Training log - Week ending 10/28/12

This week was 82 miles of “real running” and 10 “miles” pool running, no swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.  

Last week of marathon training is done, and now I’m tapering.  My week ended up being a bit skewed – since I needed to run my last 20 on Saturday (so I could cheer at the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday), I needed to push back my last tempo to Thursday.  In turn, I ended up skipping my Tuesday interval workout – it just didn’t make sense to pile a 10 mile race, an interval workout, a tempo, and a 20 mile run into 8 days.  So subbed easy miles for Tuesday’s intervals. 

The workouts that I did do went well – despite feeling the cumulative effect of the past month’s training, I was able to hit the paces I would expect to hit while sustaining the proper effort level (not straining).  My legs feel like they’ve traded their top end speed for strength – that seems like a good tradeoff for marathoning.  

I was particularly happy with my long run, which I paced exactly how I wanted.  7:03 feels very natural and comfortable, though I’m thinking that I’ll still start out with a more conservative marathon pace, and then see how I feel at the halfway point.  If I run my marathon and finish feeling like I had too much in the tank at the end, that’s not the worst thing in the world.  In fact, pretty much ideal for a first marathon.  

My long run also taught me an important lesson.  My coach continually reminds us to hydrate and eat early -- “if you wait until you start feeling hungry or thirsty, it's too late!”  I’ve read that and processed it, but I didn’t really comprehend it.  Until Saturday’s long run.  I carried a water bottle with me, but wasn’t particularly thirsty, so I didn’t drink much during the first parts of my run, and just took a brief sip at water fountains – I had the bottle with me, so I figured I could just drink whenever I wanted – i.e waiting until I was thirsty.  So, not much water.  

Whoops.   Towards the end of the long run (just past 18 miles) I suddenly got ridiculously thirsty, and running got a lot harder.  Drained my handheld in about 2 seconds and wished I had two more.   Hung on to finish a full 20 miles with 8 at marathon pace, but had a valuable lesson drilled into my head as well.  The memory of how those last few dehydrated miles felt will help me take my hydration seriously during my race, and hopefully ensure I don’t make the same mistake again.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 60 minutes of easy pool-running for “6 miles” followed with upper body strengthwork and injury prevention exercises.  3.5 miles very easy (8:33) plus foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 7.5 miles very easy (8:32), followed by yoga.  Later did another 8 miles easy (7:53).  Got a massage that night.

Wednesday:   In the morning, 9 miles very easy (9:07), followed by light injury prevention work and foam rolling.

Thursday:   In the morning, 14.5 miles, including a tempo workout of 2x3 miles on a local bike trail (pace of 6:33 for uphill 3, 6:26 for downhill 3), followed by injury prevention work.  20 minutes of shakeout pool-running and foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, 10 miles very easy (9:04 pace), followed by upper body strengthwork and injury prevention exercises.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, 21.5 miles as a progression long run, split as 8:34 for first 7 miles, 7:42 for next 5.5, 7:03 for next 8, and then jog last mile.  Followed with 20 minutes of recovery pool-running; foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   8 miles over the course of about 4 hours (cheering for the Marine Corps Marathon).  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 10/21/12

This week was 57 miles of “real running” and 16 “miles” pool running, no swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.  

Kinda a weird week, as I tapered….sort of…for a 10 mile race.  Originally my plan had been to treat Army as a goal race, and to taper similar to how I did for Cherry Blossom (where I ran a total of 28 miles in the week before the race).  Why argue with success.

But…of course, I’m in the height of my marathon training.  Argh!  So, consulted with my coach, who advised that I should stick with my normal training routine, and just keep Friday and Saturday easy to freshen up a bit.  So that’s what I did, including a last minute double on Wednesday afternoon – I usually double on Wednesdays, but had planned to skip the second run this week as part of my taper (and had already washed my hair post-run before consulting with coach).  Whoops…cue second run (and second washing of hair).

[and yes, since I work from home, I usually don’t wash my hair between runs if I’m doubling]

And of course, in the race, I ended up finishing one lousy second off of my PR from this spring.  Oh well.  At least it’s an indication that I’m handling the training load well.  And who’s to say I would have run faster with a CB-type taper.

In other news, annoying sinus condition continues.  I did a course of the antibiotic Bactrim the week before last which helped some, but then the problem recurred after coming off the drugs.  *sigh*.  By the end of this past week, stuff was really hurting, and I actually even doubted for a small bit that I’d be racing on Sunday. 

