Marathon Training

2017 Retrospective

2017 was a year of turbulent family and work events.   The bad was ultimately not surprising and in the end would fortunately have a silver lining and the good was always surprising.  I hope to carry on some of the good into 2018.

The last few weeks represented this turbulence in a very big way and I have not been able to post. After a few weeks of light running (which I needed to just let my body recover from the end of the year races), I have been able to ramp back up to training and ended 2017 with a solid week of training (technically Boston Week 3, but not sure if I will run):

I ended with 1750 miles, not quite the goal of 2000 and far from the mileage of previous years, but all things considered it is like all running accomplishment relatively good.

I know that some of you have also had struggles this year, but hope that you all have a Wonderful and Happy New Year!

The North Face SF Endurance Challenge Marathon

Background

The North Face Endurance Challenge are races held across the country.  The SF race is mostly in the national park right across the Golden Gate Bridge.  This year, due to rule and permit changes, the race moved a couple of weeks earlier from December to November and the start and finish moved outside of the park.  The race finishes across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco.  The race has a 50m, 50k, marathon, and half-marathon distances.  The difference between the marathon and the 50k or the 50m is much less than you would imagine, as there are five 1000 feet climbs out of six or seven.

Last year I ran the 50k and bonked hard.  I had trained for the climbs.  But I went out too fast.  I hit a bad patch in Muir Woods where I had trouble with the muddiness and tree roots on single track at the edge of the hillside where I was cautious and passed by tens of runners.  Then I skipped the aid station right after this section.  It was a struggle to finish.  Spent 15 minutes contemplating a DNF at the aid station right before finally decided to go on.  Walked the entire hill with a great deal of struggle and finished.

I knew that I had to redeem myself.  But decided to run the marathon which removes the section of Muir Woods which I knew that I would not be able to accept the risk of hurting myself.

Training

Training for this race was just training for the half marathon race last week.  I planned to run parts of the course as long runs.  But I wasn't able to get more than a couple of runs due to issues in the training cycle which also limited my peak miles (~42 miles average).  I accepted that I was going in undertrained.   I also had run the half marathon the previous week, so not feeling fresh.  To rest, I only had two 3 mile runs between races.  One was 2 days before where I did some short 1 minute hill climbs at 6min/mile and at 5,10,15, and 20% grade to remind myself how hard the climbs would be.

Plan

I break the race up to the 5 climbs.  I have to be conservative early on.  A friend from work was running slower, so I planned to run the first 2 climbs with him.  This was good for him and me, since he was unexperienced and go out too fast and I would go out too fast because that's what I do.  I wanted to be in good shape for mile 15 because the last hill is runnable and I don't want to walk the bridge portion to the finish.

I take advice from an experienced runner to 1) run-walking the steeper sections. 2) cruising the flats [not too many of them] 3) stretching it out a bit on the downhills 4) low wattage on pavement.

Conservatively, I thought about 1 hour per 1000 foot climb/descent so sub-5 hours for the finish would be a good goal.

Pre-Race

The night before I carbo-load by meeting with my running club at a bar.  I do the next smartest thing and go home relatively early.  Next morning I wake up at 7:30 and do my routine of tea, banana, oats and blueberries and almond mild, and a shot of expresso.  And a bear claw which is habit for my long runs.  I live 10 minutes from the start and get there 15 minutes before to bag check. It wasn't too cold, but I started with arm warmers and gloves.  I meet up with my friend from work who is probably afraid of running with me.  I made the one great decision to run with my Nike Flyknit Lunar Epic which has the most cushioning of all my shoes but no traction.  It had rained 2 days before and I assumed that the trails had dried out.  I chose to carry my Orange Mud double quiver pack, mostly so I will have a place to put my arm warmers and gloves after the start. We start in a small shopping mall in Sausalito which is a short run to the trail head.  I expected to be out there for 5 hours, and there were gaps of 1 hour between aid stations, so surprised at the number of people running in just singlets and nothing else.  They do sprints, WTF?  We line up at the back of Wave 1.

