My training cycle for the Baltimore Marathon was definitely the best. Any issues I had were minor.
In these first couple of weeks of Shamrock Half training, and now Cleveland Marathon training, things haven’t started so well. While last week’s trail race was a ton of fun, the tumble I took really left me banged up and threw off my whole week. I still have scabs and bruises.
Instead of my first run coming Monday, it came Tuesday; I was planning to do my long run of 8 miles on Saturday, but I just didn’t feel up to it after I ran Thursday and Friday; I ended up just not feeling well at all Saturday, which led to waking up not feeling great Sunday; I actually debated on not running today, but after a nap I felt better and ended up doing a mid-afternoon run of 7 miles.
At the end of all this, I’m glad I pushed through it today. I’m disappointed in falling short of my planned distance today and for the week, but getting in an hour of running felt good. It was actually my first run of more than an hour in the winter in more than 2 years. Last year I didn’t run anything beyond 4 miles in the winter.
I won’t let some minor setbacks get me down, but I certainly hope I don’t have any other weird things come my way any time soon.
I signed up for the Cleveland Marathon on Friday, which drastically changes my approach to the whole year. I have been indecisive about what to do this spring for a couple of months now – while the Shamrock Half Marathon is my No. 1 priority, I believe that a spring marathon will only enhance my experience in Virginia Beach in March.
With doing some initial planning, the timing is perfect — Shamrock is 9 weeks before Cleveland; this summer I ran the Lynchburg Half Marathon 9 weeks before the Baltimore Marathon. My planned mileage and long runs before Shamrock really don’t change all that much by signing up for the marathon.
I have had a lot of thoughts wrapped up in my head about a spring marathon, and it’s relieving to finally have the chance to get them out. As I hinted yesterday, this hasn’t been an easy decision.
Of all the possibilities for a spring marathon, Cleveland makes the most sense – it’s less than an hour from my in-laws, so I can make a dual-purpose trip to Ohio. As the marathon gets closer, I will explain that in more detail.
Even though I have had a couple of really good springs in a row, I haven’t given myself the opportunity to see what training for a marathon is like in the cooler winter and spring months. A 20-mile run in April sounds pretty appealing right now.
If I’m going to do two marathons in a calendar year, this is the year to do it. If things fall into place in me and my wife’s lives and careers this year, don’t be surprised if a future runner is added to the family “soon.”
I kept having a nagging feeling to do something different. I don’t know where it’s coming from. Sure I’ll be doing Richmond in November, but I like “getting away” for races. My Baltimore weekend was a lot of fun, so this spring will be full of that with traveling to Virginia Beach in March and then Ohio in May.
I wanted a new challenge. At one point in the past few years, I really thought I wanted to do an ultramarathon in the nearby mountains. That desire is still there, but it’s not something I’m ready for. I feel like I have something to prove on the roads before taking a leap to an ultra. The Mountain Junkies races, like Saturday’s race and last year’s Trail Nut 10k, give me a chance to gain more experience before I’m comfortable tackling more.
Lastly, friends on Twitter spoke highly of Cleveland. There were definitely other options out there, but nobody said anything too negative about their Cleveland experiences to make another race jump to the top.
I know for the second straight month that I’m getting away from my goal of “11 things” posts, but with the Baltimore Marathon just days away, I made a promise to myself the other day to do some reflecting.
There’s no better way to reflect than an 11 things posts. Here are 11 things that have happened during training, lessons I’ve learned, things I never posted and other random thoughts.
1. I listened to this song a lot on my long runs in the last month or so. To hear it when the sun is coming up often gave me a sense of peace and helped me find strength when I needed it most.
2. I’m pretty sure I experienced the biggest variety of weather this time around. With a majority of mid-week runs in the middle of the day, I had the hottest conditions I’ve ever run in, with temperatures often near 90 or slightly above. These past two weekends, it’s been half that at the start.
3. In a 16-week span, I ran 456.7 miles, which is 51.9 more miles than the 16 weeks prior to the Richmond Marathon last year.
4. I’ve been much more diligent about recovery runs this year with running a couple of miles or so the day after big runs.
5. I have walked 117 miles since the beginning of July 1. That’s just walking miles logged on Daily Mile. That’s miles I’ve walked at work and family walks on Sunday; actual mileage is probably a bit higher. I’ve also hiked a few times too. I wrote a long time ago about walking more and how it would impact training, and I have nothing but great things to say about it. All this walking silently pushed me over 1,000 exercise miles for the year recently.
6. As a weather junkie (see No. 2 above), I’ve been looking at long-range forecasts for this weekend as soon as they were available. Accuweather’s 15-day forecast and the Weather Channel’s 10-day forecast have surprisingly stayed consistent. Saturday is looking good right now, but I know things can change. After seeing hot weather for Chicago return this past weekend, I’m mentally preparing myself for the worse.
