The Stoll Trail Report

A non-race, race report

2010-09-15T17:05:00.001-07:00

This last weekend was the City of Lakes 25k, a relatively small but very competitive event around the lakes of Minneapolis. It usually brings out all of the best local talent as it’s a fantastic opportunity to either get in one final tune up before a fall goal marathon, or test out race day logistics and pacing for races like Twin Cities marathon. It’s even run on part of the TCM course.

One somewhat unique thing that the organizers provide is a USATF certified half marathon split. Obviously 25k is a rather odd distance, not too many people are cornered about PR’ing at that length. The half marathon split allows some to race to that point, then shut it down to the finish. That was to be my strategy for the race.

As far as preparation this time around, I’ve been limiting my mileage this training cycle for a number of reasons. The main being that I just don’t think I need to be putting in 110+ miles a week on a regular basis to run a sub 2:40 marathon. Just because my body doesn’t break down running that kind of mileage, doesn’t mean it’s entirely beneficial either. Showing up to the line absolutely toasted in Green Bay this last May was proof enough more isn’t always better.

I look at it this way. Last year I average 57mpw for the entire year. Through March of this year it was over 100. Does it make sense to almost double your mileage from what your body is clearly able to handle? I think not. Unfortunately this sport requires patience, even if you’re willing to put in the work. Running 80 mpw in training is far more reasonable, I believe, and should prevent me from burning out as I did this spring.

So back to the race, well, first let me explain the past couple of weeks. Training has been going extremely well. The temps around here finally dropped and my comfort level when running a workout has increased proportionality. Running 12 miles at 5:55 pace about 2 weeks ago really felt like a reasonable pace that could be sustainable for much longer. Another 3x2 mile at 5:35 pace with short rest also bolstered my confidence heading into this last weekend. My pace for a half marathon should be much closer to the second workout than the first, so with good conditions I’d head out a bit slower than 5:35.

The weather yesterday was ideal, maybe just a slight breeze, but nothing substantial. The first mile heads out on a fairly significant incline, so the fact that my legs didn’t feel great wasn’t a concern. I spent mile 2 getting comfortable with the pace, but never really felt dialed in. No worries though, it was early.

But by mile 3 I was falling off a large group of guys that I should be able to hang with. It took far too much concentration this early in a HM to maintain pace. The phrase “dead legs” gets used too often, but it’s tough to come up with a better way to describe the feeling. Maybe the three solid workouts in the last 10 days caught up with me. Maybe I pushed a little too hard on Tuesday of last week during a final tune up. Tough to say, but it became clear racing today was going to be a struggle.

The sensible solution wasn’t to force it, but rather change to plan B. Back off the pace and the race at marathon pace. Even while backing off to around 6:05 pace, I still was working way too hard to not fall off. I was getting passed by quite a few people at this point, all of whom were breathing much harder than I, but my legs just didn’t want to go. The most annoying part of the day was this was the kind of scenario my limited mileage was supposed to avoid. Fading at the end? That I could understand, but just showing up flat? Not supposed to happen.

But, just because something is not supposed to happen, doesn’t mean it can’t. So I won’t get too worried about the performance. If anything, it was a good reminder for the body to what racing is like. I haven’t toed the line since Green Bay, so I’m bound to be a little rusty. Better to have that happen in a tune-up than on October 3^rd.

Final stats:

1:34:35 (34^th/408)

Of Running and Book Burning- A Blog Entry

2010-09-09T09:40:00.001-07:00

After some serious soul searching (actually about a three second passing thought) I’ve decided to revive this blog. When I started writing, I had the intention of not just blathering on about running, but also touch on a subject du jour that I felt my opinion might be interesting enough to put out there for others to read. So today is a good day for that.

But first, I’m a little over three weeks from the Twin Cities marathon, what will be my 5^th time toeing the line at the distance. The weak-ass PR of 2:47 is still out there for me to take down, and I have all intentions of doing so. A lot more details on that to follow, but something’s stuck in my craw that requires me to opine a bit. As I’m sure you’ve heard, our wacky friend in Gainesville Florida, whose name needn’t be mentioned, is firing up a good ol’ fashioned book burning. Of course, the critical part of his little soiree is that the Quran is his kindling.

Everyone says this guy is nuts, which he is, and they don’t endorse his behavior, which I don’t either. But the real issue to me isn’t Crazy Preacher Guy, it’s our leaderships reaction to him.

This guy is a nobody. He’s about as important to the day to day workings of this society as a house plant. If he vanished off the face of the earth tomorrow, literally nobody outside of his immediate family would even notice. Well, prior to all the attention he’s received that is. So my question is, why in the world does a four star military general, a secretary of state and a attorney general even acknowledge his existence?

He’s not associated with the federal government, and he’s posing no risk to a sovereign nation. He’s just a private citizen of the United States. Clearly he doesn’t speak for the majority of our country. Why then do elected and appointed officials who do speak for our country comment on his actions? All that does is elevate whatever convoluted messages this moron is attempting to send to an entirely different stratosphere.

Here’s how this should have been handled. Hillary gets a question from a reporter, “have you heard about Nutjob in Florida? What’s your reaction?”

Answer:

“If any of our citizens threaten another nation’s safety or security, we will do everything that is necessary to mitigate that threat. But as to the actions of private citizens in our country that do not rise to that level, I have no comment.”

The same answer should be coming from every single member of the US government. I don’t care how often the question is asked or by whom. The idea that our President needs to speak about the actions of this moron, when everyone agrees he has the right to do what he’s doing, is ridiculous. And if anyone doesn’t understand that, fax them a copy of the constitution with the 1^st amendment highlighted.

Our leadership has given such power and meaning to a single idiot’s intentions, it’s mind blowing. If the Muslim world thinks that all of America believes what this pastor believes about Islam, it’s because the people who do speak for all of America are associating themselves with this man’s message. Even by rejecting it. Unless this guy is a threat, the best way to marginalize him is to ignore him. The media won’t do it, but I expect a more pragmatic approach from our leadership.

I’m not someone that thinks American never needs to apologize, that we’re infallible. But in this instance, we have nothing to apologize for. If you really believe in democracy and free speech, stand behind it. Otherwise, those that don’t believe that members of a given society have a right to those principles are further emboldened by our weakness.

Marathon Failure

2010-05-19T10:19:00.001-07:00

Completing a marathon, regardless of fast or slow, is an accomplishment. I won’t deny that. You could certainly argue to the degree of which it an accomplishment. The fact that some 400,000 people in this country do it every year would indicate to me it’s noteworthy, but not significant. That being said, finishing a marathon should be considered success at least to some degree. Not finishing one on the other hand, is a definite failure. Is it deserving of a scarlet letter or banishment from town? Hardly, but that doesn’t mean it sucks any less to walk away from a goal race having dropped out at mile 13.

So what happened? Tough to say, but a training cycle whose beginning and middle produced amazing results petered out into an utter disappointment.

Having put in 110+ miles a week from the beginning of January through the middle of March, I was feeling as fit as ever. Paces felt great, particularly tempo runs were going better than at any point since I began training for marathons seriously some two and half years ago. All indications were I was finally ready to run to my potential. I had two solid years of training under my belt and I was finally beginning to show signs that I’d moved passed the “beginner” stage of my second running life. Aside from the occasional injury scare, nothing became more than just a scare. My body was more than accepting of the mileage and was thriving on the intensity. At least for a while.

Then came an 8k race that was the first of the year. It was the first true test of my fitness and it didn’t go well. Was it the mileage catching up to me? Just a bad day? Either way it was time to reassess my training. Up to that point I was averaging more than 25 miles a week more than at any point in my previous training. Some might say it’s a blessing to be resilient to the pounding you take running 100 miles, or more, per week. And it is for sure, but sometimes those true injuries grab your attention enough to force you to back off and let the body recover, not just heal the ailment. Without those, you just keep piling on the stress and eventually the mind or body begins to wear down.

I’d been in this spot before, training for my first marathon. Having learned a tough lesson about less being more, I had no qualms with running less this time around. I dropped my mileage back into the 80’s and 90’s, trying to prepare for a half marathon in mid April. Fortunately I salvaged a decent race on a good day to PR, and ran 1:16. A full two minutes slower than I was hoping, but considering how poorly things could have gone, I was pleased. Setting PR’s, in this case by a minute, is nothing to be ashamed of. That being said, it didn’t bode well for my chances of running 2:35 for the marathon 4 weeks later.

Maintaining my relatively lighter training load for the next two weeks, I entered taper very confident. Sure my mileage the previous 8 weeks wasn’t what it was the prior few months, but that was alright. That base was built and wasn’t going away any time soon. The goal was to peak at the right time and a strong 18 marathon pace workout 3 weeks out indicated my timing was right, at least I thought.

Then came race day, perfect conditions, a strong field for that particular race, meaning plenty of people to run with, I was set for a significant PR. After all, having only run 2:47 last fall I figured, quite frankly, at least that was in the bag. Boy was I wrong.

The first few miles of the Green Bay course were as difficult as I’ve run in any marathon. Instead of reminding the body to back off, I had to concentrate just to maintain a pace that was still a good 10 seconds per mile slower than I was planning. Even after just a few minutes of running, my breathing was far too heavy. The first 10 miles of a marathon should be nothing but a relative stroll, and I felt like I was already racing just a few miles in. But in every marathon, there’s a rough patch. You’d like to think it wouldn’t be the first few miles, but you never know. I told myself to keep working, get some fluids in, relax, anything to distract me from what I knew was coming.

Honestly, I thought about dropping out from about 4 miles on. It takes a hell of a lot of mental fortitude to fight those negative thoughts for another 22 miles. If there’s someone out there that can, I’d like to meet him. But once you’ve accepted the possibility that early on, it’s nearly impossible to banish those thoughts from your mind. As much as I tried, by mile 10 I’d given in. I managed to maintain pace during that time, but I continued to work harder and harder. Maybe it was a subconscious thing, if I didn’t back off I’d get my wish and have no choice but to drop out. You could say I sealed my fate when after the first few miles I knew it wasn’t my day, but continued to push anyway. I’d made it an all or nothing venture, and in reality, had no chance of running 26.2 miles that day. Either way, by mile 13 I’d reached the point of no return on the course, and that was it. I was done.

Back in my room at the hotel, I gathered up my stuff getting ready for the drive back to Minneapolis. My wife was driving back from the finish, totally confused as to what happened. I had already digested what happened and was comfortable with the decision I made. I certainly wasn’t proud of it of course, but I’ve slogged through that last 6 miles of a marathon, limping from cramps, just frustrated as hell. I had no interest in repeating that scene from my first marathon. I’d earned that badge I decided, and didn’t need another. Not only was a PR not going to happen that day, it could have been enough to turn me off from this sport for a while.

I’ve had that race too. Going back to my first running life, I’d put in a crazy amount of work getting ready for my senior year of High School track. Running all throughout a Minnesota winter, it came down to the state meet final. It was a very different set of circumstances, but the result on that day made me question why even bother training the way I did. So I quit, and that was the end of my track career. Call it a personality flaw, call it immature, I don’t care. I knew last Sunday that if decided to force a marathon out of my body that day, it might have been my last. I’m not ready to end this yet and I didn’t want one race to influence my thinking to such a degree that I give up on a sport I really do love.

So where does that leave me now? Well physically I’m feeling great. Avoiding a complete meltdown I can get back to training almost immediately. I’m still going to take some time to relax and enjoy a little downtime, but I’m feeling fresh mentally and physically to take on another goal race relatively soon. I can’t say I’ve moved on completely from the disappointed from last Sunday, but keeping some perspective certainly helps. It’s a freakin’ hobby, let’s not turn this into life or death. Doing it should be fun, hard work for sure, but at its core, enjoyable. Fortunately despite the results in Green Bay, I still feel that way about running.

