2 Weeks to Philly (Nov 10-Nov 16)

Planned miles: 29

Actual miles: 34
Planned long run: 8
Actual long run: 10.5
Accumulated pace for the week: 7:40

Lot of Philly training miles

Links to key runs: 2x3 mile speed work with FHR; Sunday "Long" Run

With 2 weeks to go, my focus for this week is to ease up on the miles, particularly in the back half of the week, while still rattling off miles at marathon pace as often as possible.  After the previous weeks Blue Hill Sunday run, Monday was a well-timed rest day for me.  I'm not sure when it happened, but my left groin has been bothering me for the last week.  Nothing specific triggered it, as far as I can remember; it just seemed to be something that bothered me a little bit more during the end of last week and the beginning of this week.  It actually doesn't bother me while running, but during down time (and definitely while doing core work) it is tender, but also doesn't seem to be getting worse, or better.  I'm currently chalking it up to "the guaranteed one thing that is going to bother me physically at any given point in time" and trying not to worry about it...too much.

The Thursday night track workout was my focal pt of the week, and I settled in to do a 2 mile warmup on the track (I'll note that I now do all my warmup and cooldown on the track running in the outer lanes in the reverse direction) followed by a 2x3 mile session at marathon pace (7:37, for me) followed by 2 miles cool-down.  For whatever reason, I pushed a bit harder than 7:37 pace for the first 3 mile set, with miles at 7:15, 7:15, 7:01.  On the second set, I was properly loose and went comfortably hard: 7:06, 6:54, 6:44.  It felt great!  I know that track speed is fast compared to road speed, but I'm really hoping that I can run 7:35-7:40 pace at a comfortable effort level in the marathon, with hopefully energy to dip down after mile 18-20.  I'll also say that it was nice to make it back out to the track on a Thursday night, as I had been doing my 800 work on Tuesday and Wednesdays over the last 2 months.  I'm really looking forward to getting back to doing whatever the group is doing!

Took a few short runs that all came in around, or just under 8 minute miles...easy starts with acceleration to marathon pace, which just left today's 8 mile run.  I didn't have too specific a plan for this AM, other than to try and run as close to the philly 7am start as I could, but I found my comfort zone after a mile or two and had a nice progression run, reaching down to the 7:20 range, which felt good.

SO, I'm now inside of 7 days from the race!  My overall health is good, with the groin issue posing a small, but real, concern for me.  This week I'll make an effort to run as close to 7am as possible, but unfortunately that means running at around 5am most days, but the miles will be easier.  Friday AM I'll try and get a fast burst into my short run, and then I'll be on a plane Friday evening bound for Philly.

As far as nutrition this week, I'll keep it fairly simple: the main goal is to not bulk up lbs.  The scale the last few mornings has gotten down under 175 (for the first time in....12 years? at least) and with the cutback in miles this week, my hope to to avoid bouncing back up to 180 before the race.

I'll probably employ a combination of the two following theories (found here)

Subsequent theories of carb loading have become shorter and more pleasant. One calls for a long, but not exhaustive, workout one week before the main event with three or four days of normal diet (50%-60% carbs) and three or four days of increased carb intake (70%). 

An even more condensed version calls for a normal diet and tapering activity for six days leading up to the marathon. The day before the race, the athlete blasts a very short intense workout—two-and-a-half minutes run at mile pace, followed almost immediately by a 30-second sprint—and spends the 24 hours prior to the start line on a carb binge (90%), cutting back on fats and protein so she/he doesn't explode, like a Beagle.

Currently the weather for the race is looking promising, but it has been bouncing around a lot over the last few days since Sunday will be a bridge day between colder winter weather and then some unseasonably warm weather that is following it.

Miles run in the past 365 days: 1,761.
Miles run in 2014: 1,603.
Philly plan through 15 weeks: 643 miles run vs planned 562.
Philly plan vs Boston plan through 15 weeks: 643 miles vs 543.

3 Weeks to Philly (Nov 3-Nov 9)

Planned miles: 40

Actual miles: 49
Planned long run: 16
Actual long run: 16
Accumulated pace for the week: 7:54

Links to key runs:10 x 800; Friday Quick Run; Long Run including Blue Hill

Three weeks out for me is a step-down week going into the final two week taper.  I still wanted to accumulate a decent mile total; something consistent with where I've been over the last four weeks, which is close to 50 miles on average. 