Hill #1 Sausalito to Bobcat 4.5 Miles

At the start everyone takes off.  it's so easy to get caught up in the excitement.  I had to pull my friend back and tell him that we will catch the rest of them later.  Or not.  But in any case, we would blow up follow them.  At that point I felt like we were still going fast.  I stay with him as he stops for a bathroom break at the top of the climb, taking pictures of the scenery.  At some point I take a GU Roctane.  He's doing ok and I try to tell stories to make sure I am not running too hard.  We hit an aid station, which happens to not be a check point until the end and I go for some energy chews, gatorade and water.  Just happy went haven't done anything wrong and then flew down the descent at about 8/mile  pace.

Hill #2 Bobcat to Bobcat 9.5 Miles

We do another loop, but a little bigger as we are not going to the start.  When we stop at the aid station at the bottom of the descent and I realize that I forgot my SiCaps.  So I went for boiled potatoes with salt early.  I have some more gatorade, coke, and water.  On the uphill it's pretty much unrunnable as I did this path before.  My friend is staying with me and I am surprised on some people running uphill ahead of us.  Oh well.  I dig into my stash of Oreos.   I ask my friend if he wanted any but he said no. Unfortunately, he went with the race running rule of not eating anything unless you tried it before.  For ultra trail running, the rule is that there is a reason why this weird assortment of food is out there.  We walk the uphill but we are still doing good. I realize that I have to be more aggressive on the downhill as it's more work for the muscles to run slower.  We see a lot of people that we have passed before.  I pass a lot of people to the aid station at the bottom.  My friend is close behind and I linger just 10-20 seconds longer.

Hill # 3 Bobcat to Tennessee 13.3 Miles

At this point I knew that my friend and I would part ways.   We see someone talking to herself as she runs uphill at this ridiculous 10-20% grade and telling my friend that it's tragic that she is wasting this energy to be 20 seconds ahead.  In any case, I get ahead of him on the climb and I stop to take some pretty nice pictures and get a good shot of him running up.  But then at the top I am off.  I didn't expect to run so fast, but I just tried not to lose any energy going downhill.  This is where the shoe choice was brilliant as it absorbed a lot of impact.  I pass the person running up the hill earlier, but then I am going down up to 6/mile and was scary that I was right at the edge of wiping out, but I knew that I was being efficient.  It's funny that it felt ridiculously fast, but the winner of the marathon ran this pace for the entire race.  I start seeing some of the faster runners coming back and wondering if I took the first part too easy.  On the other hand they look like they are suffering much more than I am.

Hill # 4 Tennessee to Tennessee 17.3

This portion is an out, loop, and back.  The elevation change is a little less.  There's only a short hike uphill, none of which is runnable, so I just tried to keep pace on the flat and then again try to extend back on the downhill at about 7 minute per mile pace.  Last year in this section, I had already bonked and gravity was carrying me down.  I stopped for 15 minutes trying to decide if I was going to DNF.  This year, I felt really good and ready for the last climb.  I stop for a bit to tie my shoes and prepare me for the climb.

Hill #5 Tennessee to Alta 20.2

I wanted to run this entire climb, but reality set in.  It would be mile 20 at the top and after that is 3 miles of rocky single track before I hit a section of downhill switchbacks which is partially eroded and good chance to fall.  I went with a strategy of running 20-30 seconds, then power hiking with hands, then running sideways left, walking backwards, running sideways right, power hiking with hands and repeat.  I would target a runner ahead of me and then pass them.  I passed 10-20 runners on this climb.  Actually some were in the race and some were not and some were at different distances.  But I probably gained 5-10 minutes.  I thought that I should have done this earlier, but who knows how tired I would be.  It took forever to get to the final aid station.  Got passed by 2 runners.  Unlike last year this aid station did not have soup which saved me (and Jim Walmsley at UTMB.  I was disappointed.

