I meant to do 5:36 for all of them but I couldn't hold back. Then at the same effort the pace dropped. Oh well, still probably effected by the half marathon. I could have hit the last mile faster but I didn't want to push it and I still averaged faster than planned.
7:20 (felt easier than the last one so I didn't stop it)
7:05 (kicked it in a bit, ok a little more than a bit, but still felt good)
Tried out some new shoes-the nike luna racers. 5.5oz but still have tons of cushioning. I like how the st3 racers fit better but do I like them 2.3oz per foot better? Not sure yet.
Went up to Gilbert hills and did a trail run. Went really slow. Seems like a short distance but spent 2 hrs running so I didn't want to do any more given that the marathon is just over a week away. I think I am gonna change my workout schedule as well to perhaps 2 marathon pace runs of 5-8 miles just to feel the pace for a while. I think that the early pace is crucial to success and we can't afford hitting 6:40 flat for more than 1 mile or hitting 6:55's or 7:00's in the middle miles. My natural pacing would probably be something like 6:40's until mile 10 and then slowing to 7's until 20 or so and then not being able to speed up when I should because of the fast first half.
Did 3x2 miles at marathon pace just to get used to the pace. I knew from the start that it would be a exercise in holding back (which the first 15 or so miles of the marathon also will be).
Basically hit 6:48 pace the whole time. It was extremely easy. I wouldn't really call it a workout, but at least I can't say my taper wasn't good enough.
Wasn't gonna run today, but it got to be 9pm and I didn't really have anything to do and the day didn't seem complete. I really won't run on saturday, but I figured this wouldn't hurt. I ended up running 6:45 pace with almost no effort. My usual 8min/mile doesn't seem like moving in this weather (cold). I will be sure to have several easy easy days before the marathon.
My last "workout" before the marathon. I didn't break this one up into parts, just ran it. Went to the hope high track. I am a little concerned that my GPS (garmin 405) is inaccurate. It was (and has done this in the past too) overestimating the distance by a significant margin. I ran 24 laps (less than 6 miles really) and it clocked it at 6.10. That is almost a minute off. The half marathon course clocked in at 13.15 which I was not concerned about because the tangents could account for that much over 13.1 miles. The 30k I ran a while back clocked 18.74 (.1 over the 18.64 that makes up 30km), still not THAT significant over 18 miles. But it is definitely more inaccurate on the track. We will just have to not entirely rely on my watch, but also on the mile markers and time for the marathon.
Coached a workout and did the warmup/cooldown/striders and even drills with them because it was our first real speed workout of the season. Finished a few of the sets with people which were basically more striders for me except one 200 in 34 trying to pull henry to a 69 400 in his last rep (I wanted him to do controlled speed but he was going all out, so when he hit a few 70's I figured why not build some confidence by getting him to break 70 but it didn't work, he hit 70 again). Then I did one mile in 6:30 and warmed down with the group.
Ran a workout... with the girls. Most of it was around 6:30 pace but in 400's. Felt good, no running tomorrow. Then the marathon. The weather is looking better now. Looks like it will be 47-48 at the start and 57-58 at the end. Just about perfect. I might need gloves (but no shirt).
Mohawk Hudson River Marathon (26.2 Miles) 02:57:53, Place overall: 15, Place in age division: 2
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Crosstraining miles
Total Miles
0.00
26.20
0.00
0.00
0.00
26.20
Short story: Goal met! Chip time of 2:57:53 went in right with bedoukian (he beat me although same chip time). We pretty much needed each other to go that fast. More to come later (after a bath, some ibuprofen, and a beer).
Night before: Ate at ihop a large thing of french toast and hash browns, then went to get a pizza lol and I ate 1/3 of that (bedoukian ate a full half of it). Got horrible sleep, but in a hotel, the night before a marathon it wasn't too too bad.
Pre-race morning: Up at 5:30 Ate muffin, bagel, 2 cups coffee went to start around 7:30. Temps were about 47 at start, perfect. But it heated up quickly (probably my only slight complaint for the whole day).
