2018 3:20 (and beyond) (Read 582 times)

  

My issue was that I couldn't extricate my gels from my shorts.  I think I should have tucked an extra one or two in my sportsbra as a back up.

 

 

I couldn't do this either, except for mile 5. I ended up just using the Clif shots they were handing out and tearing them with my teeth. And I drank gatorade at stops I had anything, in an effort to get calories in.

DW Do you have a link to the amazon waterproof shoe covers? Your comment on the finish on Sunday is awesome. I'm a little surprised they allowed men to use the women's tent for changing. I guess runners at that point aren't going to try and "sneak a peak" because hypothermia is more important. I wonder if running with kitchen/dish cleaning gloves would have worked well over a set of finger gloves to stay dry and/or warm. Nice note on the special treatment. Alaska Airlines sometimes does the same if you're wearing Seattle Seahawks stuff.

rune I picked a marathon training plan from Jack Daniels. New plan, new approach, new year, it is a whole bunch of new. We can compare weeks and training efforts so it should make training more memorable. Plus keen just did  a JD plan so he can offer his input as well as max on what the point of a run is, pace advice, etc.

October 7 deadline

Its 171 days until the Chicago Marathon (25 Sundays). Daniels has a 182 day training plan (26 Sundays). It has 2 quality workouts with long runs at marathon pace as well as workouts at marathon pace. There is a week of all easy running mixed in. I think I just found the training plan by accident. Jack Daniels 4 week cycle with a peak of 70 miles per week.

If I understand his workouts correctly I'm currently ending week 25 and Sunday starts week 24. Okay considering I broke up 16.5 on Saturday so I'd technically hit the 14 mile workout last week but fell 20 miles short of the goal. Upside is I only need 56 miles this week, which matches his first week, and I could probably get the second workout in on Sunday if I'm not too torn up from my trail half marathon (3,000 ft climbing) this Saturday (on a perfect day I'd break 2 hours) and the weather is better than last week.

It should be fun trying to figure out how many miles I need to run each day. I feel like I need a merit badge for this. I'm handed a total number of miles per week and two workouts and I need to put the rest of the week together. Its like adult marathon training. Time to stop fawking around and get serious about this stuff. I hope NeRP is ready for what is coming his way. Sunday Funday just got a whole lot funner.

I'm trying to work out why I struggled 10 days ago. Since the race I've run every day, and now have a string of 5 straight 6+ mile runs faster than my MP (8:13

FB- you say you struggled, having you ran a marathon 10 days ago. you've run every day since them and also faster than your marathon pace ... just wondering - why?
in my experience there can be fatigue lying beneath the surface, and sometimes not respecting that - even if doing so "feels fine" - has come back to bite me. granted, i haven't run 8 billion marathons in my life like you have but especially if the race was a struggle i'm inclined to think there's some system of yours that's asking for recovery.

re. hooplah of Bostwana race, in hindsight i think the matchy jackets everywhere is over-the-top and silly. i've never participated in the pasta dinner, baseball game, post-race party, etc. for me it's a nice place where my dedicated running friends from former and current lives all kind of converge. social reunion, with some racing in the mix. it's nice to head to a marathon start where everyone sitting around you on the bus is dedicated/serious/very into running like we are. (this isn't to say that people who haven't BQed yet aren't as serious. not at all.) not a spot for bucket-listers. (minus the small proportion of charity runners - and this is an entirely separate topic - who i kinda wish would choose a different race for their charity efforts.) what ace said is kind of in line with my assessment of it.

gels when cold- like matt, i always rip them open with my teeth, haha, even if it's warm. oops. 
dwave , i think i warned about safety pinning gels to shorts based on my 2015 experience - i spent like 5 minutes trying to unpin one and the friend i happened to (successfully) be racing with helped me. that said, i think this past monday even if gels were stored in zipper or easy-access pockets they would've been difficult to extricate!

brew- rant on sage's social media?! lol, be nice to the guy. his case is the one where i kinda support dropping out and finding another race (which is very likely in the works ... insider info, shhh  ! ). he was not treating it as a footrace for placement like galen or the east africans etc. he was there to run a time, that is all. that said, his OTQ crusade is getting kinda old.

