal would be 5:10, not five flat.
 On my lunch break today, I headed over to the Asics store and picked up a pair of Pirahna SP 2 racing flats. They are a ridiculously light 4.2 ounces, feel surprisingly comfortable, and, if nothing else, they make me look faster. I left work a little early so I could get up to the track before the meet started and test them out. I ran a mile-and-a-quarter quick and they felt great. It was like being barefoot.
Eventually I was up there in the center of the track, the fast guys were running around us, and they started calling out the bigger numbers closer to what I’m capable of. Instead of lining up with the 5:00 group, though, I waited for 5:08. This made a huge difference in the race I ran.
There were a ton of people so they were crowding the lanes with 12 runners each heat. I drew the number 12 stick and had to start forward and on the outside. I launched off the line quickly, trying to get in position to drop in ahead of the pack after the cone. This worked. I was in fourth coming down the straightaway and finished the first lap in 34 seconds using less energy than I had the last time up there when I ran a 37.
But the slowness of the heat hurt me overall, I think. Two guys shot off ahead and I was sitting right behind another who ran steady for a couple laps but then started slowing. I didn’t quite feel like I could pass him right away, although thinking back on it now, I probably should have. After being so used to being dead last up there, I felt like I was running faster than I was because of my place. I hung behind the third place guy until the sixth lap. When I passed, a crowd followed me and the sound of their footsteps pushed me to run faster.
It was hurting here, but I thought back to the moments last night and today when I kept running through my head how it would hurt and how I would push through. I kept a fairly constant pace, but I hit lap 6 at 3:59 and knew that 5:00 was completely out of reach. (Even though it wasn’t my official goal for the day, of course it was on my mind.) I kept pushing, but didn’t really kick until the last half lap. I definitely should have done that earlier. Even if the time wasn’t close today, it would be good training to give that extra push when everything is burning.
After crossing the line, I smartly hung around and stole a glimpse at the timer’s clipboard so I wouldn’t have to wait for posted results. 5:09.6. I made today’s goal, set a new P.R. by five seconds, and didn’t feel too destroyed. All in all, a pretty good Thursday night.
I definitely have a lot to learn about track racing and short races in general. A quick look at my times will tell you that I’m obviously never going to be great at them, but it is a fun change of pace and a little side project that I want to keep going. After tonight, I feel much more confident that I can break 5 later this year if I start sticking a little bit of speedwork into my schedule.
 Considering that I don’t follow any formal training plan, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that I don’t have a scripted out taper plan ready for Albany. Instead, I have the basic tenets of the taper in my head, and am loosely following them while still listening to my body.
From both reading literature and my own limited personal experience, I’ve come to believe that four weeks before the marathon should be the hardest week of training, followed by three weeks of a slight taper. I think it’s important not to go too light on the mileage (especially in the beginning of the taper) and definitely to keep some moderate to hard workouts in there. When I over-tapered, my legs got too relaxed and I wasn’t able to push late in the race when it started to hurt. In contrast, I ran really strong in Chicago without any taper at all. So, if I’m going to err, it will be on the side of too heavy because I think that’s a safer place to be.
Honestly, I’m happy that the taper is here. I’ve been pushing hard lately and my legs were starting to feel it. By Wednesday this week, my rolling 7 day total was 86 miles, my highest ever. Add a quick trip up the stairs of the Empire State Building in there and it’s not hard to imagine why many of my runs this week were less than stellar.
Tuesday night, a few hours after the ESBRU, I met up with Baker in Central Park for what was supposed to be an 11 mile run, but I had to bail early because of GI issues and general fatigue, only getting in 9.7. It wasn’t a huge difference in mileage, but having to quit a run early bummed me out. Wednesday, I ran down to the Queensboro, over it, and back for another 9.5 miles. It wasn’t necessarily a bad run, but it certainly wasn’t good. I was tired and not running fast at all.
I took an extra rest day Thursday (one of the biggest changes I made for the taper) but it didn’t help out as much as I’d hoped it would. I ran 11.4 from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the Williamsburg Bridge Friday morning, but it was another big struggle. I wrote in an email later that day, “Now that I’m done with it, I feel really good about my run this morning. As I’ve mentioned before, it makes me happy to know that I can power through those ones were nothing seems to be going right.”
My old running partner Sarah was back in town for the weekend, so we met up for a run in Central Park Saturday morning. She was already 8 miles into her run when we started and I was happy that she had the head start and wouldn’t be wanting to push the pace — I had struggled even to get 7:30s on my warmup heading down there. That run ended up at 13.7 miles, my longest of the week, but it was only 7:36/mile.
The bright spot of the week came later that day when I headed out for a 4 miler along the East River with Helen. My legs aren’t a big fan of two-a-days and so we started really slow, but then coming back we posted a couple quick miles, including a sub-7, into a strong headwind. That felt good.
Yesterday, Helen and I headed out to Queens over the Triboro then came back via the Queensboro for 10.3 miles. It wasn’t pretty. My stomach was giving me hell, my heel hurt, and I just didn’t have any oomph.
So, outside of the one short run, this week was pretty much all tough, slowish struggles. I got in 58.7 miles, which is about where I wanted to be, but I didn’t think they’d be this difficult to come by. Still, though, I don’t know if it’s a problem that they were so tough… I meant to push really hard last week, knowing that I’d have a couple easier weeks up ahead to recover. It seemed like a good idea at the time and still kinda does. Your thoughts?
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