The plan within the plan for this week was to try and get my average pace back down below 8 min miles for the week, and to find some hills to run.  Here's a nice graph set from Strava of my elevation totals for the last few months, and while I like the progressions followed by resets, those are really not great totals.  Maybe too much running on the perfectly flat Charles River and on the Neponset River Trails...it's hard not to in those spots though, they're so scenic!



So, instead of running to PJP park in the evenings, I ran the Milton loop.  And instead of hitting the Charles at lunch, I opted to run up to BC, which ended up being a pleasantly fast run.  I'm actually not that surprised with the pace of Friday's lunch run, since I had the company of a strong runner in RTB teammate Dan.

I've already written a bit about the Yasso 800's on Wednesday, which I was really happy with, especially because 3-4 months ago, that workout would have left me depleted and hobbled for 3-4 days, but  this week I was humming in under 48 hours.

The only thing left of note would be the 16 mile long run I did this AM.  I decided to run out Randolf Ave all the way to the Blue Hill Forrest which meant 8 miles of rolling hills to start the run, and then I would climb up to the top of the Blue Hill ski-hill/observatory.  Its a steep climb: ~400 feet in roughly 6 tenths of a mile, and it was really tough, but I did a decent job of holding my pace.  That climb ended up triggering my max heart rate (173) of the run though, which is what I had in mind.


My thought was, if I can trigger the max heart rate at the mid-point in the run, and wear out my muscles in the process, then when I hit the flat last 6 miles of the 16 mile run, my body may be experiencing the relative discomfort of mile 20+ that I'll feel during the final 6 miles of the marathon.  And I was there...I was forced to pull-up to wait for traffic at around mile 12 and getting back moving was not an easy task!

The goal for this long run was to keep it under 8 min miles for the run, and to hopefully hit my marathon pace on the flat final 6.


So, that comes in at a 7:42 average.  Solid for me, but not the 7:37 I'll be shooting for at Philly.

Now the taper begins.  I'll cut back on total miles but try to accelerate to marathon pace in those runs as quickly as possible.  I would give my overall health a 7 right now (with totally injured/fatigued being a 1) so the idea now is just to get myself back up to a 10 over the next 10-14 days, but not in cold-turkey fashion.

Miles run in the past 365 days: 1,748
Miles run in 2014: 1,569
Philly plan through 14 weeks: 608 miles run vs planned 533.
Philly plan vs Boston plan through 14 weeks: 608 miles vs 513.

I'm currently projecting to finish at 675 miles, and I likely will not try and surpass my goals for the next two weeks during the tape.  I will say that when I first worked out a training plan for Philly, it totaled 665 miles, but I figured that kind of an increase over Boston's 589 was too aggressive.  Thankfully I've been healthy and the original plan wasn't too far off the mark!

Yasso 800s

So, a mid-week update for a change.  While last week was peak week (64 total miles with a 23 mile long run) this week is no slouch either, and contains the final Yasso 800 workout.

Background: I'm new to the track.  I ran speed work with a running club in DC in the fall of 2001, and it lead to my marathon PR the following January.  I ended up running with them for the better part of a year, and when I moved to San Diego, I made an effort to join a speed workout, but on my first visit, the format (I can't remember what they were doing at this point) wasn't what I was familiar with, and I felt out of place, so I never went back.  Which, in retrospect, was a poor decision, and coincided with me running less and less, and slowly adding weight through 2002-2005.

Other than that one year, I haven't run on a track at any other time in my life.  However, during the year in DC I quickly discovered that running on the track was pretty great!  But, as a novice, I need someone to tell me what to do-I just follow other people's lead.   Over the winter, FHR came on my radar twice, and while I didn't want to jump into speed work right before running my first marathon in 8 years, once it was over, I started showing up at the FHR Thursday night track workouts.  My body went through some understandable pains as it adapted to running faster and harder.   I've mentioned the before, but during the Boston training I really didn't have a plan other than knowing how far I wanted to run, and trying to see if I was naturally running faster over time, which I was.  What I wasn't doing was pushing myself through speed drills or tempo work.  When I started running with FHR, it just felt strange to be moving my legs that fast.  But over the summer, my legs adapted (sort-of) and I became more comfortable with it.

