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Week 1: A sign of the times
One of the first roads I ran yesterday was Baltimore Avenue in Bedford. It was completely unintentional, I promise. All I was trying to do was start off the run with Duke on a slightly different route. It was the first time I’ve been on that road in several months. It just turned out to be very fitting as the first “official” long run for the Baltimore Marathon.
As I already mentioned, my first long run of this training session went well. In fact, the entire week was great. It included a fairly speedy 5k on a lunch run on Friday in 25:06, a time faster than several 5k races I’ve done. All of my runs just seemed to fall into place despite some intense heat the first half of the week. I also squeezed in a short watchless run with Duke on Thursday evening.
It was one of the best first weeks of training that I remember having. Perhaps it’s from being more focused this time around and talking about it more than usual. I have had “official” kickoffs before, but this time just seems so different.
Here’s a look at yesterday’s long run around Bedford, as well as the elevation chart:
Rehearsals begin
That's me on the left in "Moon Over Buffalo" in 2006.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never mentioned on here that my minor in college was theater. I was in and directed a few one-act plays, had a small role in “Diary of Anne Frank” as Mr. Kraler and make a small “return” to theater five years ago in “Moon Over Buffalo” as Howard.
So what does this have to do with running? That answer is easy — running is exactly like putting on a play. You go to rehearsal after rehearsal (run after run) to get to opening night (race day). Today was my first “official” long run for the Baltimore Marathon and it kind of felt like going off book for the first time in rehearsals. The ones where you have to stop and say “line” because you can’t quite remember what you’re supposed to do.
Pushing myself to 8 miles wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but whenever I felt like I was slowing way down or getting sluggish, I had to think about what’s worked in the past 6 months. I called “line” and got back on track.
It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was a much better long run than I remember from last year. Great weather with lower humidity helped too. Overall, my run was under a 9-minute pace, easily 10-15 seconds faster per mile than these types of runs a year ago. I’m really like my new “slow” and “easy” feeling pace.
I have a lot more rehearsals to keep getting better. Next week will be a flat 10 miles in Ohio for my long run. Come opening night on Oct. 15, it should be second nature to go out and have a great marathon.
Jazzed up about racing
For the first time in four years, I’ve done four races in the first half of the year. There’s something about the variety of races I’ve done this year that have me really wanting to do more as I train for the Baltimore Marathon. And more is what I’ll do.
The check is in the mail for a 5k near my in-law’s house in Ohio on July 4 — the Stars and Stripes 5k in Howland, Ohio. This will be the flattest 5k I’ve ever done. Considering that I’m coming off a 23:03 5k on a very hilly course this past weekend, there’s no doubt that I’m going to aim for a PR. I pretty much have no time to prepare for that increased speed, so here’s to hoping the hills I run on make all the difference. If I don’t get it, I’ll be OK. I just want to put it out there that I want to break my 5k PR — this is my last shot until December.- On July 16 I’ll run the Percival’s Island 5-Miler in Lynchburg for the fourth time. Last year I did what I called the smartest racing I’ve ever done. In hindsight, I don’t really remember much about that race, but I’ll be shooting for a faster time than last year (39:52). In 2007 I ran this race in 36:59, which is still my fastest-pace race ever. I don’t know if I have that in me right now, and I’m sure that weather will be a factor once again, so I won’t set any goals just yet.
- Nearly a month later, on Aug. 13, I’ll run the Lynchburg Half Marathon for the fourth time, but only the second time on the “new” course with a nasty hill in the middle. Last year, this was a bad race, but a good training run. Looking back, that hill defeated me. I’m not going to let that happen again. Whether or not I beat last year’s time of 1:55 is something I’m not thinking about right now. Ideally, yes, I want to be faster. How much faster is a goal that will wait after several long runs.
- After that there are some other things I’m considering before the marathon, but I’m not signing up for anything else right now. The 5 miler and the half marathon were very cheap right now and come with moisture-wicking shirts; with a price increase coming July 1, I went ahead and signed up for those this week. Signing up also gives me even more intense focus on training and putting thoughts in my head now of what I want to do in Baltimore in October.
Closing the base-building chapter
Yesterday I flipped a mental switch that I never imagined I’d be doing again. The base-building and slow building of mileage over the past 5 months officially ended. Today I flipped that switch to training for the Baltimore Marathon. Not that it means much – I’ll run 2-3 miles more this week than last week. It will be, I hope, more focused. There’s a little more reason to run today than there was yesterday.
I completely unintentionally broke up my base-building phase and official marathon training into 17-week segments. Following two single-digit weeks in February after a horrible stomach bug, my weekly mileage has been in the mid-teens to just over 20 miles. I have averaged nearly 18 miles a week for 17 weeks. When I talk about being consistent, I couldn’t ask for anything better.
Now comes another test of being over my injury and seeing what I’m made of – increasing the mileage. As you can see, I haven’t had a 10 percent increase in weekly mileage in a while. That was intentional once I got to 20 miles so I could stay focused on building my base.
This week I’m aiming for at least 22 miles, perhaps a couple of more if everything feels good – the first run today of 4 miles in the mid-day heat went well.
As I said last week, I plan to post more route and elevation maps of my runs to better document my training this summer and fall. Here’s today’s run in Roanoke, which was fairly flat minus one hill:
This week my plan for a long run is 8 miles and then hitting the double digits next week for the first time since the marathon in November, and for the first time in a training run since Oct. 16.
That drought of more than two-thirds of a year between double digit long runs is far and away the longest since I first ran double digits in 2006. Of all the streaks I’ve ever had — good and bad — this is the one I’m looking most forward to finally ending.
Making it different
I’ve said a few times how I’m taking a different approach to training for the Baltimore Marathon, but until today that didn’t mean much. With additional cross training in the past six months, that’s one aspect of being different, but shouldn’t I have been doing that all along?
At work, a group of four of us are committing to doing core work Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just this week we had a session with a personal trainer to teach us a few moves. Those two days are a big commitment to make compared to what I’ve done in any other training session. If we can stick together and be consistent with this, the benefits to my running are things that I can’t wait to see.
My philosophy behind the “non-plan plan” will continue, as I already wrote about, but I’m putting more work into it this year. I’ve stared blankly a lot at a spreadsheet I’ve made to get me through the next four months, but I’m excited about plugging numbers into it.
Very soon the next 4 weeks will be plotted out with my long run and a small range of miles I want to hit those weeks. Toward the end of that 4-week cycle, I’ll map out the next 4 weeks. It’s also worth noting that I’m counting race week as Week 0 – to me race week is not training week. It’s performance week. There’s nothing left to train for that week.
Last year I credited using Daily Mile with helping me keep track of things. While I’ll continue to log my miles there, this spreadsheet will help me in seeing what is really happening week to week and, I think, give me a better sense of what I need to do long-range rather than just focus on the week at hand. (If you’re interested in this spreadsheet, send me a message via my Contact page. The formatting is already in place.)
I’ve also made a change to my Garmin by activating the auto-lap function. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of the auto lap – I think I denounced it on Twitter as micromanaging runs just a few weeks ago – but as I’ve done a few progressive runs lately, I want to test it for a few weeks to analyze my runs more. Last year I got very content with running just to run at one pace and didn’t analyze things too much.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I want to post more maps of my runs with the elevation profiles and I think using the auto lap function will help when I need to look at a run that went well or bad.
In simpler terms, I want training for the Baltimore Marathon to be more visual. When things are going well, I want to know why, just as much as I want to know why things are going bad. I think making these changes will only enhance the next several months and beyond no matter what happens.
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