So there it is, a crazy first four and half months of running to start 2010. There’s still plenty of time to run fast, and that’s the plan. When and where is soon to be determined.

Is this a blog or a diary?

2010-04-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

That's the question that I've struggled with for the past few weeks, if not months. I'm in the midst of a monster training cycle, hopefully culminating with a performance at the marathon distance that finally is indicative of my abilities, yet this sorry excuse for a blog basically goes untouched? Why?

Well, lots of reasons. First, life is pretty tough right now. I guess I could go into details about why exactly that is, but suffice it to say, every day is a challenge. Things will get better, but to log on to just to pound my chest about how much I'm running right now seems completely conceited. I've got bigger concerns in life, and to go on long rambling diatribes about how a tempo run felt seems all too selfish. I probably would be better off just explaining myself, but you'll have to trust me. I'm in a tough spot.

Maybe I should just take this opportunity to write all this shit out, but this little endeavor was never meant to be a diary. It was supposed to be my attempt to document my improvement as a runner. But the reality is I'm having a hard time keeping the two separate. Every time I want to write about my running, I want to put it in the context of what I'm facing on a day to day basis. But if I refuse to write about the reality of my life, how can anyone understand what I'm actually facing?

So what's my choice? I have no idea. All I know is this blog absolutely sucks. The fact the I actually ask people to check it out is ridiculous.

On thing is for sure, I need to figure out where I'm going with this or shut it down.

The last few weeks...

2010-03-05T14:15:00.001-08:00

...have included a LOT of running. Since my last weekly update I've put in weeks of 110, 113, 122 and I'm on pace to run around 115-120 this week. One thing that I believe runners should keep an eye on is how much their current average weekly mileage compares to the previous training cycle. Trying to bump up the mileage too much is certainly a risk. Well, I'm pretty much ignoring that advice. Not only am I setting weekly mileage PR's damn near every week, they're fairly significant PR's as well. I mean 122 miles in a week? For a hopeful 2:35 marathoner? I won't claim it makes a lot of sense, but that's what I'm going with.

I should add that the only difference between of week of 90 miles last summer and a week of 120 this winter is 30 easy miles. It's not like I'm going crazy with workouts at this point. But, that begs the question, how much should I be running when the big time workouts are necessary? Should I step back on the mileage significantly, or just continue at this volume because it's working? I haven't answered that question yet.

I've always seemed to have success with running three big weeks followed by a cutback week. This week should have been a cutback week, but I just didn't feel like taking one. Is that dumb? Maybe, but I also know that if I can consistently produce big weeks like this, without the need for a step back, it's all the more likely I won't need to drastically cut back my mileage when I need to be fresh for an 8 mile tempo run.

So with that in mind, I'll look to maintain the mileage for two more weeks following this one, and then take it easy as I prepare for the Human Race 8k. That'll be my first race of the season, and I can't wait to find out what kind of shape I'm really in. The tempo miles on the treadmill can be deceiving, it's tough to really gauge how the effort translates to the roads. But if the workouts are any indication, I think 5:15 pace is doable given a good day. Which, in Minnesota in March can be a roll of the dice.

In the midst of all this running, I've also had my first go-around with Plantar Fasciitis. Pretty much any experienced marathoner has probably dealt with it at some point. The horror stories you can find on the internet are countless. Some dealt with it for a year before finally breaking something that required complete shutdown from any running for 8 weeks, and that's what finally cured it. I don't know about you, but I have no interest going down that route. But after reading as much as I could find about the injury, there seemed to be two kinds of people.

The first kind waits for the pain to go away before really working on the root cause of the problem. Unfortunately, that is the person that ends up dealing with it for months on end, because the pain never really goes away. You can take a week off from running, come back thinking it's gone away, and bam, there it is again. This leads to another week off and the cycle continues to repeat itself. I probably shouldn't blame these people, they were probably told by some PT that's the best way to deal with it. If it hurts, give it rest. But like I said, that never actually treats the cause of the injury.

This leads me to the second type of person. He or she, at the moment they feel there is pain or discomfort, immediately go into full-on triage mode. What I mean by that is everything they can possibly do to fix the problem becomes a priority. The way I view it is treating the pain for sure, but concurrently treating the problem. So of course there's lots of ice and stretching, but just as importantly there lots of drills to work on the muscular imbalance that exists somewhere in the lower leg. I'm not a doctor or PT, I have no idea exactly where there problem actually lies, but damn it, if I do enough exercises I find it!

My guess is if I went to 100 PT's and asked them if they thought barefoot running was a good idea while in pain with PF, 99 would tell me it's a dumb idea. Well, I'm not saying they're all wrong, because it's not a good idea for everyone, but it is for me. The day I literally couldn't put any weight on my left foot because the pain was so severe was the same day I first started incorporating barefoot running. Did it hurt? Somewhat, but no sharp pains, just a pretty bad ache while doing it. In addition lots of calf raises, golf ball rolling and more stretching than I've ever done, I'm running pain free just more than a week later.

Is this kind of treatment for everyone? No, but I'd be willing to be that if more people were aggressive with THIS type of injury, there'd be a lot fewer cases of people dealing with it for months on end.

So there's the latest and greatest on my running life, hopefully it wasn't too boring. This evening is another easy 7-9 miles and tomorrow is, what I hope to be, a successful longer tempo. I'll let you know how it goes.

Good lord I've got some catching up to do

2010-03-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

The running has been exceptional, last three weeks have been 110, 113 and a whopping 122. And on top of that, I've come face to face with the runner's worst nightmare, plantar fasciitis.

Tomorrow I'll post a longer recap of the last three weeks of training as well as a diagnosis of my current "injury". I say "injury" because as of right now, there isn't one, but tomorrow morning that could all change, who knows.

Either way I'll be sure to give you some insight into what has been the best training I've had as a runner, without a doubt. Most importantly, why I believe I'm in the position I'm in.

Stay tuned.

Week 4 of training for the Green Bay marathon

2010-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the last post, early on last week I decided to make it a step back week, both in intensity and mileage. Well, I managed to do that of course, but I also didn't let a cutback week turn into a lost training week. Here's how the schedule looked...

Mon: 4 @ 7:54

Tues: 8 @ 7:24

10 @ 6:43 (probably 40x75m pickups)

Wed: 4 @ 6:45 (felt like crap, bailed)

Thurs: 18 @ 7:22

Fri: 10 @ 7:30

6 @ 7:01

Sat: 12 w/ 4 @ 5:35

Sun: 12 @ 7:29

6 @ 7:30

90 total.

First observation from the week is I'm somewhat amazed that a 90 mile week now constitutes a step back in training. I mean, I certainly feel like I ran 90 miles last week, I'm not exactly fresh as a daisy, but at least on the mental side of things I'm ready for another big week. I guess that's most of the point of a easy week anyway.

I won't bore you with describing every single day's workout, mostly because it's not very exciting right now, just some solid miles, both indoors and out.

This next week should be back around 110, with what I hope to be two very strong workouts. Nothing blazing fast, but longer tempo/fartlek type stuff to get a little more specific focus on marathon pace. It's probably not a bad thing to give my body a little beginner course on what to expect in May.

Well, that's my cue...

2010-02-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

...time for a cutback week. I went out yesterday for an easy run in the morning, the plan was just 4 miles and depending on how I felt, I'd either add a double in the evening, or decide right then and there to scale back this week. Well, at no point during that 4 mile run did I feel like being out there. The pace was terribly slow, likely due to the Yak Trax and fresh snow, but none the less, it sucked.

That certainly makes my decision regarding if this week was going to be another full scale training week, or somewhat of a step back. But this is also the moment where I set the tone for the rest of my training. Sometimes I have a tendency, when I'm feeling beat up, to use it as an excuse far too often during an easier week. Pretty soon that easy week turns into a non-training week. I need to avoid that mistake this time around.

So what does that mean? I'll still look to get in around 90 miles, with one workout if, and only if, I'm feeling very solid, sometime later in the week. The point is to get some rest, and one really hard workout could very well eliminate all relief I'll be getting from the reduced mileage. The point is to be feeling strong next Monday morning, not Thursday of this week for a big workout. At least that's what I need to keep reminding myself, easier said than done.

Week three of training

2010-02-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

Here's how it looked.

Mon: 6 @ 7:40

6 @ 6:59 w/ 6x100m strides

Tues: 12 @ 7:21

8 @ 5:56, 250m in/outs

Wed: 11 @ 7:24

7 @ 7:30 plus core/drills

Thurs: 4 @ 6:58

Fri: 5 @ 7:13

14 @ 6:33 (some progression towards the end)

Sat: 13.5 @ 7:22

6.5 @ 7:30 plus core/drills

Sun: 20 @ 6:52 w/ 1400 feet of elevation gain/loss (tough run)

113 total.

Obviously it was another huge week. Not too bad on the quality side of things as well. The fartlek run on Tuesday was by far the best run I've had since training began. It was borderline effortless. Well, effortless is probably a bit of a stretch, but it wasn't taxing the same way I thought a longer "tempo like" effort might be, especially early on in training.

Thanks to some last minute scheduling issues, Thursday was a disaster. I'd planned on an easy recovery run in the morning and a good 15 miler in the evening. Clearly that didn't happen, but I bounced back nicely with 59 miles Friday thru Sunday, so at least mileage wise I put the ship back on course.

Actually the workout on Friday night taught me a good lesson. That being running around an indoor track for 90 minutes can have some interesting side effects. I had some fairly sharp pain developing in the right knee towards the end of the run, and by Saturday evening I'd developed some soreness in my left hip. Actually, on Sunday I woke up in severe pain. My hip had tightened up on me overnight and I was literally limping around, extremely concerned I might actually be laid up for a few days.

But, like an idiot, I set out on my 20 miler anyway. There wasn't any sharp pain, just tightness that forced me to really concentrate on my form, it definitely altered my stride if I let it. The plan was to run an out and back, but after three or so miles I had to turn back to stay close to home in case I need to shut it down. It hadn't loosened up at all. Five miles into the run and I was near home once again, very tempted to call it quits. But, again like an idiot, I kept going. It wasn't getting worse, so why not?

Finally, and I mean finally, after over an hour of running it loosened up, almost to the point it wasn't even noticeable. It ended up being a very strong run, lots of hills, a fair amount of ice that I stayed upright on as well.

So where does that leave me? Well, running 113, 112 and 113 miles to start a training cycle is about all you can ask for. Most people would ink in a cutback week this week, but if I'm feeling good, I'll try and knock out another big week.

Week two of training

2010-01-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

I wrapped up another good week of training on Sunday. I won't lie, I was a little concerned about knocking out another huge mileage week after setting a pretty big mileage PR last week. But when it was all said and done, I managed 112 miles on 13 runs.

The week started off pretty poorly, I was dragging on Monday a day after my first run of over 14 miles in over a month. Those first long runs in a training cycle are sneaky. You don't quite realize how much they've taken out of you until the next day. So Monday was just an easy 5 in the morning followed by a painfully slow 4 at night.

Tuesday was also not exactly a stellar training day. I met my wife just after 5 pm for an early dinner followed by catching Avatar on Imax. Dinner was great, Avatar was just good, but that left me with just 9 miles for the day. Driving home I really struggled with whether or not to pull into the gym and hit the treadmill at 10:30 for a few extra miles. Figuring it was far too early in the program to start bailing on runs, I knocked out a quick 4.5 before finally getting home.