Around the same time (at the end of the summer) as I was developing a plan for the Philly marathon, I came across this article:  http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/yasso-800s and I immediately knew this is something I would like to incorporate.  A lot of people seem attracted to the idea that you can predict your marathon time with it, but while I'm curious about predictions, it isn't why I selected to run that full workout.  What attracted me to it is a) it gradually stepped up the track workout commitment and b) it was a plan...I can stick to a plan if you give it to me, but finding out Thur afternoon what each week's FHR speed workout is going to be can be a bit distressing for me.  Also, doing the same workout each week, but graduating to a longer distance each week allowed me to measure my progress from week to week.  So, I added 800 workouts to my schedule starting in mid-September (with 6x800) and over 7 weeks, progressed up to 10x800 this week, two-and-half weeks out from the marathon, as prescribed by Yasso himself.

I've also heard and read that doing this every single week is not the best speed work training you can do for a marathon, and I believe it.  Doing 800s from time to time is great, but doing mile repeats is probably better.  And sacrificing tempo runs for 800 workouts in some weeks is not ideal either.  But, I'm still getting comfortable on the track, and I've always liked doing 800s. They seem to be just the right amount of draining.  So, really this Yasso 800 work was a process in track education for me, and also a nice build-up routine for me to stick to.

If I keep doing marathons, will I feel the need to do 7 consecutive weeks worth of 800s? Absolutely not.  Will I do a mix of speed drills, preferably with a larger (and stronger) group of runners?  I hope so!  I think I can find a better hybrid of speed work in the future, that incorporates at least one 10x800 3-4 weeks prior to the marathon to see how my fitness/preparation compares to where I'm at going into this marathon.  So, now I have a baseline.

So, with all that being said, here is how they went:

 (click to enlarge)

I'm pleased with the results.  I came across multiple articles (though they all may have been sourced from the same or one-another) that said it is typical for runners to be 10-20 minutes ABOVE their Yasso results.  So, averaging 3 minutes and 2 seconds for the 10x800, Yasso would say I could have it in me to run a 3 hour 2 minute marathon.  Well, I can't envision myself doing that!  It becomes about my aerobic threshold vs speed.  (This blog/article does a nice job summing up the criticisms I've seen of the Yasso 800 marathon regimen.)  But, I'm hopeful that by running low 3's in my yasso 800s, I will be prepared to run a sub 3:20 marathon.  This all seems reasonable to me.

Last thought, 3-4 months ago, I never thought I would be comfortable coming to the track and running 12 miles (including warm up and cool down) and that is what I've totaled at the track each of the last three weeks.  So, even if I could have been doing a better variety of speed work training over the last 7 weeks, I do not believe it would have lead to the comfort level I currently have with the track.

And my hope now is that in the next iteration, I'll mix it up more but still have this same level of comfort.

PEAK WEEK! 4 Weeks to Philly (Oct 27-Nov 2)

Planned miles: 48

Actual miles: 64
Planned long run: 22
Actual long run: 23.3
Accumulated pace for the week: 8:13

Links to key runs: 5-4-3-2-1 Long Run; 9 x 800 w/ warmup and cool-down; BC Rez Run

Knowing this was meant to be my peak week, there was no way I was going to back off the 54 miles I did last week and only do the planned 48! 

(click to enlarge)

MONDAY: After a rest day the previous Saturday, and a light run after getting back from the wedding, I was primed for a week with some front-loaded miles, so on Monday I ran a double for the second week in a row.  Started light with a flat run along the Charles at work, and then a 7 mile Milton hills loop in the evening, no problems there, but I kept both runs in the mid-low 8's for a pace.  

TUESDAY was Yasso 9x800's, but I was on my own this week with no company to push me.  I ran at the Brookline track on my way home from work, starting around 5pm in decent weather, not too windy, not too chilly at all.  I knew I wanted to replicate last week's track workout that turned into a 12 mile run with plenty of easy warm-up and cool-down.  Ran 2 miles of warmup close to 8:45 min miles, and 3 miles of cooldown close to 9 min miles.  For my 800's, I didn't crack 3:10 during the first 5, but managed the last 4 just fast enough to get the total average down to 3:10, but wasn't able to crack 3:00 in my fastest, so this was a bit slower than the 7x and 8x sessions of past weeks.  Knowing what still laid ahead of me in the week for miles, I was not disappointed with this result.  2 days down and 24 miles in the bank!