182 day training plan?!? dang. i don't think i could focus on ONE goal for 6 months. i think it'd be more enjoyable to casually yet methodically base-build for like 2-3 months and then jump into your specific training plan. but that's just me.

jim- tshirts! that sounds like it's a good goal. i wonder if that's where Dipsea got the idea (special tshirts for the top35), or vice versa. that glass is nice! i got something like that from the bar i went to post-race in 2014 (which is where i met Sage C) but i remember kicking myself for drunkenly leaving it at the bar... sad.

fun workout last night. 5 sets of 800@5k pace, 100 jog, 300@mile pace, 3min rest/jog. 800s were mostly 3:02-:06, 300s were 58-61.

 

RLK - Nice workout. Inside info on Sage? How'd you get close enough for that??

best friend is coached by his gf. but you didn't hear it from me! 😇

My Report: -- I'll be back for shotouts soon!

Let us say that having registered just as a “if something crazy happens” option, I did not expect to run the Boston Marathon in 2018. Let us also say that life gave me some curve balls and the race gave me something to focus on in January when I decided to run. The beginning of my training was during a particularly sh*tty time in my life and I needed the runs for my sanity.

Life having settled down and into an actually good point by April, I found myself selling my house, buying another, and juggling all that paperwork and mental energy along with the regular things. The week before, my legs felt dead and I’d struggled with my asthma so much that I ended up on 3 medications.  I go through long spurts of only needing my rescue inhaler, but illnesses linger in my lungs. Packing, I found myself ambivalent about the whole thing but as someone who likes to finish what I start, I decided that if nothing else, I’d get some sleep and to see my friend Jen who was also running it.

I took a red-eye flight out on Friday night and arrived Saturday morning. Before my room was ready, I got a run in, had breakfast, and read. In the afternoon I went to the expo with Jen, and had dinner with a friend of hers. Sunday I spent not doing a whole lot but having slept, feeling a bit better about this miserable run I was going to do. My dad arrived from the Toronto area Sunday afternoon – we had dinner and discussed logistics about meeting me at the finish. I tried to convince my dad he didn’t have to come, but he’s always bonded with me about sporting things so I could tell that he was going to be there regardless of what I said, and in the end, it was nice to think I’d have someone meet me in the med tent if things went south.

THE RACE

I woke up at 6am, got coffee, and dressed myself in my capri tights, a tank, a rain jacket, a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, and my 2013 NYCM poncho that I knew would come in handy one day. Then I put two pairs of sweatpants over my tights. had bought a pair of fake leather gloves that I wore until almost the start, and throw-away socks, hat, and shoes, in an effort to keep all named items dry until the race. I had no delusions about staying dry DURING the race, but I knew the best thing I could do was stay as warm as possible until I could run. I loaded the bus around 7:45, and arrived at Hopkington with just over an hour to spare, more than enough time to use the porta potty, freeze, and stand in an inch or so of  icy mud. I kept my hands in my throwaway gloves until I changed out of my wet shoes and into my dry ones. It felt different, but by that time I could barely feel my feet so it was hard to tell. In the commotion, by the time I was done getting my layers off, putting my headphones in, and using the bathroom one more time, I ended up starting 5 minutes behind wave 2, which turned out to be not so bad – Jen and I walked up to the start, waved good bye and good luck, and started the race.  I kept asking myself why on earth I was doing this. After the Ogden marathon in 2014 in similar conditions, but less wind, I said I’d never do it again. Like most things I say that about, I lied.

Miles 1-5: 7:40, 7:41, 7:54, 7:31

These miles were a pretty easy effort, but the race was more crowded than I remembered. I had at one point stupidly envisioned not being completely freezing from the time I left my hotel, so I had put gels and my inhaler in my jacket pocket. One gel made it out of my jacket pocket the whole race, and the rest of that mess bounced on me the whole time. When you’re 5 ft tall this means it bounces on your thighs.  I was pretty miserable from the start, and had stomach cramps the entire time. I’ll leave it at it was likely hormonal and just one more way to be miserable on this day.

Miles 6-10: 7:35, 7:42, 7:48, 7:42; 7:39

I took a gel out of my pocket at the end of mile 5 because I could tell my hands were at the end of their usefulness. It was the only gel I used that I had taken with me.  I think I used my inhaler around mile 10. It wasn’t surprising that my asthma was an issue, but not a lot of fun.

