11 & 10 Weeks to Sugarloaf

11 weeks to go
Go-in target range: 62-65 miles
Coach Alan's plan: 52
Workouts:

• 
  Tuesday: 8 mile progression run @ 7:10-7:20 pace
• Thursday: 3200@12:20 (6:10 pace, 46.2 per lap), 5 min jog rest, 6x600 in 2:18 with 15 seconds standing rest. With warmup and cooldown
• Sunday long run of 17 miles at 7:30-7:40 pace

Actual: 53 miles
Pace for the week: 7:34

10 weeks to go
Go-in target range: 68-70 miles
Coach Alan's plan 61-63 miles
Workouts:

• Wednesday: 3 mile tempo at 6:40 pace, 4 mins recovery jog, 3x1 mile in 6:15 with 3 mins recovery with warmup up and cooldown
• Friday: 8 miles with 6x2:00 on/off in the last 3 miles on a hilly route if possible.
• Long run: 18 long run, overall 7:30-7:40 pace average

Actual: 65 miles, a new single-week high for me!
Pace for the week: 7:38
Returning from Arizona I found slightly warmer weather, but in the first of these two weeks I was still on the treadmill for a couple of days, but since then, no treadmill!  Last year during my Boston training, the two marathons I ran (mid-1:30 range) went well but left me with little energy for 7-10 days afterwards.  This time around, I returned from Phx ready to get back to work the following week.   My weekly average now has settled nicely into the mid-to-high 7:30 range for this training cycle, which seems appropriate for an attempt at a ~7:10 effort marathon.

11 weeks-to-go highlights: I did that progression run on a treadmill and for some reason I was shooting for a sub 7:30, not 7:10-7:20...oopsies.  For the Thursday workout at Reggie, I was so grateful to have company from Alan and Marc.   This is a workout that Alan explained to us he's done in the past to really kick off lactic acid from the muscles.  It's a solid tempo effort followed by short bursts with very little (15 seconds) of rest.  It went well!  With Alan pacing us the entire way, we moved through the tempo session just a touch under the target pace, and I was feeling just a bit strained at the end, but nothing that a few minutes of recovery couldn't take care of.  Then began the 6x600s...3 laps of the 200m track.  The target was 2:18, our results were 2:16, 2:15, 2:12, 2:12, 2:09, 2:04.  On that final lap(s) of the final 600, instead of pacing me, Alan let me just move out on my own before coming back up on my right towards the finish...I was definitely running out of steam by the last 600, but this was a great workout.  I don't know what I would have been able to do on my own though, it would have been a struggle without someone helping me control my pace.

Not too much to say about the long run.  It started with me locking my keys in my car by accident, but I realized it before the run started, so the whole run I knew I had a fun AAA wait to look forward to (not helping the fact that our kids were their cousins house for this run, and my phone was in the car so I couldn't let their parents know I would be late.)  We (Maartje & Michael) did three 5 mile loops through JP.   I think on this run, I probably pushed a little too hard for the first two laps as I tried to keep up with the other two runners, and during the second loop, I let them know they didn't need to wait for me at all, that I would meet them at JP Licks after.  The last few miles that you can't see below did start to drift a bit, but everything mostly stayed in the 7:40 range, except the big hill mile on Warren st, but even that I was able to hold under 8 min miles, and kept the whole run at 7:32 pace.  I'm happy with this! 



The follow week was a big week for me!  I knew I had a off week coming the following week, and it was fairly quiet at work and home, so I figured it was a good week to put in as much work as I felt I could reasonably handle at this stage.  I stretched out a few 5 mile runs into 6-7 mile runs, I had a GREAT tempo workout (outside!) with Maartje on a muddy/puddly esplanade.  The target was 3 miles at 6:40 pace followed by 3x1mile at 6:15 pace.  We hit 6:30, 6:35, 6:38 for the consecutive 3 mile tempo.  For the 3x1mile we managed 6:15, 6:12 and 6:18.  The whole thing ended up being around 13 miles and I felt great afterwards.  (The cooldown didn't feel great though.)

Friday's hill workout was done in Milton on a nice, sunny afternoon.  I felt good, but my quads felt pretty beat up, especially after the downhill pickups.    Saturday's long run was done in some cold, rainy march weather, and I was by myself, which never seems to go well.  It really didn't go great...I managed 7:47 pace for 18, with the first 12 on flat ground towards Southie and back, and then a little bit of hills in the normal 6 mile Milton loop.