7. I’ve never once doubted setting my 3:45 goal. In fact, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in training. It made my training much more intentional and focused with every run. Whether all this pays off Saturday is obviously to be determined, but I like heading to the start line in this mind frame.
8. I took my first ice bath after one of my long runs. I can’t bring myself to ice bath No. 2.
9. I stretch after all my runs — sometimes it’s just a few minutes for short runs, often it’s about 10 minutes after a long run. I rarely stretched before.
10. I ran 148 miles on Saturdays. That’s more than Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays combined. The lowest day was Monday, with 37.4 miles. In August, I stopped running on Mondays (besides 8.3 on Labor Day) when that became a regular core day.
11. I talk a lot about having fun and encourage people to always have fun on a race or run. In looking back at the past 16 weeks, I can honestly say I had fun. From the sunrises, to seeing families of deer, to laughing with co-workers on lunch runs, this has been an awesome experience.
Despite all my thoughts this week about tapering, I knew that one more double-digit long run loomed. While running 10 or more miles for a long run is something I’ve done nearly every week since July, I still had this weird feeling about this one.
Last year I couldn’t do another double-digit long run after my second 20-miler. Not running was the right thing to do then; this year it was all about fear.
Turns out, I ran a little more than 10 miles with no big issues at all. It was a clear, starry morning at 6 a.m.; it was about 30 degrees colder than a mid-day run earlier this week; and the miles ticked by fairly quickly. I didn’t focus on my time or pace — it was a run just to run. I should have left my Garmin at home.
Now is the time where the taper is important. My mind is ready to do 26.2 miles again; my body needs rest. While my running has been great lately, I can tell that another week of even lower mileage is going to have me ready. Through 15 weeks of “official” training, I have more than 40 miles on my legs than I did through 15 weeks last year. The extra mileage will pay off, but I can feel those extra miles with various soreness.
My plan for the next couple of weeks will be to take several Epsom salt baths, something I’ve done a lot of in the past month, but haven’t mentioned. I feel so relaxed after doing that and I can then stretch and foam roll with comfort. I also hope to get an adjustment from my chiropractor.
From a running standpoint, I plan to have a short run tomorrow (just shy of 30 miles for the week) and then about 20 miles next week. Race week — which I am calling week 0 — will have just a couple of short runs.
Tonight’s run puts me at 134.6 miles for the month – a whole tenth of a mile more than August. With inaccuracies with a Garmin, let’s just call it even.
September was a great month — I maintained speed, no run besides untimed recovery runs were slower than 9:30-minute miles. My two 20-milers were more than 15 minutes faster than a year ago, and even then the pace felt fairly easy. My new easy and slow paces continue to get faster.
Also this week, I passed 800 miles for the year, just a little more than a week after I hit that mark last year. With the low mileage at the beginning of the year, I would have never imagined even thinking about 1,000 running miles again. It’s not a goal right now because it’s not important to me. Not yet anyway.
Just like a month ago at the end of the month, I have a choppy post at an attempt to reflect. Actually, all I want to do is look ahead. I have a marathon to run on Oct. 15 …
This past Sunday marked 7 years since my first race — the Virginia 4 Miler in Lynchburg. My time was 34 minutes flat, an 8:34 pace. That experience forever changed me.
Today I had a great speedy run in Roanoke by myself — no co-workers, no dog, no music — and my time and pace put things in perspective to me with how far I’ve come in seven years, as well as what could lie ahead for the Baltimore Marathon. This experience is just part of my growth.
This afternoon’s 4.3-mile run was in 36:17, an 8:26 pace. There were two big hills that could have broken me, but I hit them harder than I’ve been hitting hills lately.
I’ve had several runs this summer that were quite a bit faster than races from the first couple of years of running. Those were races that would leave me sore the next day because I ran them so hard.
Defining progress is hard, and when it actually happens it’s tough to explain how great it feels.
With less than 4 weeks to go until the Baltimore Marathon and a big week ahead, I’m committing to keeping some thoughts to myself besides what happens on individual runs. I have a million things on my mind about running, this training cycle, what’s worked, what hasn’t … but I’m balling all those things up and keeping it inside my head a while longer.
It’s similar to my thoughts at the end of July when I didn’t put my flag in the ground and claim it as the best month ever. I know many people will disagree with me and others will completely understand, but this is part of my process. I have a big week ahead with another 20-miler (or more?) planned for Saturday. I have to nail this week and solid runs in my taper just to get to the start line.
All this “come back” hasn’t worked until I get through Baltimore in one solid piece.
My 11 things post on Saturday didn’t exactly reflect how things went on my 20-miler. Now that I’ve had a few days to let it sink in, as well as a short recovery run Sunday and a nice 8:30ish pace run today, I’m very pleased with how it went and how my body has reacted.
To say it was awesome or great is a drastic overstatement. It was good — while I had a moment or two that just felt weird, I also moments that I totally felt in the groove.