Wednesday produced what was probably the best workout of the early season. It wasn't real fast, although nothing outdoors right now is, but a steady 15 at 6:55 pace was much more in the ballpark pace wise than previous longer efforts. It was still a struggle coming back into a fierce wind, which coupled with bad footing on the packed snow makes things especially difficult. But I felt good throughout the run. I will say, that for about the 4th time already, my evening run was something of a chore. Getting out there at 8pm on the snow and ice isn't very enticing, but as always, once I'm out there I'm happy to be running.

More easy stuff on Thursday and Friday before I got to the indoor track on Saturday morning. I had all intentions of a tempo run, but pretty much screwed that up by running the first mile in 5:26. Oops. I ran another half mile and decided this was going to be a race effort on dead legs, something that just wasn't necessary. So I decided to knock out another quick 800m followed by some 250m repeats at mile pace. Just enough speedwork to call it a workout, but nothing that really provided any meaningful stimulus. So a little disappointing, but whatever, I had fun running fast for the first time in who knows how long.

Sunday was a little interesting to say the least. I decided to break up my long run by running to the gym, 6 miles away, running 7 on the treadmill, and then running home, finishing with 19 for the day. Well thanks to nearly an inch of rain on Saturday, the trails were completely flooded. I take an old railway converted to a trail out to the gym. It's great running most of the time, but it's pretty much flat, so the water has no where to go. Not to mention the "curbs" created by the snow piles on each side of the trail that act like, well, curbs, further trapping all moisture on the trail. Anyway, it was really annoying, because I knew it wasn't going to get better in a day either. Basically all my trails are f'ed up until spring, great.

So I had to take the streets, and I don't think most of the drivers appreciated a runner taking up their space, but whatever, gotta do what you gotta do. I made it to the gym in one piece, hopped on the treadmill and quickly knocked out 6 miles at 6:40 pace. Thanks to some clever wardrobe changes, I ran comfortable in a sleeveless t-shirt and shorts in the TM and put on arm-warmers, pants and a jacket for the runs to and from the gym. All in all it made for a nice change of scenery and a great way to wrap up my second week of 110+ miles.

This week should look much the same mileage wise. Probably the only difference will be a larger focus on workouts. I'm really itching to nail another tempo run and a solid fartlek at some point as well. Then, assuming all goes according to plan, a step-back week to follow.

Week 2: 112 miles at an average of 7:06 pace.

The week that was (albeit a little late)

2010-01-20T08:52:00.000-08:00

The first week of training for Green Bay is in the books. Lot's of good things to say about it. First, I hit my mileage goal, that being 110+, finishing with a cool 113. My previous peak week was 106, so a weekly mileage PR in the first week of training is a great start. Secondly, the hamstring is feeling pretty good, no major issues all week. I was a bit concerned, well more than a bit, that the issue might rear it's head once again based on the stress it was going to be facing. I don't care how slow and easy you take it, putting in 113 miles in a 7 day span is stressful. I'm just glad to have made it through week 1 unscathed.

That being said, I did have a couple of complaints about last week. After Wednesday, I pretty much felt like crap at some point of every run. I ran 14 on Thursday morning and I thought I might just have to call it quits. I was about 2 miles into the run and I had to stop. I just couldn't get myself to continue. My legs were dead, my attitude was horse shit. There was absolutely no desire to keep going. I decided to just give myself a few minutes to get my self together. This happens to everyone on occasion, but usually it's a passing dilemma. Well on Thursday it never really passed.

Although I decided to continue with the run, I was never into it. The footing was just terrible, I was slipping all over the place making the pace unbearably slow, but what felt like an eternity later, I finished the run at a pedestrian 7:17 pace. I hadn't run a midweek long run that slow in literally a year and a half. Ugh.

I waddled through a few more easy runs on Thursday night and Friday morning and evening. Then on Saturday, I decided to give myself a shot at a tempo run. This probably wasn't the greatest I idea, after all I was nearing the end of my biggest week of my running life, but I just couldn't slog through 10 more miles of boring-ass running outside. So what the hell, if I blow up who cares?

I hopped on the treadmill and after a 3 mile warmup I opened up at 5:45 pace for the first mile. Usually I know within the first few minutes of a workout how it's going to go. But this time I couldn't quite read the tea leaves. My breathing was well under control, my HR was just below tempo range, but my legs pretty much were telling me to f-off from the beginning. None the less I kept picking up the pace after each mile and pretty soon I was hitting 5:25 pace. Again, all systems were a go, but the legs were a hot mess.

The biggest problem I have in that situation is trying to maintain decent form. When my legs are toast, I naturally, or unnaturally depending on how you look at it, begin to take "short cuts" with my stride. Since I'm using the same muscles over and over again each day, when my legs are tired the broken form takes stress off those tired muscles. The obvious problem is that broken form is EXTREMELY inefficient and quickly leads to exhaustion. That's pretty much what I felt the last 2 miles of the workout. Battling my own body to maintain a decent stride was a losing battle.

So not the greatest workout in the world, certainly not a confidence builder that I could possibly maintain 5:35 pace for a HM. None the less, a workout I wasn't anticipating completing this week, so I can't be too annoyed.

Sunday wrapped up with what I thought was going to be another disastrous run, much like Thursday. Again, after about 3 miles into what I hoped was going to be 19, I crashed. I could tell my body was seriously low on glycogen and I was asking a lot of it to complete a 19 miler. But, much like Thursday, a few minutes to regain my thoughts and focus I was feeling far better. And unlike Thursday, it ended up being a really great workout, not fast, but comfortable and very much enjoyable. A fantastic was to wrap up a big week.

Week 1: 113 miles at an average of 7:13 pace.

Back to running

2010-01-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well, training started this week for the Green Bay marathon. I've got 18 weeks including taper to prepare as best I can. So, as usual at this time, I'm debating how exactly to structure my training. So far I've followed a Pfitz plan fairly closely, a Hudson inspired plan, and a Hudson-esque plan that I crafted myself, but due to a short time frame, it was a bit disjointed to say the least.

I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing this time around. When I look at what I feel has really worked for me in the past I think it's two things. First, mileage is essential for me to feel prepared. Although I've dabbled with 100 mile weeks, even stringing 3 or 4 together at a time, I've never approached that kind of mileage for an entire training cycle. That will be one of the main goals for sure.

Second, whether it's more a mental than a physical benefit I can't decide, but long tempo efforts sprinkled throughout a buildup has given me great confidence going into the marathon for sure, but just as importantly, tune-up races. When I look at my training heading into the HM I ran last spring, I had two different 10 mile tempo runs that fell somewhere between HMP and MP. Both I think were essential for setting up a great half. Although Grandma's was spoiled by the horrendous heat, I know I was fit that day.

Unfortunately those two things alone won't prepare me to run well in May, a few other things are going to be essential as I lay out the plan for the next few months. First of all, staying healthy is going to be paramount. I'm certainly headed down a smooth road with my hamstring as we speak, but I've got to be diligent in maintaining it's strength. That means lots of drills, hill sprints and strides, stuff I completely ignored during the time between Grandma's and Twin Cities last summer.

Also, nailing my tune-up races at all distances is going to be a major point of emphasis. No doubt that the marathon is the ultimate goal, but I've got some really embarrassing PR's at 5k and 10k. Improving on those, as well as adding a new PR in the 8k in late March should help create a successful spring.

After all that, how will my training actually look? I can't say for sure yet. I really do believe I've gained enough experience over the last two years of training/learning to make adjustments on the fly with more confidence and precision. I know my body pretty well in regards to marathon training at this point, so I'll have goals for the next 4-6 weeks as I look ahead on the calendar, but unless I find it necessary, I won't be scripting my training further out than that.

But, I can say that the next few weeks are going to be heavy on the mileage. I'll be disappointed if I don't hit 110 miles for each of the first 4 weeks of official training. That should include one fartlek session and possibly a tempo workout of some sort, but I want to be careful with the hamstring as well. It's feeling pretty good right now and I don't want to mess with a bad thing.

Absolutely more to come as I continue to map out specific time goals for this season as well.

Pictures!

2010-01-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a bunch of shots from our trip.

The craziest hike I've ever done. Not legal in the US.

Pictures!

2010-01-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

A mangy male

Cute!

Pictures!

2010-01-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Our first Zebra

Crazy flash flood.

View from out tent at the first Safari

A lone Elephant

I'm back

2010-01-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

Two weeks in Africa was fantastic, not so much from a training perspective, but certainly had some amazing experiences. One of them was time spent with Paul Tergat and members of his training group. I wrote an account of the day on RWOL, so rather than copy and paste the whole thing I'd just direct you over there if you haven't come from there in the first place.

I'll have lots of thoughts on a few others things going on right now, but for now, I just need some time to process all that's going on.

I'll keep in touch.

Some quick thoughts

2009-12-19T09:10:00.001-08:00

The hamstring continues to linger. I was on the treadmill last night, cruising along during what I hoped to be a fairly brisk paced 12 miler. Having finished the first 6 miles without any serious effort, and I had my HRM along to prove that, I decided to get in a nice steady state segment of another 6 miles to finish the workout.

Having run the first 6 around 6:35 pace, I dropped to 6 flat pace and felt like I was floating along. The previous 3 weeks of consistent running I think really helped get me back fitness wise to where I’d been after the marathon. I certainly don’t have the endurance I had back then, which is to be expected, but running MP, or even slightly faster, felt like MP, very smooth and controlled, but brisk.

Anyway, after a mile or so I felt my hamstring begin to tighten. Now, this has happened numerous times in the last month or so, but usually it’s temporary, and I can run through it. Not this time, or at least, I didn’t feel comfortable running through it. So much to my frustration I shut it down. I was tempted to go down stairs and stretch it out, give it a break and come back for another 5 very easy miles. I decided it just wasn’t worth it.

The good news is I’m feeling great today. I’ll head out with the goal of 16-18 easy miles before I, in theory, board a plane tomorrow morning. But since all flights from Minneapolis to Newark are cancelled today, I don’t expect tomorrow to be much better. Fortunately the actual plane we board is coming from Houston tonight, so at least we’re not waiting on a plane coming from New Jersey that’s 3 trips behind schedule.

That being said, I have no idea where the plane we’re supposed to take leaving Newark to London is schedule to come from. So we’re by no means out of the woods. And oh yeah, there’s that pesky baggage handler strike at Heathrow. Considering if this run with Paul actually happens it’ll be right after we arrive, I’ll be packing my shoes in my carry-on. And since I’ll have them with me, think the TSA would object to me putting in an easy 5 miler around the gates of Liberty International?

On the brighter side

2009-12-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

I leave for a two week trip of a lifetime to Africa on Sunday. My father has been working as a missionary in various countries throughout the continent for more than 12 years and is currently settled in Kenya. Although he and my step-mother have been back to the US to visit numerous times, I’ve never had the opportunity to make the trip myself.

Through the years of humanitarian work my father has had the chance to meet with numerous influential leaders throughout Africa. One of those such leaders is a man that has gained, as they say, fame and fortune, in Kenya because of his immense talent and dedication to the sport of running, Paul Tergat.

For those of you unfamiliar with Paul, he is one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the sport. Olympic medals, major marathon victories and world records all earned during an amazing career, of which he still continues to train at a very high level. He is possibly the most famous person among the Kenyan people. Obviously he’s greatly respected for his athletic accomplishments, but also for his humanitarian efforts in his native country.

Thanks to the relationship my father and Paul have, while on my trip to Kenya, I may have the chance to visit Paul at his home and head out from his front door for a training run, just he and I. Paul is a very busy man, he currently is out of the country on business, but if the stars align, I’ll have the chance to spend a few hours with one of the greatest athletes in the history of mankind. Pretty damn sweet.