After that run ended, I realized that due to the previous weeks Sunday long run, and the following week's Saturday run, that I had put in 78 miles in a 7 day span.  And honestly, I felt pretty good about it!  And the 78 miles came in at an average pace of 7:36.  That's really good for me! 

2015 Phoenix Half Marathon (and February Done!)

When people ask me what my goals are for running, I tell them without hesitation that in 2015, my goal is a) qualify for the 2016 Boston Marathon and b) run a sub 1:30 half and (only half jokingly) c) PR everything.

The origin of my 1:30 half marathon goal goes back to a dinner I shared in the South End with my friend Ricky in late-April 2013, two days after the he ran his first Boston marathon.  This was also his first ever marathon, and I remember asking him if he thought he would run more marathons?  At the time, I was still very out of shape, and had not made much effort during the winter months of 2013 towards improving my physical health.  So, I honestly didn't know what to make of his response when he said that he thought he would focus more on half marathons, and that he thought he could probably get down to under 1:30.  I was impressed, and jealous.  At the time, I couldn't have told you what pace that amounted to, but I knew my one and only half marathon race, run 2 years earlier in the fall of 2011, had come in at 2:03, which was at nearly 9.5 min miles, and I wasn't in any better shape at that moment in 2013.

Since then, the half marathon has been my barometer.  6 months after that dinner with Ricky--6 months of gradually increasing my weekly mileage and some weight loss--I was pleased with myself to run the Baltimore half in under 8 min miles (1:43.)  By February of 2014, near the beginning of my Boston 2014 training, and not quite a year into my "comeback," I ran the SF half 1:36 and followed that up shortly after with a 1:35 at Ashland.   Both those efforts left me tapped out of energy for a 7-10 days afterwards though.  Following Boston, I put my best effort into the Brooklyn half and dropped my PR to 1:32, a pace of 7:02.   The half marathon has been my training buddy over the past 2 years.  Some have ended well (I KICKED at Ashland) and some have been a struggle (a windy SF, but more likely due to having norovirus earlier that week.)  But, I've been pleased and fortunate to set a PR at each half I've run to date.

Coming into the Phoenix half, I was not riding high.  The winter here, and poor performance in my long run the weekend prior left me with legitimate doubt about hitting a 6:50 pace for a sub 1:30.   I thought I would have a good chance at a PR due to my lower weight, additional 8 months of training since Brooklyn, as well as the downhill course.  But my confidence was waning...I was questioning the mid to high 7 min/mile paces I had been trying to train at for the last month, wondering if my body was perhaps more suited to training in the low 8's. 

The morning of the race, there was a surprising (ha, not really) lack of interest from certain members of my family in a 5am wake-up call to go watch me run in the dark!  My father was game though!  It was a 45 minute drive from our hotel to the starting line, which was east of the finish line in Mesa.  He dropped me off about a mile from the start with about 45 minutes to spare.  Perfect timing.   My first warmup mile was a jog...nearly 10 min mile pace.  My second warmup mile a touch faster, closer to an 8 min mile.  I was feeling a little tense and a little sluggish.  I checked out the starting line and witnessed a few thousand people who actually appeared to be cold in the pre-dawn 57 degree weather...they were huddled around propane heat lamps, wearing excessive amounts of throw-away clothes, with a number of them wearing the heat blankets that they hand out post-marathon in early spring and late fall.   I had brought a throw-away NB tshirt over my FHR singlet, and some old Sport Hill cloth tights I haven't worn in 15 years.  I did my drills, I did my strides, I found a nice desert spot to relieve myself out past the lines of people waiting at the port-o-potties, a spot where I could drop my t-shirt and pants (I would return later that afternoon after a round of golf to recollect them) and then I did my leg swings, and moved to the starting line, slotting in between 1:30 pace group and the 1:35 pace group.  A few minutes before the start, I downed my first powergel and finished the bottle of water I had brought with me.  I listened to the conversations around me...the guy who is 3 states away from running marathons in 50 states....the girl running her first half and hoping to hang with the 1:45 group.  I love the awkward friendliness of the pre-race starting corrals.  I felt prepared and relaxed.

Then we go.

It was a small enough race, and I was close enough to the front that I was only 15 seconds off the gun time and immediately I was able to move into my target pace, which, for the first mile was to be a shade under 7. 