So back for round two – this time hitting it with antibiotic ear drops and a Z-pack.  I started the ear drops on Friday, which cleared things up somewhat by Sunday, and started the Z-pack on Sunday post race.   Judging from the race and my workouts, the sinus thing doesn’t seem to be affecting my running too much, but it’s pretty annoying.  It also means that I can’t swim, which is one of my preferred recovery workouts.  Whine whine whine.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” followed with upper body strengthwork and injury prevention exercises.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 9.5 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 1200, 2x800, 400 in 5:56, 4:18, 2:48, 2:45, 76), followed by injury prevention work and 10 minutes easy pool-running.  An easy 4 miles in the afternoon (8:06 pace), and floor barre and foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   In the morning, 10 miles very easy (8:30).    Later did another 5 miles easy (7:53 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 3.5 miles very easy outside (9:08 pace) followed by  55 minutes of easy pool-running for “5.5 miles.”  Light injury prevention work and foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, 6.5 miles, most at easy pace but including a mile pick-up in 6:19.  Followed with 15 minutes of easy pool-running.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, 3.5 miles easy (7:49 pace).  Injury  prevention stuff, and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning,  1 mile warm-up and then a 10 mile race in 65:32.  That evening did 4 miles very easy (8:29 pace), followed by 20 minutes of recovery pool-running and foam rolling.

Race report: Army 10 Miler, October 21, 2012

I ran the Army 10 Miler this morning, finishing in a time of 65:33 by my watch.  Not the time I was hoping to run, frankly. But I ran the best race I could, on a fun course in perfect weather (temp 53, dp 44).  There are far worse things than missing your PR by 2 seconds.

No race report on the Army 10 Miler is complete without a discussion of the logistics of getting to the start line – a process that always ends up being much harder than it should be at Army.  Last year, when I ran this race, I was trapped in a Metro car for 20 minutes on my way to the start, and then needed another 20+ minutes to exit the Metro station – the Pentagon station simply can’t handle the # of people passing through it on race morning.   

Eager to avoid a repeat, this year I took a cab to National Airport, and then got on the Metro northbound for three stops,  meaning that I exited the Metro station on the side that had much less traffic.  Worked beautifully.  My cab picked me up at 6:05 am; I was at the exit of the Pentagon metro station by 6:30.  Once I made it through the metro turnstiles, I then parked myself just inside the station, to keep warm.  I thought leaving the station at 7 would give me enough time to check my baggage, warm-up, and get into my corral.

Oops. 

I had completely forgotten that Army requires people to use their clear bags (provided that morning, not at the expo) for bag check.  And…I might be just a bit of a packrat.  After a determined but ultimately futile attempt to cram my large backpack into a much smaller plastic bag, I opted for divide-and –conquer – splitting my possessions into multiple plastic bags, and then tying them together.  Luckily, bag check took this contraption without arguing.

[my argument, had I been forced to make it, would have been the following:
“either you let me check all this stuff, or I’ll have to leave it in a pile by the side of the race course.  Where it will be flagged by the roving Army personnel as an unidentified suspicious package, and result in massive disruption and chaos.  Your call.”]

So that was one obstacle overcome.  Now just to go to the corral and do my warm-up. 

Um yeah.  I forgot that Army requires runners to go through a “checkpoint” before going to their corrals.  I’m honestly not sure what they’re checking – there was no pat down, and nobody looked for my bib (which was under my throwaway shirt).  I guess a bottleneck just seemed like a good idea.  And so we had one.

The end result was that, despite having gotten to the race site well in advance of when I needed to be, I still ended up finally making it to my corral with precious little time for a warm-up.  Oh well.  Jogged a bit less than a mile, did one stride and one drill, and then I had to jump into my corral.  I’d have to warm-up on the course.  I wasn’t too worried about it, as I felt pretty good and limber.

+++

Jumped into my already packed corral, chatted with some friends, and waited for the start.  And then the gun went off.  And we stood.  These larger races always crack me up – when the race starts, you don’t go, but instead stand and then start slowly walking towards the front.  Finally we crossed the start line, and were off.

I spent the first mile trying to find my groove while not wasting too much energy swerving around people.   

From then on, I tried to hit a groove and just hold it.  I felt a bit slow, but also felt like my legs were locked into that pace.  As it turns out, they were.  In retrospect, I’m not sure I could have done anything different – had I surged, I might have gotten myself into a perkier rhythm, or I might have pushed myself into oxygen debt.

Army, though a fairly fast course, is not altogether flat, with some elevation changes/hills on the 14^th street bridge.  For some reason, the hills of the 14^th Street Bridge didn’t seem anywhere near as onerous as they have in the past – a positive development, I think.  I held my pace constantly though them.