Race started at 8:30, bedoukian and I trashed our shirts, and it was on. I took my honey/coffee mixture pretty regularly and consumed 700-800 calories of it total plus probably 100 calories of gatorade at the aid stations.
Splits (I was using half mile auto lap on my garmin so this is gonna get complicated
1: 3:27.4, 3:25.1 : 6:52.5 conservative first few miles
2: 3:24.9, 3:29.6 : 6:54.5
3: 3:19.6, 3:15.6 : 6:35.2 downhills
4: 3:21.7, 3:14.6 : 6:36.3
5: 3:26.2, 3:12.9 : 6:39.1
6: 3:27.6, 3:26.8 : 6:54.4 ran with some other people wanting to go sub 3
7: 3:23.1, 3:25.2 : 6:48.3
8: 3:23.8, 3:24.1 : 6:49.9 decided to ditch them
9: 3:21.0, 3:25.6 : 6:46.6
10: 3:22.8, 3:31.2 : 6:54.0 dont know why these miles were slow, didn't feel slow but didn't hurt either maybe slightly rolling hills (but only to a person used to running downhill at this point)
11: 3:31.5, 3:14.0 : 6:54.5
12: 3:26.8, 3:25.3 : 6:52.1
13: 3:18.1, 3:28.9 : 6:47.0 (hit the half at 1:28:47)
14: 3:20.4, 3:42.7 : 7:03.1 (both bedoukian and I stopped to poop at different locations and although I was faster, bedoukian caught me very quickly which was good)
15: 3:24.5, 3:21.8 : 6:46.3
16: 3:26.4, 3:22.5 : 6:48.9
17: 3:16.1, 3:20.9 : 6:37.0 from here to 21 I started pushing it
18: 3:21.1, 3:19.0 : 6:40.1
19: 3:25.2, 3:21.0 : 6:46.2
20: 3:23.5, 3:18.0 : 6:41.5
21: 3:23.8, 3:24.0 : 6:47.8
22: 3:28.3, 3:22.2 : 6:50.5 we both started hurting on this mile, was definitely the longest feeling mile of the race
23: 3:26.1, 3:24.6 : 6:50.7 right hip flexor not working right, shortening stride significantly
24: 3:28.9, 3:30.0 : 6:58.9 left quad beginning to fail/sieze up
25: 3:27.7, 3:23.6 : 6:51.3 continuation of previous pain but pushing effort (if not pace) nonetheless
26: 3:30.7, 3:20.4 : 6:51.1 went through several stages of feeling good/wanting to die, yeah you know what I am talking about
26.2: 1:05 (5:25 pace) bedoukian realized we could break 2:58 if we floored it, hit a half-runner as I was doing my final surge 20m from the finish, bedoukian probably could have outkicked me if he wanted here because this person cut me off.
Incredibly my garmin actually said 26.20 miles right at the finish.
Overall I would say quite even splits. First half was in 1:28:47 and the second was 1:29:05 which included at least a 15 second poo break including slowing down, pooping, and speeding up again... yes I am that fast. Who knows what would have happened had bedoukian and I not run together the whole time. I was wanting to surge at mile 20 seeing people we could pass (all of whom we did eventually pass anyway). But then towards the end I was probably dieing more than he was. I think that he would have beaten me even if I had surged at 20 like I wanted to. Without the support I would probably have done miles 24, 25, and 26 around 7:30 pace. So I think we have answered the question on endurance vs. speed on the road for us. It falls very close to the marathon. I am pretty confident that I would have won a 23 mile race, probably 24, and bedoukian probably would win a 25M race or above.
Went out with the hash hound harriers. Was pretty stiff at first but quickly loosened up. My left quad and my right hamstring are a bit sore, but nothing to write home about.
Feeling pretty good once I loosened up. Still a bit sore. No wonder since my left quad was about to fail for the last 3 miles of the marathon. Meant to keep it a little slower than 7's but I ran into the brown xc team and didn't want them to pass me on their next lap of blackstone blvd (a road with a sort of park in the median with a dirt path) so I picked it up. Then when I saw I was going 6:30 or faster I tried slowing down. It didn't work. So 6:30 pace 2 days after the marathon. Why? Not sure. All I know is that I really wasn't struggling.