To the Finish. 26.2

From the top of this last climb it was a descent of 6 miles to the finish.  This was in 3 parts: 1) single track on lose rocks, 2) crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and descent, and 3) a flat mile to the finish.  At the start of the single track, I let 3 runners pass me with the expectation of going slow.  They all stop to take pictures.  I run this section often so I didn't stop.  The pounding on my feet was getting to me so I took very deliberate short steps.  I am starting to feel cramps and I am running on fumes.  Also I was afraid of falling off the side of the hill about 100 feet high.  The switchbacks were treacherous.  I only tripped once, but that was on the bush side with a slight worry of poison oak.  But because it was downhill, gravity carried me to the bridge.  When we got to the bridge we had to go down steps and up steps to get to the other side.  There it was a little uphill until the middle and we would encounter tourist.  But I was going too slow for it to matter.  The crossing of the bridge would seem easy, but I was having problems.  It wasn't exactly muscle fatigue, but I had to just stop every 600 meters to pause and stretch my calves and then I would run at a descent pace.  At one point, I got passed by someone who was obviously having leg issues and running tilted to his right.  I kind of wanted to pass him as it seemed odd to finish behind someone in that condition, but I couldn't catch up.  But once we got downhill, I did okay.  A friend from my running club ran by me in the opposite direction telling me that I was running strong.  Sure.  I stopped a twice to stretch along the flat section to the finish and was passed by a few runners, but I was pretty sure that I was going to finish.

Finish 4:38

5 miles less, 1 1000ft climb less, but 2 hours less than last year.  When I made it to the finish, they called out my name.  Pause my watch. And was surprised that I was well under goal.  My heart was still pounding.  I laid on a bench for a while and then hit the beer garden.  I waited for me friend.  I looked around and came up with the realization that everyone there was in the upper echelon of fitness to make it through the races.  I arranged a ride home.  Picked up gear check and then looked up awards.  Got a nice trucker hat.  I was first AG (out of 4 and just ahead of second by 5 minutes :) ).  I passed 36 of 285 runners from the half marathon to the finish.  Stayed for the marathon/50k/50m awards ceremonies.  Over the last year, running on the treadmill, I watched the Hawks vs Miller video of last year's 50 mile race about 20 times last year and got a photo-op with them and this year's winner Tim Freriks.  Of course, my phone died before I could get a picture with the women winners.

I was pretty beat up afterwards, the worse I have felt in a long time.  2 blisters.  I am pretty sure I don't want to do this again.  Have been resting all weekend.  If I ran last year with the same fitness and more aggressively, I probably would have shaved 20 minutes, but for where I was this was a pretty solid race.

Monterey Half Marathon Race Report

Some Background

I used to live in the area, so it's always special to come back and race here. I didn't run when I lived here. But running this race was the highlight of my first year of running 4 years ago.

The Start

I somehow mis-remembered how close we were staying to the start. I guess when I lived there, I didn't run and it seemed a long way. Only got in half a mile and then stretched before the national anthem. Took a GU about 15 minutes before the start. Despite good temperatures, I felt cold. I had a long sleeve shirt over my singlet and cut-off socks as arm sleeves. Threw away the shirt, but kept the sleeves because I thought starting conservative will take a while to warm-up. The elite women get a 9 minute head start. Then the men and then the rest of us. Met up with friends from the running group.  I found the 1:30 pace group leader(s) and asked their plan for pacing which was even pacing. Great, I thought and since there were 2 of them so they should be able to lock it in right? A friend was targeting to run 1:30 for the first time and we lined up with the pace group.

Mile 1-3 6:42, 6:44, 6:46

The pace group for some reason was far from the front, which meant that we would have to pass through a lot of people early. Mile 1 looped around half a lake and I ran the tangents instead of following the pace group. Also they seem to be going a little fast and was running 6:40 when I checked. I tried to just run tangents as we looped back through downtown Monterey. The first elevation change was around mile 2 as we would go under an overpass and then climb back up but about 20 feet higher (we get that back on the return) and the pace group was still running fast. My friend stayed with them and I trailed a little behind. Arm warmers were tossed. Mile 3 we started to run along the water. I started catching up to the pace group and my friend. But it wasn't easy effort staying at this pace as this course rolled a lot. My friend started to drift back.

Mile 4-6 6:51, 6:49, 6:43

The only real hill is mile 4 where you climb about 50 feet for a quarter mile. This is where the pace group dropped me. While I passed people it seemed that the pace group ran faster. I kept them in sight but I stopped trying to catch up. Took a GU. I focused on the scenic ocean views, partially so I would turn and stretch out my left hamstring/glutes which were bothering me. I continued to work on the tangent as the road meandered along the ocean. I was questioning if I could keep this pace on one hand and not fully understanding the implication of the fast start with the pace group.