These last 10 days or so have been a little weird when I’ve tried to actually picture myself lacing up my shoes to run with a 2:04 marathoner. Now, don’t think for a second I believe that I’ll be challenging Paul at any point if this were to happen. But, at the same time, I’d like to think I can present a little more of a training stimulus than your average corporate fun run he probably gets roped into.

So what does that mean? I haven’t a clue, it’s like knowing race day is coming next week, but you don’t know the distance, the location or for that matter, any other detail of the day. You just know to bring your shoes.

If it happens, it’ll be by far the most memorable run, or race for that matter, of my life. Do I expect to glean some training nugget that will launch my running “career” onto a whole new level? Of course not, we all know it doesn’t work that way. But we all need inspiration, and I don’t know how spending time pounding the roads where, not just Paul, but the dozens of other world class runners were created, cannot be inspiring.

Let’s just hope it happens.

A long run

2009-12-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I was going to extol my toughness for completing an 18 mile run today in absolutely terrible conditions. Some created by Mother herself, a nippy -15 wind-chill, some created by my hubris, believing I only needed a headband to protect myself from the jacket collar up.

Instead I want to talk about something I can’t quite explain. A series of locations I passed tonight without any intention. I simply left the door with the goal of running 18 miles, with my garmin strapped on, I just went where I thought the sidewalks would be somewhat cleared after this morning’s snow.

I live in the town next to the place I grew up. I could go on and on about how weird it is to be back where nearly all of my childhood memories were created. But suffice it to say, it’s not unusual for me to venture around the streets that I once raced around on my Trek, listening to Led Zeppelin, wondering who and what I would become.

I had and continue to have great friends from that time in my life. The kind of friends that you don’t need to talk to every week to remain close to, but you still do because you want to.

As I ran along the road named after the city itself, listening to a couple of rubes ranting about the latest Viking victory, it snuck up on me. After a clearing of trees, I looked to my right and saw the recently snowed hill of a cemetery. Like most, I run past the occasional cemetery every so often, without a second thought. This one was different; one of those friends I mentioned was buried there.

This January, it’ll be 9 years since Chris died. I went to visit his grave, but it isn’t marked. His parents still haven’t been able to bring themselves to mark it. I jogged up the driveway, walking into the row I believed to be where he lay, and hoped there was at least a clue that I could identify his resting place for sure. But there was none.

If I hadn’t been through the same emotions many times before I probably would have been far more frustrated. Like the pain of losing Chris, my disillusion with not being able to know for certain where his final resting place was located had faded. I instead thought about the date I’d missed. Just two weeks ago, he would have turned 31. In the last 9 years since his death, I couldn’t remember a December 3^rd that went by that I didn’t think of Chris.

Memories fade I suppose, I can’t be blamed for that. At least that’s what I told myself and said a short prayer and continued on my run.

I didn’t think much of it for the next 40 minutes or so. It wasn’t a complete surprise that I passed the cemetery. But as I reached the half way point of my run, I turned back into the wind, and it was cold.

I fought the wind as I shuffled across a snow covered overpass, trying to jump onto the roadway to get decent footing, only to see the oncoming traffic and having to trudge through the snowbank to get back on the poorly plowed sidewalk. I’d been running into the wind for some time now, and that headband wasn’t doing the job. I grew concerned I might not make it, not in the literal sense, but I began searching for a place to call my wife for a ride.

There was a BP station across the road, but I was determined to keep going, nothing was life threatening at this point and I just needed to get though a tough stretch. As I was about to cross an intersection, I noticed the path wasn’t cleared from that point on. The snow plow must have crossed the road at that point, so I followed.

As I turned to my right to dodge traffic for a safely plowed path, I ran towards a handsome white building, one I knew very well, and couldn’t believe I was passing. It was the last time I saw Chris before he was buried, without any intention at all, I ran past the funeral home, the place of his wake.

Now just an odd coincidence, passing his final resting place, was compounded with the even odder coincidence that I was now running past where I truly said goodbye to my friend.

But goddamn I was fucking cold.

I continued on, with about 6 miles to go. Up a monster hill that wasn’t plowed at all. Check that, it was plowed, they plowed all the snow onto the sidewalk but didn’t plow after that, thanks, just what I needed more snow to schlep through.

I was looking for short cuts at this point, 40 minutes of running into the wind after working up a sweat was a bad combination. I cut through the high school parking lot. I’d taken this short cut about 1000 times before. My elementary school was just beyond the high school parking lot that I was cutting through.

I ambled up the trodden path, through the snow and approached the rail road tracks. At this point I almost dropped to my knees and cried. You see, Chris’ life was defined, for better and worse, by one moment. And as somehow I passed his grave, passed the place I last laid eyes on his body, I was standing over the location that shaped his remaining 14 years of his life.

He was in the 2^nd grade, walking back to his house with his friend Josh. They had visited our elementary school for a book fair, both great kids. The details are sketchy, but the story is short, Josh was hit by a train, just feet from Chris. Josh lost his life that day, I don’t need to go into the details of how the accident went down, but imagine the worst if your 8 year old child was there to witness.

I had travelled back in time through Chris’ life, a journey I wasn’t expecting to say the least. It began with his death and ended with the defining moment of his life. And I just wanted to go for a run.

I sit here now reminded of the pain I felt the day he died. When I came across the cemetery I was somewhat detached, it was coincidence. It’s tough now, I’m truly sad to not have him be among those friends who I get to talk to all the time. Why the sequence of events of tonight’s run happened is mystery, but it’s a great reminder of one thing.

Appreciate those you love.

Not a bad workout last night

2009-12-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

I wasn’t quite sure how my run last night was going to shake out. Like I had mentioned, the goal was something approximating a longish run, hopefully in the neighborhood of 12 miles. As I fired up the trusty treadmill at the gym, thanks to a fresh 8 inches of snow outside, I settled into a very moderate 7:00 pace.

I had brought my HRM with me, as I almost always do when dealing with the boredom of the TM. It gives me one more thing to distract my brain from the mind numbing repetitiveness. Anyway, my HR was very steady at about 147, right about where an easy pace should be for the workout I was going to put in.

Then, as it happens all too often when I’m running on the TM, I get antsy, almost claustrophobic, and soon I realize there’s no way I’m going to spend 90 minutes staring at the same racquetball court and watch the same 2 dudes attempt to scurry around the court with an embarrassing lack of athletic ability. Not that I should talk, I’d probably blow my knee out if I tried to do anything but run in a straight line, but I digress.

So what to do? The best thing for me in this situation is to turn what would have been a boring ass run into a challenge. In other words, a real workout. But, there in lies a problem, I really should not be doing any workouts at this point. Although my hamstring is feeling great, there’s no reason to risk aggravating it. Given the alternative, bailing on a run 3 miles in and essentially ruining a chance at a decent week mileage wise, I decided to give a tempo run a go.

First mile was nice and easy, 5:52, HR was in the mid 170’s, just a hair above marathon HR, nice. Second mile I came through in 5:44, again very comfortable breathing wise. The difficulty I was beginning to have was with my legs. I was two days out from my first lower body weight routine in god knows how long, so DOMS had definitely set in. I just needed to remind myself that my legs weren’t tired, just sore. Nothing I couldn’t push through. With my breathing in a good rhythm, I was able to handle mile 3, 5:35, just fine.

Last mile I decided to crank it down again, as I wasn’t feeling very stressed. So I finished the 4 mile tempo with a 5:27 mile.

After a cool down I came away from the workout very happy. I went in planning on doing one thing, realized it wasn’t mean to be, but didn’t bail on the day, which is most important. Trying to get through a winter in Minnesota while maintaining fitness is usually a good goal, but getting through it while improving it would be fantastic. More days like yesterday will go a long way in doing that.

…and we’re back

2009-12-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

It’s been 5 weeks since I’ve posted anything on the blog, so it’s time to give some updates. First, my hamstring reared its ugly head again a couple of weeks ago. I had put in about 50 miles in that week and apparently Sunday’s hard run of 13 was enough to aggravate it again. I previously went 3 weeks without issue, but like most hamstring troubles, they can be fickle. So I took another entire week off from running, and then eased back into it last week.

All in all I feel pretty good, I can definitely tell there’s some tenderness still there. That might be as much from the lunges I did two days ago at the gym, but I decided to really work on strengthening my lower body. I really do believe that was a major contributor to the issue in the first place.

So, after 10 moderate miles on Monday, 8 easy yesterday, I’m ready to try a slightly longer effort today, probably in the neighborhood of 12ish.

I’ll be far more diligent in updating over the next few weeks for a few reasons. First, I have a trip of a lifetime coming up, two weeks in Kenya. And also, what might be taking place running related on that trip, which would be a training run with Paul Tergat, a former sub 2:05 marathoner who still is in fantastic shape. Just me and him if it comes to be, in his back yard. Pretty cool.

Anyway, I’ll get into more detail in the coming days/weeks on that, but for now I just wanted to get a quick update for you the reader.

One of my least favorite days of the year

2009-11-04T12:18:00.001-08:00

It’s the day when I come crawling, tail tucked between my legs, back to the gym to signup again for a membership. I think back in such fondness to that day this spring when I was able to cut the cord, not needing the indoor confines to manage to get in my running. Not having sniffed a treadmill in 7 months has been fantastic. But, seeing that it was pitch black at 5 o’clock yesterday, I decided to give in.

The good news is that since we’ve moved, the gym is now just a few minutes from my house. It also is a brand new facility, so new equipment with decent treadmills. The timing also coincides with my realization that my shunning of anything that resembles weightlifting for 2 years probably needs to end. This hamstring issue, although I can’t say for sure, would likely have been prevented if I had incorporated some light lifting into my routine.

If I can only view it as injury prevention, I have no issue with spending 30 minutes 3 times a week getting in some strength training. I don’t expect any miracles here, but it’s probably time to start focusing on more of the details of my training and not just brushing off that sort of stuff because “I run a lot” I don’t have to worry about it nearly as much.

Anyway, back to the gym. I decided that I wanted to get in my first true workout since the marathon, a 4 mile tempo run. Tempo runs always make me a little nervous. I could probably prattle on and on as to why, but the point is I never seem to run them nearly as well as I hoped.

So after a brisk warmup, I stayed conservative for my first mile, 5:45. The pace felt very comfortable, so mile two I picked it up, 5:39. I was really surprised at how easy the pace was. Usually half way through a tempo run I’m second guessing why I’m even running the workout. Mile 3 was again quite comfortable, 5:29. For the last mile I decided to press the pace a little, 5:20. I finished feeling very strong, not breathing that heavy at all. Wow, I have no idea where that came from. My last 5k was around 17 flat, that would be a PR by 45 seconds.

I thought back to nearly two years ago. It was January of 2008, I was on the treadmill after committing to training for my first marathon. I wanted an assessment of my fitness in order to set a goal for my first race. I ran 8 miles that day at 6:15 pace. It was by far the hardest I’d run in 10 years. It was an all out effort. Last night I ran 4 miles at 5:34 pace without much difficulty. It’s amazing how things have changed. Pretty cool, anyway, I digress.

This puts me in a bit of a pickle. Clearly, I’m recovered from my marathon and the hamstring is 100%. So I’m tempted to take advantage of it and get back into race mode and knock out a few PR’s. But should I continue to take it easy? How would that short cycle fit into marathon prep for next spring? I’m not really sure. I’ve got some figuring out to do. Regardless, I’m really pleased with my workout last night; hopefully I can continue the progress as I get back into real training.

The elements of a perfect training run

2009-10-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I had one yesterday.