AM: 6 at 6:50 pace with jordan. I can still feel the marathon in me, but I am already really wanting to get back to training. I should probably recover more. But I will make this week and maybe next week fairly low mileage.
PM: Wasn't stupid, didn't do the 400 workout I planned for my club. Instead I just did warmup/cooldown and striders with them and coached the workout. Did 2 400s with the girls in 88 and 84. I thought the worse problem was my left quad, but my right hamstring is turning out to be the one that hurts when I run. I think one of the striders might have pulled it a bit. It felt bad during the warmdown. I am not running with anyone tomorrow, so if it hurts at all when I start I will just bag the run.
AM: 5.63 at 7min pace. Funny, I had 1.5 beers last night before bed and this morning the 7 pace felt almost like tempo. It was tough. I think I am gonna limit alcohol to 2-3 drinks on 1 night of the week.
Surface Navy Association 5k by the bay (3.1 Miles) 00:17:34, Place overall: 1
Easy Miles
Marathon Pace Miles
Threshold Miles
VO2 Max Miles
Crosstraining miles
Total Miles
6.80
0.00
0.00
3.10
0.00
9.90
AM: 5.3 at 7:20 pace... felt great. Wanted to run more.
PM: 5k race, only 9 seconds off my PR 6 days after the marathon. I definitely didn't really go all out either. I was never in too much pain. But I brought home the bacon defending my title (I won this race last year with a much worse time). Nothing hurt so I think I am clear to do workouts at this point. Next weekend I am doing an 8k cross country race in boston (mayors cup) which I am thinking I should definitely break 29 at. It really isn't respectable until you are sub 28, but it is very unlikely that that will happen right now as that would be a faster pace than the 5k I did today. But getting further away from the marathon and putting in just a little speed work should help.
8.3 at 7:30 pace on haynes classic. Again 2 beers made this feel harder than it should have, but only for the last 2 miles. I just don't really understand how to have a social life without occaisionaly drinking some alcohol. It was better when I didn't realize that it effects my running.
14.3 in gilbert hills state park, give me 5 more runs in there and I will start to figure it out. With all the leaves on the ground now everything looked different and I got lost several times and ended up doing 3 or 4 mini loops. Jamie from the running club came with me.
Now this is a reasonable distance. The marathon is too long. I felt good after this run, and progressively increased the pace during the last 40 minutes (130 minutes total). I looked at the indoor track calendar at the usatfne site and there are a bunch of open events. I am really tempted to do indoor track. But if I do I should really wrap up my fall season soon, take a good 2 weeks off with cross training, and then start training fresh for the indoor season. I should ask people how this generally goes. The first possible race I would want to do would be december 8th at harvard. Then the 13th and 20th there are developmental meets at brown. I should probably just wait for the races in january and february or skip it all together and just do spring track (for which there are far fewer open meets).
AM: 5.15 at 7:10 pace. Was super cold compared to what it has been but I need to get used to it. It was only 40 but the wind chill was in the low 30's. I guess mornings also feel colder because your system isn't ramped up yet. At mile 3 after the first real hill I felt pretty warm. Luckily my morning group meets at a place that I can see from inside the lobby of the computer science building. I think we will naturally start meeting inside from now on. Pace felt brisk but not taxing. 7:30 is definitely more recovery-pace for me right now, but I was cold so I kept pushing the pace until I wasn't cold, and then I held it there.
PM: speed workout 1.25 up, drills, striders, 3x(200,400,600,400,200) with 200m recovery between workbouts and 400m recovery between sets -- all at mile race pace. I made up this workout and it didn't sound so hard, but it was just on the edge of what I could do at 5min pace. Times were as follows 37,75,1:50,75,37,37,72,1:53,76,37,36,76,1:52,75,36 It was pretty windy so the ones that missed the mark I am gonna say were the gusty ones. For instance the 72 felt easier than the 76's and the 1:50 felt easier than the other 600's that were slower, but perhaps thats because it was early in the workout. Basically 5min pace feels ridiculously fast to me right now. That is fine. This race in two weeks is a downhill mile and all I really want is to break 5 minutes so that I don't embarrass myself. I think from this workout today I know I could break 5 in a race situation tapered without a headwind. Two more weeks and no more workouts for a month or two.