After that, my plan was just to run comfortably hard for as long as I can.  Here's how it went




The gradual elevation loss certainly is evident in my pace.  There was very little wind, but when I did have a headwind, it was for most of miles 8-10.

The half marathon course is the last half of the full marathon course, so there was plenty of aid stations for us, including a powergel stop.  I carried a powergel with me from the start and took that just before the mile 6 aid station, where I could consume it with water (never gu with gatorade...too much sugar) and then grabbed another gu handout at that point.  I took that Gu before the mile 10 aid station.  So, in total I took 3 gels: pre-race, mile 6 and mile 10.  I more or less alternated water and gatorade at the stations, but I wasn't really worried about dehydration.  The temps were perfect and the sun wasn't even up until 7 or so.   That timing of nutrition worked well for me.

I was moving well enough in miles 2-5 that I had my sights on the 1:30 group, which was always a quarter of a mile ahead of me even though I was running low 6:40 miles!  Soon, the only people I had left to pass were the folks being dropped from the 1:30 group.  I felt bad for them...their pacer was moving 10 seconds a mile too fast!  I never did catch them, and overheard the pacer at the finish line say they finished at 1:28.  At around the 10k pt, a small older guy caught up to me, and as in past races, this was a nice wakeup call for me...that and the second Gu was about to kick in.  I leaned forward and hung with him, that worked well for us (and another young guy) for the next 2-3 miles, but then the older guy slowed up significantly, and while I also slowed a bit with the wind and lack of decline, the younger guy (I think he was wearing basketball shorts?) moved away from me.  So, for a long while, I was sort of out there by myself.  Then I was passed towards the end by two guys who were running separately, but must have gotten a late start, because they were moving at low 6 pace and looked great out there.  I got a kick out of the second of the two.  He was well over 6 feet tall and was really striding, but he would say to every person he passed (including folks walking the 10k that had started at the same time as our race, 6.2 miles from the same finish line) "good job, looking good."  That guy had a great attitude, and I was happy have him pass me out there.

After drifting up towards 7 min miles, I was getting a little concerned about my overall pace, which had moved back to high 6:40 range.  Every mile that I had put down at 6:40, I knew was a 10-12 second cushion against a 1:30 time, but the 7's were becoming a trend and I was knew I had to dig for the last few miles if I was going to keep it below 6:52.   The last Gu kicked in around mile 11, and with that low 6:50 split I knew at that point I had enough left in me to hold my time below 1:30.  At that point in the race (and I felt this with Philly too) I had a mile or two to look forward to my goal.  It gave me strength to kick at the finish.  The shout-out to Boston and to my winter beard from the guy on the PA to the crowd lining the finish was welcome also!

 I was braking at this point, so that doesn't count as a heal strike! :)

The feeling of coming down that shoot, looking up at a gun time that was still in the 1:29's, knowing that I was 30 or so seconds below my goal, was a moment (or maybe a minute or two, when you take into account the smile on my face) of great satisfaction for me.   See what I'm talking about?

post-race can be a goofy time.

Anyway, post race I put in a lazy mile cool-down.  Downed a cocowater, banana, cliff bar, bagel sandwhich and coffee from Einsteins, and then enjoyed a chocolate milk back in the hotel room.  I had a few hours to unwind, and then it was back to Mesa for a GREAT round of golf at Las Sendas.  Post golf, back to the hotel for a soak and then out to dinner with the family for a burrito and beer dinner.

It was a great day!

And upon returning to Boston, it was March.

So here's the Garmin-to-date graph with February updated.

Based on the Feb number, big things hopefully coming in March and April

and also the trailing 12 month volume totals, with month-over-month % increases. 

Approaching 2,000 miles and steady growth.

12 Weeks to Sugarloaf-Arizona Half prep week.

Travel, run, work, family.  Not a lot of time for blogging.  But, this week is a down week and I've got 30-40 minutes before I need to leave to squeeze in an easy run this AM, so maybe I can capture what has been a nice recent few weeks for me.