One could argue that there's no such thing as perfection when it comes to running. To apply that term to something as chaotic as traveling by foot for miles on end is ludicrous in reality, but I'm going with it anyway. Even if it may be a stretch to use the term perfection, we occasionally need to feel like our efforts can produce such results.

So what makes a run perfect? First, whatever the distance that was run, you could have gone further and faster without question. You finish with a sense of accomplishment, but not exhaustion. You have a feeling that hard work has been completed, but short of the "glad it's over" relief. Time has passed faster than you could have imagined. You're somewhat amazed to have covered the distance in the time elapsed. Maybe even double checking your watch just to be sure, or to remind yourself of what you indeed just finished.

The run can be long or short, or anywhere in between, but you've probably run it before and have the ability to juxtapose a previous effort against that day's, making it easy to see just how much you've improved.

That's the second part of a perfect run, you have concrete evidence of improvement. Paces that once required strain and concentration, now feel relaxed, borderline casual. As runner's we're constantly trying to improve, every workout has a purpose, and regardless of what kind of run it may be, it's designed to allow for improvement. There can be weeks, sometimes months, when we have no tangible evidence that we've improved. Hundreds of miles have been logged, shoes have come and gone, hell, seasons may have changed, and we're doing this all on faith. When you're out on a run and sonny Jesus actually appears before you, your faith is confirmed, and it's an incredible feeling.

On a perfect run, uphills feel like flat ground, flat ground feels like running down hill, and down hills feel like cheating.

The perfect run comes along very rarely, at least how I define it, but that's even better. You can't have Christmas everyday. So these are days to be remembered, even if no one was there to witness and attempting to describe it to anyone would fail to portray it's subtle significance.

I'll head out tonight, in the pouring rain, knowing it might be a long time before I get to experience that feeling again, but that's just fine. Work has to be done to produce another day like yesterday, they don't happen by accident, and I'm happy to put in the work.

I ran today! (with pics to prove it)

2009-10-19T16:16:00.001-07:00

My first few steps out the door today, the first in nearly 2 weeks, felt great, and then, within seconds, the hamstring tightened up on me. I immediately thought of stopping and shutting it down for yet another week. Wow, I really didn’t think this thing would be such an issue. Sure I’ve had muscle strains before, but come on, it’s been 2 weeks of no running, I should absolutely be 100% at this point. What the hell?

Much like where I found myself in the marathon two weeks ago, in that sort of no-man’s land between clearly needing to stop running and creating a mental mountain out of a mole hill, I just kept running. Lo and behold, another 5 minutes into the run it loosened up for me. Not completely pain free, but enough to put my mind at ease that I’d be able to get through my run. Phew.

Since it was just about a perfect fall day, actually, check that, it was a perfect fall day, I brought my camera along. Here’s a few shots of the trail that I jump on about 200 yards from my driveway.

So a nice easy 6 miles today, about 7:10 pace. Not too bad I guess. Although if you would’ve told me I’d actually been in a coma and hadn’t run in 6 months, I probably would have believed you. It wasn’t exactly effortless running. No worries though, most importantly the hamstring felt pretty good for the rest of my time out there.

This week should be around 40 miles, I’m going to guess. It’ll be a day by day thing with my leg, barring a miracle I’ve pretty much conceded the racing season to be over, so there’s no hurry at this point.

It’s good to be back though.

I’ve run 0 miles this week, and haven’t really loved it.

2009-10-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

I’m ready to start running again, but have decided to continue to take it easy and rest. Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s been at least a year since I’ve taken more than a couple of days off. Unlike last week, I’m getting tired of being a lazy ass. Not working out, much less running is starting to wear thin.

Fortunately, since moving into our new house about 4 weeks ago, I’ve had more than enough projects to keep me occupied. A new coat rack, rewiring some fixtures, staining a handrail, putting up house numbers and patching/painting some walls to name a few. I’d post pictures but it’s nothing exciting enough to bother.

Anyway, back to running. Today might just be another day off. Despite picking up new shoes and a fancy pair of running pants yesterday, I have to remind myself that once I get back out there, it’s training to get ready for the next major race. Once I put it in that perspective, I don’t mind enjoying another day or two of mental rest as much as physical.

So in the mean time, it’s back to This Old House. I believe new carpet on the stairs to the basement could be in order.

I ran 3 miles last week, and I loved it.

2009-10-12T08:09:00.001-07:00

After formally injuring my hamstring on Wednesday, I took the rest of the week off. That gave me a whopping three miles for the week. Nice. Obviously I needed to take it easy with the hamstring, but the fact it coincided with what should be some scheduled downtime after TCM made for “perfect” timing if you could use that word while being injured.

I should also not get too over the top by saying that I’m “injured”. Yeah, running would be stupid right now, but if this were the middle of another marathon training cycle I would be out there getting in the miles as best I could, as long as I wasn’t in pain. If I had to guess, I could probably go run for an hour today without major issues but I won’t. Until I go 48 hours without feeling any pain or even tightness I’m staying in. There’s just no reason to not let this thing be 100% before starting to gear up for another race.

It’s been since January that I haven’t been pounding pretty hard, so I’m due for a real break. So off again today, tomorrow and most likely Wednesday. Towards the end of the week I’ll probably head out for a few easy runs just to test the hamstring, and look to spend the following two weeks just running 40-60 miles. At that point I should be fully recovered from Twin Cities and ready to really start working back from a date next year, planning the training cycle.

Speaking of the next cycle, could I possibly finish my fourth marathon by striding down the historic grid-iron of Lambeau Field, home to the rival Green Bay Packers? It’s got a lot of upsides I’m looking for. Good timing for training, mid May, right between Boston and Grandma’s. Fairly competitive, about 15 guys under 2:40 and a relatively fast course. It’s one to keep an eye on for sure.

So what’s next?

2009-10-07T11:56:00.001-07:00

I think most runners when asked what’s the next marathon they’re doing and claim, “I haven’t even thought about it” are bald faced liars. Not me, I swear! I really hadn’t given it much thought before TCM. Well, now that it’s past, time to look into the crystal ball and see what is coming next.

Probably the obvious option is Boston. The upside is that it’s early in the year, giving me a full training cycle for fall, something I didn’t have the pleasure of this year. The downside of the early April race, is our two week trip to Kenya at the end of the year would fall right at the beginning of the training program. I really don’t want the pressure of trying to get in 100 miles a week while I’m taking the vacation of a lifetime.

That doesn’t rule Boston out, I hear some decent runners find ways to train in Kenya, but I would have to compromise my training for sure. I guess that’s a little inaccurate, I wouldn’t have to, but would choose to.

On the complete other end of the spectrum, is Grandma’s. After the heat this year I’d probably consider myself somewhat disturbed to want to line up in Two Harbors in late June again. There are lots of intangibles that make this race attractive outside of the timing and course itself though. It’s been by far the best all around experience I’ve had in my short marathoning career thus far. PR’s are still most important, but Duluth puts on a great event.

Option number three? No spring marathon. If this is the case, I’d run the Grandma’s half marathon as well as another early spring half. This would give me the chance to really focus on speed and shorter distances for a significant amount of time, laying the groundwork for a fall marathon.

Honestly, option three sounds the least attractive. After a good, but not great performance at TCM, I have a hard time waiting to race again until June, much less October. I can pretty much cross that one off the list. Of course, there are other opportunities in spring to race, well after Boston but before Grandma’s. I’ll need to do some investigating before I make any decisions, but at first blush, the idea of running one of the two hilly marathons we have in May around here sounds like no fun, and spending a bunch of money to travel to someplace other than Boston doesn’t sound like much fun either.

First things first, I’m putting in my first training run today for whatever that next race is. It’ll hopefully be a boring, meaning not painful, 4-6 miles, my first since Sunday. It’s a beautiful day, I hope I can enjoy it, and the hamstring is feeling pretty good as of now.

Twin Cities Race Report

2009-10-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

I arrived at the Dome about 6:45 for the 8:00 start. Plenty of time to chill, use the facilities, and get ready to race. It was chilly to start the morning, mid 40’s, but relatively light winds, pretty much out of the west. Which was good, the finish is about 9 mile east of the start as the crow flies.

I wasn’t real early to the start, I didn’t want to spend a ton of time just standing around. But I finally ventured into corral 1 and soon saw Runners World forumites MNRunnerguy who pointed out 5bororunner and ZiggyNH, we chatted for a while, it’s always cool to have some people you “know” at the start of a race.

First mile was nice and easy. My Garmin had me at 5:58, but I knew that was off because of the large buildings around the start line, I passed the clock at about 6:25 gun time, so 6:20ish for the first. Miles 2 and 3 (6:17, 6:11) made a little more sense time wise. This part of the course was pretty much into the wind and had a significant hill about mile 2.5, so I wasn’t at all concerned about being a little off the pace.

We turned south and started with a little downhill for mile 4 (5:56). The course leveled off for the next few miles and I fell into a great rhythm. Breathing, arm swing and stride just clicked, effortless running at this point and my splits for the next few miles showed.

Miles 5 (6:01), 6 (6:02) 7 (6:03)

I popped my first gel during mile 7. I didn’t feel like I needed it, but obviously trying to stay ahead of the game I took it anyway. The next section of the course had some rolling hills. Nothing severe, but I could tell they were cutting into that rhythm I’d developed. It wasn’t making the work difficult, by I had to turn off auto-pilot and focus on racing smart, I think I did that.

Miles 8 (6:10), 9 (6:11), 10 (6:00)

The pace was fairly comfortable, and the splits from the 10 mile mark were pretty consistent. The course is relatively amiable here, out of the wind, an occasional moderate hill and overpass, just cruising along to the half mark.

Miles 11 (6:11), 12 (6:04), 13 (6:10)

I hit the half point (1:20:50) feeling as confident as I ever have in a marathon. Problem is that really isn’t saying much. None the less, I felt, although I was a bit off the pace I wanted to go out in, I was exactly where I should have been. Not working at all to hold pace and feeling relatively relaxed. My splits continued to come easily over the next few miles.

Miles 14 (6:10) 15 (6:06) 16 (6:10)

In the midst of mile 17 things started to get a bit squirrelly. It started with a twinge in my left hamstring. I ignored it and made sure to get in my tablets immediately. A few strides would go by, wouldn’t feel a thing, and then another twinge, this time a little deeper and more concerning. I continued to ignore it.

Miles 17 (6:17), 18 (6:24)

By the end of mile 18 the twinges were replaced by a continued strain on my hamstring. I could tell something wasn’t right, obviously, but I didn’t know exactly what the problem was. But whatever it was, it wasn’t good. At first I was absolutely crushed. The training was excellent, the weather perfect, and now my f’ing hamstring is gonna derail this fantastic day.

As you know, you’ve got a lot of time to go through a lot of different emotions on race day, and it absolutely crossed my mind to just bail. I had the most challenging part of the course right ahead of me, how the hell was I get through it without embarrassing myself yet again but having to walk, stretch, walk, repeat for 7 miles? Or better yet, have this hamstring thing be an actual injury, not just a cramp, and kick myself for not bailing when I should have after actually hurting myself?

To be honest, I don’t really know how I resolved the situation in my head. It’s one of those things where you don’t even make a decision, you just find yourself still running, and doing the best you can. I guess I just decided to manage the pain (albeit minor, I don’t want to oversell this, I hadn’t lost my leg in the war) but more importantly manage the risk. That meant, slowing down, shortening my stride and just getting home in one piece.

Miles 19 (6:33), 20 (6:25) 21 (6:28)

The downside to have a gimpy hamstring at this point of the race, among others, is that the next 3 miles have one severe hill, and is all in an uphill direction. Not the kind of grade you’re looking for with that sort of problem. It definitely exacerbated the issue. At one point along Summit, I can’t remember exactly where, I actually had a bleeping armchair quarterback yell at me “Lengthen your stride! Lengthen your stride!” I wanted to yell “asshole! I’m doing this on purpose!” but just shot him a seriously dirty look instead.