AM: 5.7 at 7:20 pace. I am gonna run with the girls in tonight's
workout because I want to be very fresh for sunday's race (mayors cup
for those of you who have heard of it). I am doing the 8k and am
almost certain I can break 29... probably faster so like 28:30 is my
goal which is 5:44 pace. On the track a few weeks ago I had a workout
of 3x2miles in which I hit something like 5:54 pace for the first set,
5:50 pace for the second set, and 5:45 for the third set. I wasn't
struggling to do that so if I am actually in the same shape as I was
then I should be able to hold a little better than that for 8k. We
will see.
PM:
4x2km at 6min pace with 200m recoveries. No girls showed up for the
workout so I went ahead and did the workout with henry. But I kept it
steady and relaxed if not comfortable (the english language is not
robust enough to describe different aerobic efforts). Basically I
think I could have hammered out 5:50's but I saved myself a bit because
of the race on sunday.
AM: 5.2 at 7:30 pace. Meant to go slower but this almost felt like a stumble until the last half mile downhill that I let loose a bit. I know I am still not fully recovered from the marathon yet, but I still think I can go sub 29 in the 8k tomorrow.
Ugh. So first of all I decided to do the 5k instead of the 8k because everybody I was with was doing the 5k and I didn't want to wait the extra 1.5 hours for the 8k when I have a med school exam to be studying for. I guess everyone has bad days, and worse days, and some even worse, and then one day you die. This I will just file away as one of my worst races ever. I don't have much of a reason for running so slowly. I went out in 5:22 and didn't feel all that bad. Then mile 2 was 6:08???!? That has to be like 10 mile race pace for me. I don't know what happened. Could the course have been long? And the third mile was only slightly faster and I really had nothing to kick it in with. I could list a thousand excuses, but I honestly don't know what went wrong in such a big way as to make me run nearly 30 seconds slower than what I did last week on a hilly course only 6 days after my marathon. I am gonna ask jamie what I should do. He has much more experience than I do with this stuff. I might take 2 or even 3 weeks off and cross train with swimming/cycling/elliptical. Last december I spent 3-4 weeks at around 25-35 miles per week because I just didn't ever feel like getting out the door for runs. Then in the spring I ran huge PR's. But I don't know if that is why. After my break, I did a spinning class, kept my mileage at anywhere from 50-65 miles per week and did workouts every week. If any of you have had similar experiences or advice please tell me. I am currently thinking I won't run the downhill mile next weekend because if I don't break 5 I will be absolutely crushed. And right now I don't have much speed or confidence.
AM: 5.15 Had a lengthy conversation with jamie about training philosophy. The only interesting thing that came out of it was that he thinks that for 5k to 10k training, one run each day should be a good bit longer than the race distance. In college he did only 3 miles in the mornings and did his main run in the afternoons much longer (making 80-100mpw). The rest of the conversation just made me feel more confident that I am recovering daily from runs and workouts which is what is really important. And recovering from the marathon just takes a long time but we don't think that running drastically less would speed up or improve that recover. Active recovery as always. The most I should possibly do is drop workouts for a while. So I have decided to not race this weekend and stop workouts for a while. Probably until december or january except for the occaisional threshold stuff.
This is what I see a lot of my winter base looking like. Perhaps 4 and 6 or even 3 and 7 many days with a tempo once a week and a long run of 14-16 miles once a week. Probably more of it towards 8min pace once I have my mileage up to 70 again.
PM: 5.2 Gonna hit 60 this week. Because of my exam I got a slow start to the week. But not a bad idea to keep it fairly easy still. Next week I will probably pick it up to 70. Anyone have any thoughts about doubles and whether it makes any difference to make one run longer and the other shorter? I don't see much point in getting out the door for any less than 5 and I can't really do consistent days of over 12 or so miles at this point. I don't recover fully.