Today's route in Roanoke
I used the run to concentrate on not falling apart in the second half of the run; I felt like I took a lot of mental notes to apply for the next 20-miler next weekend, and a few things I can use in the Baltimore Marathon.
In looking back at the end of last year’s training cycle for the Richmond Marathon, I realize more and more how I just settled into the last month of training as “just running.” It was like I just let it fall into place without effort, which may have contributed to the injury. Now is the time to fine-tune things.
Today’s run, for example, was a solid run in some surprise heat. A year ago I would have slowed it down and settled for the mileage. If I’m going to get anywhere close to 3:45 in Baltimore, I have to do than just log miles.
For my next 20-miler I am pretty sure that I am going to go somewhere flatter and focus on getting the overall pace down just a tad. This past weekend’s run was 15 minutes faster than my two 20-milers last year; while that is awesome progress, I want some practice in my long run getting closer to marathon goal pace. I’ve had some faster, solid long runs this year, but I want one final dress rehearsal.
With respect to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I wanted to move today’s 11 things post up a day. It didn’t feel right to do a silly post for tomorrow. I also am going out of the norm of my 11 things concept and making it a post about running. Today’s 20-mile run was full of observations and thoughts, some serious, some not so serious. Without further delay, here is this month’s 11 things a day early.
1. To all my friends who made the obvious statement about it being dark at 5:30 a.m. when I started my run, guess what? It was, in fact, very dark. The sun came up as scheduled.
2. I saw a deer poop for the first time ever. (It was still dark then. And she had the audacity to do this in front of her two kids, me and Duke.)
3. Two families were setting up their yard sales before 6 a.m. (In the dark.)
4. Someone in the middle of Bedford has a rooster. It was confused because it was doing its wake-up call before the sun was even thinking about coming up.
5. This may have been the most even-split long run ever — the second half was just 57 seconds faster than the first (dark) half. I wasn’t out there for speed today, but I’m happy with the (slow) consistency. Plus in the second half I walked a few hills, so I’ll take whatever negative split I can get.
6. Three GUs are better than two for this distance. That’s a very important lesson I’ve taken from previous bad runs.
7. I was really struggling in the middle miles. All of a sudden I got to mile 14 and I thought about stopping and walking home. I turned to Twitter for motivation. About a dozen tweets rolled in giving me some inspiration. I went from having my slowest mile at mile 14, to my fastest mile at mile 17.
8. 20 miles in Bedford is really hard. I know that from last year, but I was reminded of that today at nearly every turn. It’s so freakin’ hilly here that it makes it easy to drop F bombs at the sight of another hill. I think I may have offended some old ladies today.
9. I have a new favorite running song. It’s slow, but it’s easy to sing along to. And here is where I give you the parental advisory to not click on THIS LINK if you get easily offended by Ben Folds doing covers of Dr. Dre songs. This might have played when I ran my fastest mile today. And I may have hit repeat a few times. And I may have offended old ladies again.
10. Post-run I had a chocolate milk, a watered-down Gatorade and an egg and turkey burger sandwich. Good stuff. I’ve increased my protein intake this summer pre- and post-long runs and it seems to help me recover faster. Next run I’m finding that rooster and eating him for breakfast.
11. In more seriousness, though, I want to say that I had fun. And that’s what matters more than anything else. Even if it was dark.
It seems like I’ve talked quit a bit lately about the various mind games I’ve battle this summer. I feel like it’s so easy to get fixated on something and then I can’t shake it.
As I enter the crucial homestretch this month, I actually am feeling more at ease about things. That said, though, I’m suddenly paranoid as hell this week about the final two really big runs.
Am I running enough?
Is my long run too high of a percentage of my weekly mileage?
Am I really doing a Google “long run percentage of weekly mileage” search?
Yes, I did.
It turns out that I’m completely normal in my way of thinking; there are no clear-cut answers with that.
Duh. I knew that.
I also knew that mileage for marathon training typically varies from 30 miles to 150 miles a week. Why the paranoia? Why am I even questioning this?
Well, it was a 20-mile long run last year when disaster hit. I haven’t forgot that. To settle my mind a bit, I added my mileage since “official” training began and my long run mileage – to date I’ve ran 325.7 miles since June 20; 125.7 of those are long run miles; that’s 38.5 percent of my miles.
Assuming I get through the rest of this week as planned, that percentage changes to 42 percent. That percentage would then go down next week with a shorter long run planned.
Based on my research of other people’s research, I’m just going to keep doing my thing and not worry about it anymore. Just like everything else with running, different things work for different people – that’s the No. 1 advice I give to people.
Why I continue to drift off and fret about things is something I need to stop doing. Saturday morning can’t come soon enough for what to me is the most important run of my training for the Baltimore Marathon. 20 miles.
It seems like I’ve talked quit a bit lately about the various mind games I’ve battle this summer. I feel like it’s so easy to get fixated on something and then I can’t shake it.
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