Pretty brutal splits here, but all the wheels were on the bus, and that made me happy.

Miles 22 (6:47), 23 (6:57), 24 (6:47)

Two freakin’ miles to go, and I can finally feel it. I’m gonna have a great day, not perfect, I clearly had lost too much time for an “A” goal today, but close enough to be called a great day.. Then, the side stitch from hell pops up. This thing just came out of nowhere in what felt like and instant. I’m sure everyone has had one like it, the kind where you want to check the bushes to find the a-hole who fired the blow dart into your side. The same damn thing happened at Grandma’s. It’s what killed my chance at a mildly respectable time there, even considering the heat. Ugh.

I stopped, walked for 20 or 30 seconds, trying to stretch it out. No luck. Grrrr. With a slight hitch in my stride and a shortened one at that, the miles of a very erratic rhythm had caught up with me. The good news, if you could consider this good news, is that my pace wasn’t stressing my breathing very much at all. I buckled down and just focused on one deep breath in, two steps, a deep breath out, two steps. Sucking in as much wind as possible to stretch the stitch, and keeping everything in perfect rhythm. After about 3 minutes it was nearly gone. I couldn’t believe it.

Miles 25 (7:12), 26 (6:33)

I turned the corner and there was the Capitol. No more uphills, if the hamstring blew I could roll to the finish if I had to. I let it loose it that point, covering the last .52 at 5:56 pace. A subpar performance never felt so good, 2:47:37, about a 15 minute PR.

Right now the hamstring hurts like a b/tch. The pain is quite sharp, so I really think the issue was more strain than cramp, but who really knows, or cares for that matter. If it’s not better in a couple of days, then I’ll give a crap. I’ve got so many good things to take away from this race.

First, despite some issues, I still ran strong. I found a way to get it done. That is something that simply cannot be said for my marathoning career thus far. Secondly, I don’t think 2:39 was gonna happen on my best day today, maybe 2:40-41, but either way I don’t feel I was limited by my fitness today, which has given me all the more motivation to keep at it, another big PR is still out there.

Thanks for reading…

Pre-race Thoughts

2009-10-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

So yeah, that’s the goal, 2:39. Is that reasonable? I say yes of course, but only one way to find out. Going back to Grandma’s, I was only willing to set a pace that was at least equivalent to a result from a shorter race. Meaning my 1:17 half told me 2:42 was doable, so I even went more conservative and planned on pacing for 2:45. I made a deal with myself if I would be willing to possibly sacrifice an absolute maximum performance at Grandma’s by being so conservative, I could then get aggressive at TCM.

Despite the performance in June, I’m still sticking to that plan. It’s tempting to just play it safe again, all but guarantee myself a respectable PR, and wait until spring to make a run at a truly peak effort, but screw that. It absolutely takes all the excitement out of the race to even think about doing something like that. My mind is ready for the effort, so let’s find out if my body is as well.

I will say it certainly helps to have an absolute perfect forecast for the race. This time of year, things simply don’t change as fast, so unlike Grandma’s, I’m much more confident I won’t have poor conditions as an excuse, even with the forecast still 4 days out. So, how do I still get to that time of 2:39? Even with great weather? Well, my tune up races certainly doesn’t indicate I’m ready for it. A half marathon in 1:18 and a 10 mile in 58 aren’t great indicators. But as I’ve maintained for weeks now, I truly believe I’m in better shape than that.

Heart rate data isn’t everything, but when I’m seeing similar paces from this spring at HR’s 10 beats per minute lower, I have to believe I’m doing something right. So if I ran a solid 1:17 half in May, and I’m feeling like paces 10-15 seconds per mile faster are of similar effort, what else can I do besides, to use a tired phrase, trust my training?

If it all goes to hell in a handbasket at mile 20 on Sunday I’ll blame no one else but myself for going out in 1:20 at the half. This is my idea, and my idea alone. But I’m willing to face failure at this crazy distance of 26.2 miles. It’s part of the sport, or at least part of those that truly excel in the sport.

There you go. Now it’s just three days of carb loading and rest. I’ve run 24 miles the last three days, I’ll head out for 6 tonight with strides, 4 on Friday and 4 on Saturday. I took a day off last week when I felt like I needed it more, so I want to keep the legs moving this week.

I'll cut to the chase and post a lot of crap later

2009-09-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

2:39

I'm only two days late

2009-09-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, 5 days out from my third marathon. First, this blog has been stagnant for a few weeks, so I'd like to address that. I didn't start this thing as some form of therapy, so as real life has been an absolute shit storm, I haven't seen it as a port of calm to unload my personal issues. Most of which have been positive. My wife and I have moved into our first home, and we couldn't be more happy. But just getting in my running has been tantamount to rambling about it on this blog. With this post, that'll change, I promise. Things have settled down in many ways, so it's time to focus on the race. I had intentions of pounding out a monster post, but it's getting late. Tomorrow, this time I mean it.

Update...

2009-09-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

...will come tomorrow. I've got lots to say, so stay tuned. Monster race in 7 days.

Stick with me here

2009-09-02T13:54:00.001-07:00

Alright, I don’t want to make this sound more complicated than it actually is with all kinds of numbers, but I had an interesting run last night. Coming off my race on Saturday, I wasn’t expecting to be putting in any quality miles until late in the week. I pretty much kept it that way, but I was surprised by the pace I ended up running.

The result was 14 miles at an average of 6:28 pace. What was really interesting was the heart rate data. I average just 163 bpm for the run. Now, none of this is means much if you don’t produce the results in a race, but clearly I’m fit enough to run much faster than I did on Saturday.

Using a set of tables, my HR for a half marathon should be right around 183, which has been verified in the real world. So if I were to align my HM HR with the data gathered from last night, that means that my “ideal” HM, again, based just on HR data, is 1:13:55. Is that ridiculous? Yes in reality and no in “Garmin World”. It’s not that ridiculous because in Garmin World it’s just a 2 minute PR, which I’ll show you.

Garmin World is a magical place. It allows you to run races at paces you once thought unimaginable. My HM PR is 1:17:09, for a recorded distance of 13.29 miles. So, if I had actually run the HM distance, 13.1 miles, it would have taken me just a mere 1:15:59. Considering my “14 mile” run last night was probably more like 14.2 miles if it were a race, it’s only valid to compare HR data between Garmin measured distances.

What I’m trying to say is that sure, 1:13:55 is possible, but only if I ran a half marathon race and stopped whenever my watch got to 13.1 miles, likely well short of the finish line. But, after all that, most of which probably didn’t make much sense, it’s clear through HR data produced last night and during other workouts, I’m ready to run MUCH faster than I did last weekend.

All this has gotten me really fired up to smoke that 10 mile race next weekend. I’ll bang out a 5 mile tempo run at goal pace on Friday, another workout on Tuesday of next week and then easy miles going into the race. Mileage should be large both weeks; this isn’t the time to cut back, so 105-ish this week and slightly less next.

Post race post

2009-08-31T19:24:00.001-07:00

Well, it was a tough day. I won’t go through the race step by step but it can be summed up thusly, windy and hilly. Final time was 1:18:36, somehow managed 12^th place, not that it matters. If I had written this post Saturday morning after the race it would be far less cordial, to say I was pissed would have been an understatement.

There’s a first time for everything in running and Saturday was the first time crossing the finish line of a race without a PR. That stung. I was in my car within 10 minutes of crossing the line, I had no interest in hanging around. Like I said, I was a little pissed.

So now that I’ve had a chance to think it over, I’ve come to the conclusion that I actually ran a decent race. It wasn’t my day, I know that, but when you’ve come to mile 7 of a half marathon struggling to maintain even a decent pace, and end up gutting it out under really tough conditions, that is something to be proud of. Yeah, PR’s are important, and to be honest, the main reason I run as much as I do, but keeping things in perspective is just as important.

That being said, I need to run a fast race before the marathon in October. What should that be? Not a 5k, possibly a 10k and probably a 10 mile race in two weeks. That would be three weeks out from the marathon, and since I’ve only run one race since Grandma’s, I'm not overly concerned about expending too much energy before the full.

There’s a nice 10 mile race in town that might just do the trick. I’d consider it a long tempo effort, but would certainly race it all out. Running sub 57 would be fantastic. To be honest I don’t know anything about the course, and if it’s really hilly I’ll pass. So I’ll look to get over there in the next couple of days, probably this weekend, to check it out.

Today was an easy 11 miles, 7:19 pace. I don’t know why my easy pace continues to creep down. I’ve been wearing a HRM every few runs just to make sure I’m not over doing it, and it appears I’m right where I need to be. Good news for sure, now I just need to translate that fitness into a race.

Final race prep

2009-08-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well tonight was the last workout before my half marathon on Saturday. Much like my HM in May, this certainly isn’t a goal race for this training cycle, but I’m looking to be fairly rested and ready for a strong performance. So that always leads to the difficult question of how best to mix in continued training for the actual goal race, but giving you the best chance to perform well in the interim.

I came up with a workout in May that I felt did that. Four days out, it blends some fast tempo work with speedy stuff along with some all out running, granted not much, but just enough to remind the body how hard you’ll need to push. It goes like this 2x1600 w/ 3 minutes rest, 2x800 w/ 2 minutes rest, 2x400 60 seconds rest, 2x200 30 seconds rest.

The idea being the two miles shouldn’t tax you to the point that you’re ready to bail, but takes some of the snap out of your legs getting into the 8’s. By the time you get to the 200’s, you’re pretty much toast and not recovered from the intervals. So you’re running on fumes, but just briefly. Again, the point isn’t to kill yourself, but running an all out 200 with just 30 seconds rest is pretty intense.

So long story short, it was a good workout. I was able to compare results from the workout in May. Here’s how it went, with the May workout first.

5:28, 5:26, 2:37, 2:33, 72, 71, 30, 29

5:17, 5:16, 2:30, 2:29, 68, 69, 32, 32

Each split being, can I say, significantly faster? Obviously the 200’s were slower, but I’ll admit I mailed those in tonight. I also vividly remember running like a crazy person for those 200’s in May. I think it was the first truly fast stuff I had done all spring, so I got a little crazy. Anyway, those aren’t that important.

So I’m pleased. Now, the real question, what does it mean for this weekend? Given the way the weather is looking, low 50’s with little wind, I have no excuse but to come away with a PR. By how much to define a good race or bad? Tough question, but I figure anything 1:15:xx should be considered a solid race, something to be proud of.

Until then nothing but easy miles and lots of rest until Saturday.

Summing up last week

2009-08-24T11:07:00.001-07:00

In short, 101 miles with 2 ok workouts and 2 good longer efforts, 15 on Wednesday at 6:36 pace and 18 on Saturday at 6:48 pace. To be disappointed with my week would be silly, but neither of my workouts on Tuesday and Friday went according to plan. Why? Tuesday I was tired from a monster weekend and conditions weren’t ideal, so I’m not too frustrated with that one, but Friday was poorly planned.

We were at the cabin this weekend so I drove to the refuge to run on the gravel/packed sand roads that are dead flat. The workout was to be 5 or 6 mile repeats at whatever pace I felt like I could handle for 5 or 6 miles. Having run on those roads a fair amount before I thought it would be an ideal running locale. The problem I had was I completely underestimated how hard it was to push off on the loose gravel/sand while running fast.