The most annoying part of this race was the finish line.  They move it every year, it seems, and it’s about a quarter mile further each time.   Several years back, you would come down a sharp descent to a final turn, and then the finish line was there.  Then last year they redid the course, with the finish line being moved a half mile further (on the other side of a very mild overpass that still seemed insulting).

This year, the finish line was yet ANOTHER 400m away.  And not visible in the distance.  “WTF” was going through my mind – i.e. “Where’s the Finish.”  We were running past the Pentagon, so it couldn’t be too far away.  Then finally I saw it, and flowed across, before slowing to a walk and hitting my watch.

Final time – 65:33.  2 seconds off of my PR from Cherry Blossom.  Weird thing was that though my legs felt like they couldn’t turn over faster, I also felt about 5 minutes later like I could have run the race over again.  That’s a good sign, I think.  My legs may just be marathon primed.

++++

Splits were:

Mile 1: 6:52

Mile 2: 6:32

Mile 3: 6:32

Mile 4: 6:33

Mile 5: 6:34

Mile 6-7: 13:08 (6:34)

Mile 8: 6:31

Mile 9: 6:34

Mile 10: 6:18

So, very consistently paced – I just wish I could have hooked into a bit faster rhythm.  But ah well.

Overall, I’m happy with it.  I was hoping to at least break 65 minutes, and am a bit sad I didn’t.  But, I essentially tied my PR from Cherry Blossom on a slightly slower course (Cherry Blossom is lightning fast) while in the middle of marathon training, and I didn’t taper like I did for Cherry Blossom.   And I ran the best race I had in me today, and I can’t be unhappy with that.

Training log - Week ending 10/14/12

This week was 77 miles of “real running” and 16 “miles” pool running, no swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.  

The first half of this week was focused on recovery from my half-marathon, which I actually bounced back pretty quickly from – I’ll give equal credit to the fact that the course was flat and that higher weekly mileage makes for a quick recovery.    I also used the first part of this week to do a three day (Sunday-Tuesday) course of antibiotics to try to finally kick the bug I’ve been fighting for forever.  Essentially, the opinion of my ENT was that I’ve got a mild but persistent sinus infection, and it wasn’t going to clear without the drugs.  I hate antibiotics, but they’re a necessary evil in cases like this.  And this has gone on for well over a month.

So did the drugs, recovered from the race, and returned to training, with a focus now towards my marathon – this is my peak training time before taper.  Of course, I still have no idea what to target for for my marathon goal time.  My half last weekend was run in conditions that make it pretty much useless as a predictor (unless Philly’s like that….please no).  My workouts and shorter races point at certain times, but I know better than to use that.  

So, proposed 3:10 as a goal time to my coach, the idea being that it’s a conservative but not totally sandbagging time.  And I do want to be conservative, since a) it’s my first marathon and b) between the darn sinus infection and insane work demands, I haven’t had the best training fall.  And we decided that I could go out pacing for that time, and then re-evaluate after the half-way point whether it was too conservative and I needed to up.

Thus, I ran my long run this weekend trying to lock in 7:15 as my marathon pace, and it just felt wrong – way too easy (famous last words, perhaps?  I hope not).  In the end, I ended up running quicker, and still finished my long run feeling like I could have run another 5 miles at a faster pace without much issue.

While having MP feel really easy is a nice problem to have, it’s making me think that perhaps the MP I’m locking in is overly conservative and sandbagging.  Hmm.  I’ll wait a few days, and see how I feel after this long run, and then discuss with coach.   And far better to run these final long runs on the slow side then to practice an overambitious “MP” that I have little hope of actually sustaining on race day (and dig myself into a hole while doing so). 

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 75 minutes of easy pool-running for “7.5 miles”.  2 very easy miles (8:33 pace) and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 10 miles very easy (8:33 pace), followed by upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   In the morning, 11.5 miles easy (8:23) followed by yoga.    Later did another 3.5 miles easy (7:54 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, upper body strengthwork and then 35 minutes of easy pool-running for “3.5 miles”  plus light injury prevention work.    4 miles easy (7:59 pace) in the afternoon, foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, 13.5 miles, including an 8K tempo in 32:09 (6:28 pace, split as 6:33, 6:29, 6:27, 6:22, and 6:15) followed by injury prevention work and 20 minutes of easy pool-running.  Pilates and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, 11 miles easy (7:55 pace).    Upper body strengthwork, injury prevention stuff, and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning,  a long run of 21.5 miles, split as 7:56 for first 8 miles, 7:19 for next 5.5, 7:08 for last 8 (7:29 average pace).  Followed with injury prevention work and 30 minutes of easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.