Mile 7-9 6:55, 7:03, 7:00

The rolling up and down was doing a number on my left toe because my shoe laces were loose. I also felt missing some push-off. I debated for about half mile. But because I haven't run a lot of miles this cycle, I really have gotten to like my toes, so decided to stop at a log by the next aid station. Probably lost 10 seconds, probably worth it. Probably gained a few back rushing back. At the start of mile 8, the lead women were coming back to us and it was fun to watch and even cheer. Probably should have saved the energy. The lead male elite runner Daniel Tapia (who went to school in nearby Castroville) was surprisingly closing on the lead women. He would finish in 1:03:35 and beat the 9 minute gap. I saw the faster runners from my running club and then the pace group. They were about 1 minute ahead at the turnaround at 7.8 miles. After the turnabout I got support from my running club which was helpful because I was mostly running alone, losing focus, and struggling. At mile 9, a female runner blew by me and gapped me by 20 meters like I was walking. Maybe I was as I checked my watch and I was running 7:30/m. I picked it up to see if I could catch her when a runner that looked old enough to be in my age group passed me. The 2 of them would run ahead of me 10-20 seconds. I should have been a more competitive racer and try to catch the older runner for age group contention, but survival instincts kicked in. In any case, they gave me a group to focus on even though I could not catch up. Took another GU.

Mile 10-12 6:53, 6:55, 6:43

At mile 10 my left leg was in some pain and I started thinking about either jogging it in, jogging to my hotel (which was ludicrous since I was staying close to the finish), or giving it one last go. I decided to give it a go and just opened up my stride. This turned out to work pretty well. Maybe should have done this earlier. On the other hand, there was a bit of a downhill in this stretch which helped.

Mile 13-13.2 6:48 6:31

My heart was pounding keeping the pace in the last mile. The runner ahead of me was oddly supportive and encouraged me to keep going. I thought he was trying to tell me to pick it up to sprint it in. But from the pictures, it looked like I was completely dying and he must have worried that I wouldn't make it. Thanked him at the end. I had no concept of the time and that I was close to sub-1:30, but also not sure if I could have closed 20 seconds even if I knew. The extra .1 in mileage meant I really hit the tangents as it's usually .3 for this course.

Final time: 1:30:20 (OA:151/6871 AG:6/211)

Post-Race

Met up with running club. Spent afternoon with friends from when I used to live here. Great weekend.

I checked my finish and was blown away by only finishing 6th in my age group. The top 5 get awards and the guy that passed me beat me out for 5th. But any other year he would have likely been first. On average the winners of this age group were faster than the next younger age group. This was such an anomaly, I had to check (stalk) each of them and found that they all had legit (and faster) race results than me in previous races.

The 1:30 pacers finished 1:29:06. A remark that someone overheard one say was that it was hard for him to run 1:30 pace. Which might be understandable since among other awards he had won the Big Sur marathon. But still the job of the pacer is to pace and it might have been different if I saw the pace group 20 seconds ahead of me. Also my friend PR'd, but finished over a minute behind, but I wondered if she would have done better if she didn't try to stay with the pacers.

Didn't really meet any goals except being 7 minutes faster than when I ran it 4 years ago. It's funny that this was my time at the 13.1 split of my last marathon. On the other hand it was good to run hard consistently for the entire race and I did lose time tying my shoes.  Let’s just say that this was my Tempo run for my race next week. It's just a trail marathon with around 5000 feet of gain.

Week 21: 39 mile Monday: Easy 5mi@8:36/m Tuesday: Rest Wednesday: 6mi (3x1mi@6/m) late night at the gym Thursday: Recovery 3mi@8:43/m Friday: Easy 5mi@8:30/m Saturday: Tempo 7mi@6:36/m+4mi at the Gym Sunday: Long 11.5mi@7:56/mi. Most of the run at 7:50/mi, felt hard due to day before Tempo.