Maybe if I had a pair of cross country spikes I could have managed better, but after running 5:25 pace but at 5:10 effort I got through three and a half miles and was done. For a few minutes I thought about repeating the workout today or tomorrow, but even though I fell short of the workout goal, it was still a pretty big effort none the less. Instead, I’ll run something intense, but not nearly that demanding. What that is, is yet to be determined.

So a solid two weeks coming into my half this Saturday. I’ll workup a race day plan over the next few days and I’ll get it up very soon.

A Milestone of Sorts

2009-08-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

On December 5^th of 2007 I was on a treadmill in Dubuque Iowa of all places when I made the decision to train for a marathon. Tonight, on my second run of the day, I passed the 5000 mile mark since that day 20 months ago. I don’t really know what else to say other than I feel like I’m just starting out in this sport. Clearly I’ve got plenty of time in front of me to continue to improve. The question would be how long do I actually have? That’s way too deep of a question to answer on a Thursday night while I’m watching Project Runway. So I’ll stick with the short term.

As much as Tuesday’s tempo effort was a setback to my confidence, the last two days have been just the opposite. Setting out last night for a 15 miler, my first steps were not pleasant. The first few miles weren’t any better. In an instant I felt like I was right back to where I was a few weeks ago. Starting out on a run, deciding my body just wasn’t having it, and bailing, only to take another day off, and poof, there goes the week.

I was struggling at best, but continued on, and sure enough at about mile 5 my legs loosened up, my stride relaxed and just like that, I could not have been happier truckin’ down the path. Before I knew it, at mile 9 I dropped the pace down to 6:15’s and held it there for the rest of the run, finishing with a crisp 5:54 last mile. What started out as a workout that looked to be about as fun as laying sod in full chain mail, ended up being a fantastic run. Lesson learned, keep running, sometimes your body should NOT be listened to.

Anyway, today’s recovery runs of 7 and 10 miles followed up last night’s effort with just as much satisfaction. Mostly because I wore my HRM for each, and the data was very unexpected. Both runs average around 7:30 pace and both had AHR’s of 144. That is really low for me (max 207). This doesn’t abate my concerns from Tuesday completely, but pretty damn close.

Tomorrow is the real test, 6xmile. That should give me all the data I need to finalize my goal for next Saturday.

Follow up from yesterday

2009-08-19T13:35:00.001-07:00

I said yesterday that I was back, but questioned if I really was. It’s a cliché, but it’s always dangerous to draw any grand conclusions, positive or negative, from any single workout. But yesterday’s “failed” tempo effort wasn’t exactly a positive sign that I’m ready to run a significant PR next weekend in my half.

The workout was supposed to be 3x3 mile at half marathon pace. Obviously this is a pretty hard workout, but I felt like I needed a strong test of my fitness. After a warmup I hit the first mile in 5:44. I felt good, but not great. Trying to stay relaxed and not thinking of the workout as a 3 mile tempo run, but rather a 9 mile tempo run that just happened to have two rest intervals. My HR was a bit too high, so I backed off a bit for mile 2, 5:48 and followed that with another 5:48 mile.

I began the second set feeling strong, but was cruising along at 5:40 pace and right after the first mile I stopped. I stopped for a couple of reasons. First, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to finish the workout. How much more could I have run? Probably could have finished the second set, but it would have been tough. Conditions were decent, slight tailwind but with the bright sunshine and no water I think I overestimated my ability to run at goal HMP for that long.

Oh, and running 52 miles in the previous three days probably didn’t help either. This was a workout that needed a mini-taper if I really wanted to nail it, and I was anything but fresh.

So what does this mean? I’m not sure. I can’t believe I’m in worse shape than I was this spring. Yeah, I’ve had a few bad weeks, but we’re not talking weeks off or anything like that. Am I ready to PR by 2 and a half minutes? Doubtful, but running sub 1:16 still seems doable. Hell, I think I was ready to run that in May, but some inexperience at the distance had me going out a bit too slow.

I’ll still get in another good workout before next weekend and hopefully will get some positive signs. Probably a 6xmile on Friday, but it’s not set in stone. I’ll be sure to report back though.

Let's try this again

2009-08-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

I started this blog right before Grandma’s Marathon in late June. I was anticipating a great race and returning to training with an even stronger dedication to improving as a runner. I figured this blog would be a great companion to my training. Well, that plan went to hell in a hand basket by mile 10 of the race. The race was a bust and at some level, it really affected my focus on marathon training for some time. It also affected my focus on keeping this blog even mildly entertaining.

So, first, I need to apologize to the reader for wasting their time the last 6 weeks. If you’re going to bother having a blog, f’ing write shit so when people click on the damn link they’re not looking at the same crap from 2 weeks ago. So sorry about that.

This also means I’ve turned the corner on my running as well. After a few weeks of on again off again, jumping on the track way too often and detraining from my GM buildup, I’m back to doing what got me in shape to run 1:17 in the only half marathon I’ve ever run, miles, miles and more miles. Last week was just over 100 with a cool 43 over Saturday and Sunday. Despite a half marathon next Saturday, I don’t plan on backing off this week and will get in another 100 plus.

What’s changed? Don’t know, probably just time passing. There is a certain mindset to run a ton of “slow” miles everyday and still feel like you’re working hard, and frankly, that there’s a point to it all. For whatever reason, even though physically I was recovered from Grandma’s, I just didn’t want to run the 12+ hours per week needed. Shoot me.

There you go, I’m back (sort of, more on that tomorrow) and so is this blog.

And yeah, so is Brett Favre to my Vikings. We’re no longer flyover country. Bring on the circus.

Bastards

2009-08-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

So my wife and I have been in our apartment for over 3 years now. We started looking at buying a place in our neighborhood just after we were married, summer of '07. Fortunately for us, we were able to realize how wacked-out the market was and decided to see what happened. Just a few months later the market began to crash. We sat on the sidelines, annoyed to be throwing money into rent, but in the end, making that and then some back as house prices fell.

So thinking rates and prices were bottoming out, we started looking again this summer. After a short search we found a home we actually really, really liked. Both my wife and I have very particular tastes, so it probably was a minor miracle to come across this place.

After way too long in our current place, we were set to close on the 21st of this month, just two weeks away. Boxes packed and sitting in our living room I got a call from our Realtor this morning. The seller lost his job and would be backing out of the sale.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Sweet, we've put in notice that we're moving out and now we've got no where to go. Awesome. I could go on forever about how annoyed I am, but I'll spare the reader. Needless to say it was a swift kick to the nuts.

Those bastards.

“Who am I, why am I here?” James Stockdale, VP Nominee, 1992.

2009-07-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

Pretty much sums up my first week of training. Honestly, I’ve checked out mentally from my training. Monday started off fine, 8 easy miles. Tuesday is where things went awry. I just didn’t care to get in my double in the morning. The evening workout of 3x2 miles with two minute recoveries started off fine, the first two miles in 5:56 pace. Considering it was very windy and I was traveling for work, so I couldn’t find a flat route, I was pleased. The second set averaged 5:49 pace, slow again, but it certainly was a good effort. The last set started out into the wind and after the first half mile I knew I was going to bail. Normally I’d have the thought in the back of my mind that I just wouldn’t quit unless I absolutely had to. I just didn’t have that focus today. I turned around and finished the last mile in 5:34.

So on Wednesday I had my first true track workout in who knows how long. I was really looking forward to it. The workout was 6x400, 4x200. After a warmup I was a little unsure what I should be running them in. I figured 75’s would be a good target. My first 400 was in 72. Alright, a little faster than expected, but that’s cool. The rest of the workout went 73, 72, 73, 71, 72, 32, 31, 32, 30. Not bad considering how little fast stuff I’ve done in the last year.

Thursday started off with 4 easy in the morning and what I hoped to be 14 in the evening. My legs actually felt pretty good during the day, so I was optimistic that the 14 would be a solid run. Unfortunately, just 3 miles into the run I started getting that feeling I know will not go away until one thing happens, I eat. Traveling all week had caught up to me just not enough fuel in the body to get the job done. I walk/jogged back to my hotel really reconsidering how I’d handle the rest of the week. Trying to get in the miles was going to be tough, but I tried to come up with some scheme to get it done. That’s when things got worse.

Friday came and I believe for the first time in a training program I had absolutely no excuses not to get a run in, but I didn’t. I wasn’t tired, I just didn’t care. Wow, not good. Again, more of the same on Saturday. After a warmup, I hit the first mile of the supposed 5 mile tempo run and just quit. I was utterly bored and disinterested. Didn’t even feel like running back home.

While I walked back, all options seemed on the table. Bail on Twin Cities completely was the first thing that came to mind. I’m not sure if it’s doing this for more than a year and a half, and having just embarrassing results in the marathon to show for it., or, just tired of running in general. I wasn’t going to determine exactly where my head was at in the 30 minute walk back, but one thing became clear, I wasn’t ready to stop training.

The most fun I’ve had running in god knows how long, was getting on the track on Wednesday. Running fast is what I’ve always enjoyed the most, and if I’m not having fun training for marathons right now, just train for something else. Seemed logical to me. So what to do at Twin Cities? Run for fun? Pace someone? I haven’t decided. I also haven’t completely ruled out sticking with racing it. I know one thing for sure, if I do race TCM, it will be off of less than ideal marathon training. To stay engaged with running and training, I’m not going to make it these next 9 weeks without taking it day by day and doing, on that day, what seems to be just the kind of running that sounds enjoyable. Keep in mind that I can have a twisted definition of “enjoyable”. 10x400 at mile pace might just fit that description on a given day, or 15 miles at MP. So, I’ll see what each day brings and report back.

One last thing, I did have a decent LR on Sunday, 17 at 6:38 pace. Way too fast, but again, it was absolutely perfect weather and that’s just what I wanted to do, so I’ll take it.

60.5 miles for the week.

Back to Reality

2009-07-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

So the vacation is over with. It’s been three weeks since Grandma’s and after another pretty easy week, about 50 miles, I’m ready to step it back up for Twin Cities training. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve really had a hard time figuring out how I’ll be preparing for the race. I’ve thought about jumping into a Pfitz plan, making a stab at Daniels’ or coming up with something on my own. After watching a video of Daniels’ on Flotrack, it inspired me to create a plan structured around what he spoke about.

In the video, he talks about how the local high school athletes where he was coaching would race twice weekly, on Tuesday and Saturday. Other coaches asked him how he would find time to actually get in training with racing twice weekly. What came about was a schedule that looks like this.

Mon: Easy

Tues: Hard

Wed: Hard

Thurs: Easy

Fri: Easy

Sat: Hard

Sun: Long Run

The theory here being that back to back hard days forces you to run within yourself on Tuesday as to be ready again on Wednesday. I think this is something I could really use, a little self control that should allow me to complete my tempo days more consistently. Also, the Wednesday workout isn't a extremely tough workout.

So after adapting this to marathon training the following schedule would be an example of a typical week:

Mon: 8 miles slow

Tues: AM 5 easy, PM 3x10min @ MP to 10k pace

Wed: AM 13 easy, PM 6x400 plus 4x200

Thurs: AM 5 easy, PM 6 easy

Fri: 10 easy

Sat: 5 mile tempo

Sun: 18-22 easy

Total between 90-100 miles.

All this looks pretty standard expect for the obvious exception, the 400/200m repeats. With my track background I’ve always ignored this type of speed work. And up until now, I think it was a good decision. There was no need to sacrifice mileage to get this type of training in. I do believe I’m at the point now where if I intend on continuing to make significant fitness gains I need to get back to some proper speed work.

I’ll still get in some strides and hill sprints a couple of times a week, but I think there’s plenty to be gained by gutting out some 400m repeats. Not to mention I won’t be sacrificing mileage to get them in. Do I think they’ll prepare me to run 26.2 miles in October? Probably not, but that’s not the point. I’ve had the luxury of relying on my speed to get me to where I’m at now, but it’s time to round out my training for the long term.