WEDNESDAY was a scheduled off day (every week in this training schedule has 2 off days) but the weather was a perfect warm fall day, so I went out on a easy 8 min/mile run with people from work.  I can't stress how much nicer it is running with other people!  The pace is always easier, and and the runs fly by.  Also, I'm glad I got out to enjoy the nice weather early in the week, given what was headed our way by the weekend...

THURSDAY was more nice weather, so I decided to mix it up a bit and, instead of running along the pancake flat Charles River path, I decided to run up the hill to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir at BC.  This was a place of LOTS of running for me in college, and beyond!  I remember that also being my regular run destination when I lived in JP after college and was training for my second marathon...and I haven't run that way in the 14 years since.  Thankfully in that time, they've taken down the perimeter fence so that you can run right along the water, and it's fantastic.  The hills getting up there are a nice climb, and then headed back to work you can't help but zip down the hill in sub 7's.  Average for that little 5 miler was 7:42, so my legs were feeling at least somewhat snappy.

FRIDAY (Halloween) was a 5-6 mile recovery pace day in the Milton hills 

A brief pause to talk about hills...I'm not doing nearly enough hill work.  My "hill" days almost never involve more than 300 feet of elevation climb, and that really is a function of the topography where I live and work.  Certainly, this is something for me to improve in the coming months.

SATURDAY brings us to the long run.  I accidentally stumbled upon a nice regiment over the three peak long runs...doing last week's long run on a Friday, this week's long run on a Saturday, and next week's long run on a Sunday, thereby giving myself one extra recover day each week.  Smart, right? 

Well, I wish I had done my long run on Friday when it was dry and chilly, because Sat in the mid-morning, everything went down the drain...

So, yeah..not a very fun day for a 23 mile run.  (I felt less bad about it after watching the NYC marathon the following day, in equally bad wind, running into the headwind for 22 miles straight.  OUCH.)  There were segments of the run where I was simply swearing loudly (yelling) at the wind and also, there was a 5-6 inch puddle connecting the two loops that you couldn't run around, so I ran right through it.  Oddly, it actually felt somewhat refreshing for me feet!  But there was so much rain, it was one of those days it is pointless to try and run around/avoid puddles.  Better off just accepting wet feet and trucking right through them.

As you can see in the link at the top, I did more loops in PJP park.  I drove over to the covered benches in the park that AM and dropped off a bag with 3 small bottles of water and 2 small water bottles filled with gatorade, as well as 2 packets of jelly belly sport beans, and 3 powergel packets (that someone turned into 2 powergel packets...not sure how that happened.)  3 miles of warm up (9:15, 8:45, 8:30) and then I ran the 5-4-3-2-1 workout.  5 miles and marathon pace, 1 mile rest, 4 miles marathon pace, 1 mile rest, 3 miles marathon pace, 1 mile rest, 2 miles HALF marathon pace, 1 mile rest, 1 mile HALF marathon pace.  The 5 and 4 mile segments I could hold 7:40 pace, close enough to marathon pace, but the 3-2-1 parts didn't go to plan.  I was fighting the winds for long sections and finally decided to do my recovery mile straight into the wind north of the park, giving me an extra half mile with a (mostly) tail wind when I kicked off my fast section.  But, really, I could hardly get back below 8:30.  Also, for some reason the entire last 30-40 minutes of the run, all I could think about was a) demolishing a million tiny snickers bars from the kids candy stash and b) a tuna fish on toast sandwich. 

So, by the end of Saturday's long run (which, at 8:22 minute mile average with 8 miles at slow-ish pace, isn't THAT bad...right?) I was COOKED.  Laid low on Sunday, no running, but watched everyone struggle through the NYC Marathon wind.  Poor Kara Goucher...touching moment with her son at the finish line.  She was in tears, and the little guy in her arms, prob 2-3 years old, leans up to his mom's face and gives her a kiss on the teary cheek and tells her not to cry.  Marathoning can really tear you down sometimes...all that training, and everything else that comes with it, and BAM...mother nature lays down heat or wind or snow or whatever...definitely made me start considering all the options I could be facing in late November in Philly.

The plan for the next 3 weeks until the race: 40+ miles this week with as many hills as I can find and an 16-18 mile long run at sub-8 pace with my final yasso 10x800.  That will be followed by 2 weeks of taper, probably not doing anything longer than 8 miles at one week prior to the race.

Well, without further adieu....here are the rest of the graphs!

As prescribed!

Hoping to get this trend line pointed down, now that the big mileage weeks are out of the way,

Halloween candy week :(