Week 22: 31 miles Monday: Rest Tuesday: Easy 5mi@8:26/m Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Easy 6mi (2.5x1mi@6:10/m)     Friday: Easy 5mi@8:41/m Saturday: Tempo 4mi@6:40/m+5 along the water Sunday: Easy 6mi@8:15/mi

Week 23: 28 miles (est) Monday: Rest Tuesday: Easy 5mi@8:20/m Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Easy 6mi@8:20/m Friday: Rest Saturday: Easy 3mi w/ 3 minutes of intensity Sunday: 13.1mi race

It’s race week.  Missed a couple of weekly updates, but the summary is that as been the case, a little short on miles.  Part of it was slipping and falling on some steps rushing to a work meeting.  Some bruising of the left leg which affected some workouts.  During the peak of training averaged about 42 miles per week.  I would have felt more confident if I could have gotten in an additional easy run every week.  Workout paces have been ok.  Although I did struggle in my last run which was a Tempo 4 miles (which could have been part of the effects of the fall).  The plan for the race is to start at 6:52/mi pace and decide to pick up the pace at 6/8/10/12 miles.  Unlikely to PR and will be happy to just finish sub-1:30.  

Some interesting notes.  As much as I race, this will be my first half marathon in 2.5 years, missing the last 2 due to illness.  I also ran this race 4 years ago, and it was my 4th half marathon with the last 3 only 2 weeks apart, all PRs.  The final time was 1:37:53.  Hope to do much better :).

Week 19/20: 31 miles/45 miles

Tuesday: Easy 6mi@8:44/m on the treadmill Thursday: 10mi (2x3mi@6:25/m) on the treadmill   Saturday: 7mi@6:40/m + 4mi wu/cd on the treadmill Sunday: Easy 5mi@8:04/mi outside Monday: 13mi@7:11/m on the treadmill     Wednesday: 8mi (2x2mi@6:23/m) at evening track   Thursday: Recovery 3mi@9:02/m Saturday: 10km@6:39/m +4mi wu/cd + 3mi@10/mi recovery/makeup Sunday: Easy 9mi@8:06/mi

Had to run inside on the treadmill last week due to the air quality from fires hitting the area.  Just did enough to get in the workouts. Ran on the treadmill 2x3mi@6:25/m, Tempo 7@6:40/m, and 13.1mi@7:11/mi long run.  This week the fires/air quality was not an issue.  I had a friend willing to do a 2x2mi workout.  Yesterday, I ran 10km Tempo below HMP.  I would have liked to had run more total miles but at least had solid workouts.  It’s interesting to report the training in 2 week blocks as it highlights a subtle part of the Hansons plan of 5 hard workouts in a 10 day block.  After 4 days of rest/easy runs, the final 10 day block before the half marathon.

Week 18: 50 Miles

Monday PM: Recovery 6mi@8:20/m on the treadmill Tuesday: Rest Wednesday AM: 3.9mi@8:24/m Wednesday PM: 4.5mi (6x800m@2:54) with the last 200m hard ~38s Thursday PM: Recovery 5mi@8:36/m Friday AM: 4mi@7:15-6:30/m + 3mi wu/cd Saturday AM: 11.4mi@8:43/m hilly run with almost 2K feet of elevation Sunday PM: 9.3mi@7:41/m on the treadmill including short wu/cd

The goal this week was 50 miles and getting in the workouts.  Did have some modifications.  I missed a run on Tuesday and ran the next morning.  Then in the evening I ran track with my club substituting a 6x1mi with 6x800m with 600m@5K pace and 200m sprint.  On Friday the 6 mile tempo, I had to rush my warm-up and progressed quickly to pace.  It felt too hard and I only did 4 miles.  The 2 medium long runs with good efforts on the weekend.  So progress, as I started to feel some of that running fitness again.

One interesting note that I looked the gps of my race last weekend.  The course had a lot of sharp turns and wiggles and the GPS would take short tangents at each tangent  It’s usually the other way with GPS.  Oh well.

Congrats to all who raced this weekend.  It was fun keeping track of everyone and some of the elite performances.