As always, if I don’t feel it’s working, I’ll be quick to make changes. Dropping one of the hard days would be the first thing I’d do. But, I think I’m ready to handle the load and for what it’s worth, it’s got me very excited for the next 12 weeks.

Recovery (just not from a marathon)

2009-06-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

I started off this week concerned, and probably overly so, about how best to get back to my previous training level. I didn’t want to waste any time sitting around feeling sorry for myself that Grandma’s was such a mess. I figured the best way to move on was to look ahead to Twin Cities and begin crafting a plan right away. The first part of that plan is how I would spend this previous week, and the next two while I’m in “recovery” mode.

I got out on Tuesday after two days off for my first run after G’mas, an easy 4, followed by an easy 6 on Wednesday. I actually felt pretty good. My legs weren’t dead at all, no pain anywhere. In a weird way I was more comfortable 4 days post marathon than 4 days prior to my race. It really made me start thinking that I could handle more miles sooner and possibly just a two week ramp up period.

There was no reason to set anything in stone, so I decided to just take it day by day. On Friday I decided to give the legs a more genuine test. It was over 90 degrees, but I wasn’t going to be out there for very long, so I didn’t much care about the heat. The first mile was 6:44 followed by 6:43, 6:25, 6:25, 6:12, 6:10. At this point I’d run 6 miles, I felt fantastic, but after surging up a big hill I could tell me HR wasn’t coming back down the way it should. Probably a combination of the heat and fatigue, so I backed off and ran a half mile to cool down.

All in all, it was a nice quick run, further evidence that I was bouncing back fairly well after the race. So the plan was to get in 16-20 miles over the weekend. That would have given me 40 or so for the week. Another 70 this week and I thought I was ready to be right back to where I was in two weeks. Well, that changed on Saturday afternoon. In a really clumsy move, I rounded the corner by my side of the bed without paying attention. My left knee squarely nailed the sharp corner of the wall that sticks out. I put a nice dent in the drywall and a nicer one in my knee.

I was hobbling around cursing up a blue-streak for a good 5 minutes. It was damn painful. Fortunately I was wearing jeans, which prevented me from breaking skin, but holy crap it hurt just the same. After calming down and making sure I didn’t shatter my kneecap, it became pretty clear I wasn’t going to be running for a few days, 48 hours later it still hurt just to walk around.

Whether I like it or not, it looks like I’ll have to take it easy for another couple of days, so long story longer, I’m back to a three week recovery. I should say I’m totally ok with that. “Runner Tim” wanted to take a little extra time. We’ve got a trip to the cabin and hopefully plenty of house hunting, so scheduling wise it works out just fine. “Coach Tim” on the other hand wanted to get back at it asap.

Looks like “Runner Tim” won this round.

Post Grandma’s Thoughts

2009-06-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I’ve got a good two and a half weeks to hash out a training plan for the Twin Cities Marathon. Part of that process should include looking back at the previous training cycle, pulling out the parts that worked and dumping those that didn’t. Unfortunately, when your goal race falls so far from expectations, this process becomes infinitely more difficult. Did I run enough long runs? Did I get the proper amount of tempo work in? Was the timing of my Vo2max training as effective as it could have been? I have absolutely no idea.

There are certainly obvious signs that my fitness has improved. Through heart rate data, shorter races and my own knowledge of my abilities as a runner, it’s clear that last training cycle “worked” to a certain degree. But did it prepare me to run 26.2 miles as fast as possible? Again, I have absolutely no idea.

So what’s the answer. Well, a couple of things are pretty clear. First, looking back to the peak of my training this spring, I averaged 102 miles over a 3 week period prior to my half marathon. I ran a very solid race, 1:17. While it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, I would have liked to have been about a minute faster, it’s clear that high mileage works for me. There were no nagging injuries or sense of burnout during that time. Clearly, consistent training near that mileage should be part of my next cycle.

Secondly, I only ran two races during training. While I don’t think I need to be racing every weekend, I do believe I need more indicators of where I’m at in my training along the way. This becomes difficult during a short training cycle, but I really need to find a way to get it done.

Lastly, the details. How many 20 milers? How to incorporate tempo and Vo2max work? Follow Pfitz, Hudson, Daniels? I think I’m at the point where I understand the basics of marathon training and can pull key concepts from all of them. One thing I’ve never tried is Higdon’s pace run on Saturday follow by a LR on Sunday. In addition to improving my fitness, I think I could use a little toughness. I might just work that concept in.

So once I’ve written things out, I’ll put up an outline of my plan for the next 15 weeks. I spent about 90 minutes on the bike last night and will stumble out for an easy 4-6 tonight. We’ll see how the legs feel.

Grandma's Marathon Race Report

2009-06-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

When I crossed the finish line of Grandma’s marathon I tried to dodge the volunteers handing out medals. I didn’t want any part of it. I’ve been training intensely for a year and a half now, and still don’t have a PR that’s even close to respectable. I was ready to forget the race and move on. But, like most things in life, give it 10 minutes and a few deep breaths and you remember that you’re pretty damn fortunate to even be out there doing this. So with a little more perspective on the whole thing, I decided to write up a report.

The weekend started off kind of unusual. Like most runners, I typically have my prerace plans plotted down to the second. For whatever reason, I decided the less I had planned the more relaxed I would be. So I left Friday morning from Minneapolis, about 3 hours away, with a tent and sleeping bag in my car and no idea where I’d be staying. I got up to Duluth at about 2 pm and was in and out of the expo with packet in hand in 15 minutes. I still don’t understand the attraction of those things.

I made the trip up highway 61 along the north shore of Lake Superior, traveling the marathon route backwards. The wind was coming off the lake and while it was above 80 degrees driving into Duluth, it was now in the lower 50’s. Absolutely perfect weather. I was about as happy as I can get. So I got to Two Harbors, found where the shuttle was picking people up in the morning to take them to the start about 2 miles away, and began figuring out where I’d be spending the night.

The one campground near town was of course full, so I decided to just put the seat down in my car and crash in the back. I pulled into the parking lot of the grocery store where the shuttle pickup was and arranged my bedding. A quick test and I actually found it quite comfortable. It was borderline perfect. A nice quiet spot, porta poties 100 yards away and a grocery store if I needed anything last minute. I found a nice place that served some pasta for dinner and I was in “bed” by 9. Check out my "hotel".

Up at 5 and into town for coffee. My car told me it was already 63 degrees. Yikes. I got back, putzed around the parking lot munching on a banana and mini bagel and lots of water. 6:30 came quickly and I boarded the shuttle. I arrived at the starting area about 25 minutes later, just enough time to quickly walk past the meeting area of some RWOL forumites, but didn’t spot anyone. A hasty warmup after another bathroom stop and I was ready to rock. I moved up to the start line and noticed the red flag flying. Yikes.

Off we went. The first 5 miles went by effortlessly (6:18, 6:24, 6:19, 6:21, 6:14). A little off the pace I originally was planning on, but considering how warm it already was, that was more than ok. I chatted with a few runners, just took it easy. I felt really relaxed, there was nothing in the first few miles that made me question if it was going to be a good day. The next 5 miles felt much the same (6:21, 6:18, 6:21, 6:21, 6:10). This part of the race went by really quickly. I just tried to keep a nice rhythm and stay relaxed. I tried to get in as much fluids as I could, but didn’t want to fall off the pace too much.

Miles 10-13 again felt pretty good (6:21, 6:17, 6:15). This is where I first noticed that I was really sweating a lot. I tried to take in more fluids and doused myself with water every chance I had. I didn’t feel like I was working hard to maintain pace, but began to feel my energy level fade. I hit halfway with mixed feelings. I hadn’t found the heat to be oppressive, but certainly was concerned.

This is where things changed for me. Miles 14-17 (6:16, 6:31, 6:30, 6:51). Within a matter of minutes I could just feel my heart rate jump. The sun was just cooking me at this point. I passed a few Kenyans and noticed at the 15 mile water stop at least a dozen elite bottles still on the table. Not a good sign. I actually considering dropping out. But since I wasn’t going to find a cool marathon until fall, there was no point in saving myself for anything. So I pressed on, or at least tried to.

Miles 18-24 were interesting to say the least (7:57, 7:15, 7:28, 7:15, 7:47, 7:39, 7:18). I would walk through a water station just downing anything I could get my hands on. I’d feel pretty good for a few minutes then I’d quickly start to feel a little dizzy again. My mentality about running a fast race was long gone, so I just didn’t want to have to quit because I pushed too hard. But I battled as best I could. The race official right at the bottom of the only significant hill on the course waving a black flag was a nice touch. He looked like the Grim Reaper waving his sickle. Thanks for the pick-me-up.

I was content with cruising it in, but unfortunately I couldn’t stave off the cramps. A little past mile 24 the most severe stomach cramps I’ve ever had while running set in. At this point I had no choice but to walk and attempt to stretch them out. I was getting really frustrated at this point. The crowd support was fantastic, but I was just in incredible pain. I don’t have good splits of the last few miles, but trust me, they were ugly. I rounded the last corner and crossed the line in 3:02:40. Down the home stretch...

Frustrating for sure, but what can you do. It’s considered a PR, but nothing that I would claim as a “record”. The part that still bothers me is that somehow other runners still get it done regardless of the conditions. So why not me? They might be the minority, but I probably trained harder than nearly all of them, so what could I have done? Do others just run though the dizziness and the cramps? If the course turned out to be 28 miles long, there’s no way to run it in 26.2, it’s black or white. But poor conditions is different. I’m not going to punish myself over it, but none the less, I didn’t get it done.

So there you have it. Will I be back? I’d bet on it at this point. I know in another year if I’m lucky enough to keep at this, I could be in fantastic shape by then. But first things first, Twin Cities in a mere 15 weeks. I’ll take 3 weeks to recover and then 10 weeks of solid training with a 2 week taper at this point. More to follow on that…

The first post, I guess it better be good

2009-06-17T17:09:00.001-07:00

Life is all about first impressions, so hopefully I start off on the right foot with this blogging thing. I guess the best place to start is why I'm joining the hoards of people that are self absorbed enough to think the world gives a rat's ass what they have to say. Well, I don't think anyone cares what I have to say. Ok, that's not quite true. I wouldn't be putting this out there for anyone to read if I didn't think my words had some use outside the inner workings of my brain. Now, don't get me wrong, this blog won't be referenced by anyone as a bastion of sage running advice. But I do think I've learned a few things in the last 20+ years as a runner and now about a year and a half as a dedicated marathon trainee. Hopefully some will follow along as I continue to progress as a runner and maybe, just maybe, learn something from my endeavors. But that might be wishful thinking.

What next, probably an explanation of the title of the blog. The Stoll Trail is the path that connects our family cabin on Isle Royale to the main marina about 2 miles away. All running routes either begin or end along this path. So, given the fact that Isle Royale is Eden as far as I'm concerned, I wanted work a reference into the title. The picture in the header was taken just off of the trail. Also, I plan on working in some posts about all the good stuff that people argue about as well, politics, economics, stupid people, or whatever happens to be the topic du jour. A very running specific title didn't seem to fit because of that. There you have it.

So now that the introductions are done, let's move on to the important stuff. I've got a marathon in 3 days. I just got back from an easy 5 miler with a few strides to try and loosen up. I felt like crap. I'm sure most of it is just nerves. I don't feel nervous, but it's almost impossible to run completely relaxed just a few days before a major goal race. With every step the mind is distracted whether you want it to be or not. Off tomorrow and then an easy 4 on Friday.

We'll see what happens...