Week 12-Arizona Half week.
My go-in plan 55 to 60 miles, 1/2 marathon on Saturday
Coach Alan's plan: 48 with an offday on Sunday
Workouts: Tuesday put in a good effort of 7 miles in the mid 7's and
Wednesday: 3x800 in 3:00 with 2:30 jog rest, 3x600 in 2:09 with 2:00 rest, 3x400 in 82 with 1:30 rest

Actual: 51 miles with no days (completely) off.  
Pace for the week: 7:36

I had hoped to maybe do a shake-out when I landed Sunday night, but that didn't happen.  A 3 hour delay on the ground before our non-stop flight followed by a 6+ hour flight meant 9 hours of sitting in a window seat, during which time I stood up once.  Ouch.  A shake out would have been welcome, but I landed after midnight AZ time and didn't get the car rental and checked in until close to 2am (AZ time.)   I was there a week before the marathon for 2 reasons: 1 a conference on forecasting and 2. my father and brother joined me on Wed night for four rounds of golf at the tail-end of the week.  I had suggested this weekend originally to them because of the timing around the half marathon race, and then the golf fell into place and then later on I realized there was also a conference I could attend.

One of the reasons I decided to attend this conference is because a demand planning manager from Nike would be presenting, and I was looking forward to meeting someone else who works closely in the same environment that I do.  During his presentation, he mentioned that he is an avid marathoner, and after his session I introduced myself to him.  We sat through a few other presentations together, and later that Monday morning, I had myself a running date for 6am Tuesday.    I excused myself from the conference around 4 that day to get in an easy run before dinner.  It was pretty wonderful.  After putting in a month or so of heavy treadmill running, or running in 8lbs of sweaty wet layers when I did get outdoors, it was fantastic to throw on shorts and a short sleeve shirt and head out nice easy run in the fresh air.  And I got to make use of my birthday present to myself, a new pair of Julbo sunglasses.  It was refreshing, and after too many boring hours on a treadmill, and a challenging long run (that should NOT have been challenging for me) it was exactly what I needed.  I followed that by a to-be-expensed sushi dinner and a 9pm bedtime.

At 6am, I was feeling good.  In talking with my new friend Alan (from Nike, not my coach) the day before, I quickly realized he was a strong runner.  I love love love running with stronger runners.  When I first started running with FHR folks, I was quite intimidated by their paces.  I realized quickly that even if I can't hang with them for their full work out at low 7 paces, I can certainly hang around for a long time, and it pushes me like I can't seem to push myself.  Alan is a strong (2:40's) marathoner currently in an ultra training cycle.  We agreed on a 7 miles at 7:30 pace (exactly what Alan the coach prescribed for me.)   It was basically pitch black when we started, but this gave me a good sense of what my 6:30 am marathon start time would be like.  We set off on a paved bike trail that was uninterrupted by traffic, and like my run the previous day, very flat.   While the day before we had chatted about mostly work-related things, this AM we progressed through the 7min range chatting about running, running communities, and family.  It was great!  As we approached what should have been a turn-around at 3.5, we quickly talked each other into stretching it out to an 8 mile run, and on the return trip, we pushed pace just a touch, down to what I hoped would be my 1/2 marathon target pace in the high 6's.  What I didn't realize at the time is that this was a great prep run for my 1/2, both in pace and also in elevation, as we dropped about 20 feet per mile on the return, which was a similar grade to my race.  This run was EXACTLY what I needed that week.  Back at my room afterwards, I felt great.  The confidence was back.

The following day, after the conference had ended I made an attempt to do the track workout that Coach Alan gave me for the week.  I couldn't find an open track, so I just did it on a perfectly flat piece of trail next to the canal behind my hotel.  It went pretty well...I missed plenty of splits in the shorter items, and my effort wasn't as high as it would have been on a track.  I had set up the entire workout in my watch (I love my Garmin 620!) but there is still the challenge of not having a set finish line to focus on wiht each interval.  Anyway, it went well and afterwards I treated (maybe not the right word...) myself to an ice bath back at the hotel.  Ice baths haven't been proven to do anything, but I will say that from my own personal experience, I get out of them feeling incredible, and that was the case this Wed AM.

The rest of the week shifted to family and golf, whcih meant early AM departures to great golf courses that just happened to be an hour or so drive from our hotel, so that meant 5:30-6am treadmill easy/recovery runs, which is a bit of a shame since the hotel we stay at is adjacent to some amazing desert trail running.  However, even if I had time after sunrise to run, I was glad to keep running close to the start of my 1/2 start time, and I would not have wanted to risk turning an ankle on a trail run 2 days before a b race.  And since this post is plenty long already, I think I'll go for that easy run now and dedicate an entire post to my race.