Week 16: 36 Miles w/5K Race

Monday: Rest Tuesday: Rest Wednesday: Tempo 6mi@6:40/m + 2 miles on the treadmill Thursday: Recovery 3mi@9:06/m on the artificial turf on a football field       Friday: 6mi@8/mi w/(8x100m@20s) Saturday: Easy 5mi@8:17/m running the 5k course Sunday: 5k@19:05(PR) + 12 miles

The week started with an extra rest day and then I realized that the 5k race that I though was next month was this Sunday.  I swapped my Tempo and called the 5K my strength day and then added 12 miles.  I knew that I was not in good enough shape to train through it and wanted to run the race well, so I just accepted another low mileage week.  Here’s the race report:

Pre-Race

This is my town’s race that I have run the 5K race the previous 3 years and after finishing 2nd last year, I was hoping that luck would be on my side this year to win.  The weather was perfect as always   Short warm-up as I had to take a second bathroom stop.  Got to the corral and as I was stretching, saw a Kenyan. I am not saying someone who looked like a Kenyan with the body type, racing flats, etc., but a racer from Kenya.  Apparently he missed the half marathon start and was running the 10k. Which was a relief, but crazy he was in this small town race. But in the corral for the 5k was a top runner from one of the competitive SF running clubs.  Winning goal was out. I was also getting the case of racing nerves. I repeated a mantra of "training run ... training run ..." and took some deep breaths before the start.

Race

Mile 1: 6:18 As usual in a 5k race the kids sprinted in front first, followed by a group with the strong club runner, a guy in a Tracksmith singlet, the Kenyan. Ahead of me was a 11 year old girl that surprised me by staying ahead of me for over a half mile loop, which made me run under 6/mile. She finished 3rd female overall with a 20:xx time. After passing her I settled in a good rhythm and focused on the tangents. Unfortunately there was a high school student that I could reasonably catch ahead.

Mile 2: 6:17 I finally catch the high school student and put some distance. I can see there is no one to catch in this stretch. I am running comfortably, but still wondering whether I can hold the pace. At the end of 2 mile I already see the leader coming from the turnaround (he ran a 15:36) and Tracksmith guy about 30s behind (he finished in 16:49).

Mile 3: 6:18 Third place was running sub-18 so I wouldn't catch him either. But fourth place was within sight about 30s ahead. He had probably gone out too hard following the leaders. Maybe if he was in third place I might have put in a more inspired chase, but the hairpin turnabout took away some speed. And this is the point where the 5K really hurts. I kept pushing hard, but I was in no-man's land. It might have helped if I would look at my $250 watch to see what time I was running, but I never seem to have brain cells when I am racing.

Finish: 19:05 (-2s from my PR in the race last year). First AG. Garmin measured the course as 3.05 miles, but I am also going to take some credit for running perfect tangents.

Post-race

I planned on doing 10 miles post-race. I talked with the second place finisher and we planned to do a short cool-down.  When we started the cool-down, a race director thought we looked fast and asked us to lead the kids 1/2 mile race. It was great, although we had to really run faster than I wanted to post-race to stay ahead of the kids at the start. We paced the winning 8-year girl who ran a 6:30/mile pace. Pretty incredible. After the cool-down I met some folks in my running club finishing the 10k. Picked up my AG award which was another pint glass like last year.

I still had the rest of my long run left. The good part was that there was the aid stations and the water/nuun/clif shot blocks were really helpful. Also I was surprised how much I liked the cheering despite not racing. One elite ultra runner was on his 26.2 mile training run and said hi in passing which was kind of cool.

I thought about the race afterwards and while I am happy with the PR, I was mad that I didn't know that I was 5s from sub-19.

Week 16: 37 miles

Monday: 4mi@8:24/m Tuesday: 4mi@8:04/m Wednesday: Rest Thursday: 5mi@8:36/m Friday: 4mi (3x1km@3:44) Saturday: 8mi@8/mi with 1mi@5:22 (downhill) Sunday AM: Up-Tempo 3mi@7/mi+2mi in a run out of town Sunday PM: Recovery 5mi@8:42/mi

A missed workout on Wednesday of 6x1mi led to missing both mileage and workout goals.  Tried to play catchup at the end of the week, but mostly compromised workouts.  Went into Berkeley on Sunday and ran around campus in the morning before a big game with #4 USC (they played well, but a couple of key plays prevented an upset).  Ran a mile downhill in memory of David Torrence, the elite runner who died a few weeks ago.  He did a run while running for Cal once to break 4 minutes by running downhill.  I was hoping to at least get a good Tempo run in, but was out of town on Sunday and weather/allergies/time left me short/slow.  Will focus on getting workouts done this week.

Week 15: 37 Miles

Monday: Rest Tuesday AM: 3.5mi@8:28 before work Tuesday PM: 3.5mi@8:44 after work on the treadmill Wednesday: Rest Thursday: 5mi: 8x400m@5:44/m before work, should have been 12 but limited time and ran it fast Friday: Tempo 5mi@6:40/m+5 after work Saturday: Recovery 2mi@10:00/m Sunday: 10mi@10/mi with 1700ft of gain in the Marin Headlands and then an easy 3mi@9:12 afterwards

A step back from last weeks ramp up in mileage.  I was too tired for track Wednesday and took a rest day and then on Saturday had a long trip out of town and only had time for a short recovery in the morning.  I was thinking about doing some catch up, but realize what is done is done and anything more puts in a deficit for the next week.  Will just try to get in the runs when I have the chance.

Week 14: 59 Miles

Monday AM: Progressive Uptempo 4mi@7/m to the waterfront + 3.5mi Monday PM: Recovery 4mi@8:30/m on the treadmill Tuesday AM: Shakeout 2.5@8:30 w/2x400@6/mi Tuesday PM: Easy 4mi@8:30/m on the treadmill Wednesday PM: Easy 5mi@8:40/m along the water Thursday PM: JP Morgan CC 3.5mi@6:13/mi + 4.5mi WU/CD/etc Friday PM: Recovery 3mi@8:46/m Saturday AM: Hilly 10.5mi@8:57/m with 1363ft gain Sunday AM: Tempo 3mi@6:43/m+7mi Sunday PM: Recover 2.5mi

Really pushed this week to get back to higher training miles.  It was helpful Monday was a holiday and tried to do 2 runs a day when possible.  It’s surprising that I did this with the JP Morgan race midweek.  This race started my racing history 5 years ago and was my 6th time running.  I originally planned to just run it as a Tempo, and almost didn’t run it when I forgot my running clothes at work.   But glad I did as I saw running friends from my company, co-workers from my previous jobs, running club friends, and a running friend from my neighborhood.  I went out faster than expected and held a 6:10-15 pace pretty comfortably throughout.  Probably should have kicked more at the end and a friend out kicked me.  Then hit the hills on Saturday for a long 10.5 miles still recovering from the race.  Did a short Tempo on Sunday on a warm morning.

With confidence about putting in the mileage, I put together my half marathon plan for the next 9 weeks.  I officially deferred Chicago.  And, I signed up for Boston again today.

Week 13: 37 Miles

Monday: Rest Tuesday: Easy 7mi@7:55/mi on a warm evening Wednesday: Recovery 6mi@8:50/m on the treadmill Thursday: Rest. Started to get hot and poor air quality.  Walked dog Friday: Track workout 3mi (2x1200m@6/m) Saturday: Tempo 8mi@6:40/m + 5mi wu/cd at the gym on a hot day outside Sunday: Easy 8mi@8:59/mi with about 800ft of climb as the weather was a little cooler Monday: Progressive Uptempo 4 miles to MP easy cd for 7.5mi@7:55/m + 4.5 miles in the evening. [late update]

While 37 miles was a moderate week total, I adjusted my schedule to take in account of hot weather/poor air quality/Labor Day to get up to 49 miles for a one week period.  The work out for the week was 13.1 miles at the gym with 8 miles @ half marathon pace.  Everything feels good.  Hoping air quality improves soon.  Have a race on Thursday night that I might make a short Tempo run and not taper to keep up the mileage.  Chicago is definitely out, but I might run CIM in December depending on how I progress on training for the half marathon in November and trail marathon the week after.

Week 11: 25 Miles

Monday: Recovery 4mi@8:55/m Tuesday: More Recovery 5mi@9:00/m Wednesday: Rest Thursday: (2x1mi@6/m) + 3mi cd/wu/recovery.  Irregular track so not exact. Friday: Rest Saturday: 5mi@7:55/m Sunday: 6mi@8:15/m

This week started promising with recovery runs on Monday and Tuesday for a 5 day streak of running.  But had to rest Wednesday.  Did one workout of mile repeats, and it was too late in the evening and too fast to do more than 2 reps.  Friday came around and was too tired from the work week.  Also knocked by allergies during the weekend so decided that it was better to take it easy than to try to catchup.  Fresh start next week. 

Week 10: 36 Miles

Monday: Rest Tuesday: Easy 7mi@7:55/m.  Evening run, felt like I ran hard. Wednesday: Recovery 5mi@8:42/m Thursday: Rest Friday: Easy 7mi@8:04/m. Evening run, felt tired Saturday: Time Trial 3km@6:20/mi + 4.5mi.  Started at 6:10/mi faded to 6:30/mi. Sunday: Tempo 7mi@6:40 + 3mi at the gym.  

Another week of progress in mileage with a way to go in fitness.  Did a 3km time trial and even factoring an irregular track and some allergy issues, was surprised not to hold a 6:10/mi pace.  I have 8 weeks still to get in marathon shape for Chicago, but it's unlikely.  More likely is training for a half marathon goal in 13 weeks.

Week 10: 32 miles

Monday: Rest Tuesday: Recovery 6mi@8:40/m Wednesday: Track (8-4-2-100m@6-ish/m ~1 min rest) + 2mi cd/wu Thursday: Easy 5mi@8:10/m along the water Friday: Rest Saturday Tempo 6mi@6:40/m + 3mi cd/wu on the gym treadmill Saunday: Easy 9mi@8:19/mi to the waterfront and back

Building on last week’s progress, a reasonable training week of 5 days of running and 32 miles.  Ran pain-free for the week.  I have a theory that my easy running shoe was causing issues.  Had hoped to do 6x800m but was short on time due to a birthday celebration and also did not have the fitness to run at 6/mile pace, so it was a light workout.  But did get in a 6-mile Tempo, which was a first for a while.  I am getting it back together, but I am going to err on the side of caution and restraint going forward.

Week 8: 8 miles

Wednesday: 3mi@8:37/m easy   Saturday: 5mi@8:10/m around Santa Cruz around a weekend vacation

Week 9: 23 miles

Monday: Easy 3mi@8:49/m Rest Wednesday: Track (4x450m@~90s/lp) Saturday: Easy 7mi@7:57/m progressive 4 miles then 7x100m sprints       Sunday: Easy 8mi@8:01/m with the running club  

It's odd to think of a 23 mile week as success, but given my ongoing issues with my foot and 2 weeks of work issues, I was very happy with the running.  The runs also had a bit of quality.  I also was inspired by getting the new Nike Vaporfly 4% shoe this week.  They felt great, are super light, good energy return, and lots of cushion without feeling bouncy.  Also on Saturday, I finally got around to measuring the weird middle school track with a 50m measuring tape and it was about 355m around with a 95m straight away so I was pretty spot on a previous guess of 450m where I did another the straight away twice.  I have decided to get back to training.  Chicago is very unlikely, but I am 14 weeks from a half marathon.

Week 7: 12 Miles

Monday: Recovery 4mi@9:00/m Tuesday: Rest   Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Rest Friday: Rest Saturday: Easy 3mi@8:32/m at the gym before workout Sunday: 5mi@7:50/m progressive 3 miles to MP

I had a busy work week so was not expecting much ... and then the unexpected happened and ran even less than expected.  Had work to do on Sunday so ran on Monday instead.  Had a real comfortable easy run on the treadmill.  Felt great, but overnight my right foot was swollen around the big toe.  Not sure what happened.  It was painful to walk.  Rested and took ibuprofen until Friday.  Fortunately, it felt ok on Saturday and I ran 3 pain free miles on the treadmill at the gym.  Today I ran a careful 5 miles and was able to get down to marathon pace.  It felt hard as I have lost fitness the last couple of weeks.  Also with the low miles, need to start watching what I am eating.

You can see in the distance of the photo above the fog covering SF this morning.  Great weather for a marathon.  Congrats SF runners!

Week 6: 14 Miles

Monday: Rest Tuesday: Rest Wednesday: Recovery 3mi@8:21/m Thursday: More Recovery 4mi@9:18/m Friday: Rest Saturday: Easy 7mi@8:08/m Sunday: Rest

Not many miles this week.  In previous years, the relay I ran last Saturday would have just taken the place of equivalent workouts and I would have been in better shape before running it.  But this time it felt like finishing a marathon and just treated this week as post-race rest.  Also it’s pretty clear that training for Chicago will not happen.  I will probably train for some shorter races and then North Face 26.2mi or 50k later in the year.