Miles 11-15:  7:48; 7:42; 7:47; 9:28; 7:42

At mile 14 I started panicking about my hands since they were soaked and freezing. I went into a med tent and they asked if I wanted surgical gloves. I’d actually had some with me at the start, but managed to not put them on. I left my soaked gloves in the tent after having a volunteer put the gloves on for me. It took a while since I couldn’t use my hands much, but eventually I got them on with a lot of help.  It  was a minor improvement. I saw one girl that looked VERY underdressed with very little body fat in rough shape.  It was a sobering moment and I knew I had no choice but to keep running  to avoid that. Somewhere in this stretch I think I grabbed a Clif shot, tore it open with my teeth, and took it.

Miles 16-20: 7:46; 8:00; 9:11; 7:52; 7:53

The hills were as bad as I remembered from 2012, but I did run them this time. Mile 17 was where I panicked about my phone staying dry and found a volunteer who had a ziplock bag. These people are saints for standing out there in this rain. She helped me (re: did for me) put my phone in the bag and in my flip belt (sexy) . Before this, the sky had really opened up and I was afraid of my phone dying and no one being able to find me. Since I still hadn’t ruled out med tents, this was more terrifying than losing another minute, and I felt better once I saw it was dry(ish).

Miles 21-26: 8:14, 7:48, 7:57; 7:59; 8:02; 8:10; 3:51

Even though I never felt like I really picked up the pace, I couldn’t manage more than what felt like a jog. I got through these miles by telling myself that it wasn’t going to suck any less if I walked. I was actually amazed that as slow as I was going, I was passing people. My right hamstring was a bit cramped but everything just felt heavy.  Everyone looked about as miserable as I felt.

Post-race:

This was the worst. I was so cold that I couldn’t be bothered to get the bag of food. I needed to use my inhaler badly, but with no dexterity, I went into a med tent, had someone help me fish it out of my jacket pocket, and use it. I realized then how compromised my breathing was. Bag check was an epic display of stupidity, as has been mentioned. At one point my dad called and asked where I was. I could only answer my phone with my garmin and I told him I was at bag check and I’d meet him after, but I could not text or call, so he’d have to call me. He was at a restaurant right outside the bag check, so after I let the hypothermia really settle in and get my dry shit, a volunteer walked me to the curb since I was struggling at that point. I made it to the restaurant, where I changed into my dry stuff and realized that, to top of this epic experience, I was REALLY lucky I was wearing black or I’d have been really embarrassed.

Thoughts:

In looking at the splits, it was more of a slow fade with 2 stops than the meltdown I’d thought it was. As seems common, I just didn’t’ have it in me to go any faster, and I struggled with motivation to keep going from the very start. I think I was in pretty good shape all things considered, especially since in January I was at 20 mpw, but life happened as always and many things that may have affected my body were out of my control, along with the weather that everyone struggled with.  I’m still happy I didn’t spend all that money and time to just not finish the race, but it took more mental toughness for me to finish this one than any other marathon I remember. I'm usually more mentally tough than this, but I think it was an epic storm of crap for me. As for what’s next, I’m torn on signing up for St. George or not – I’m leaning towards signing up and hoping I get knocked up instead, but I’ll table that one for a minute.

KK - great report - the comment on wearing black made me LOL.  I totally understand.

Brewing: I used these.

Jim - I knew about the T-shirts, and that was one of my goals.  Like you said, close, but no...  Congrats to RBS!

Gels and safety pins - the safety pins were not the issue in my case. I wasn't unpinning the gels - I just grabbed them and tugged, and then either the safety pin would pop or the top would tear the rest of the way off.

My problem was that my shorts (compression, and fairly snug) were basically glued to my body since they were so soaked.  So I couldn't work my frozen hands with thick gloves into my shorts to grab the gels to tug them.  Would have had the same issue even if the gels hadn't been pinned at all.

RLK - you asked a few pages back about the VF4% and how they handled.  Funny thing is that they did feel a bit weird.  Slightly slippery and not bouncy like they normally are.  I thought the lack of bounce might be because my coordination was a bit off due to the cold.

I polled some others who ran in them - seems 50/50 - some people noticed no difference in the rain; others thought they felt a bit odd.

rune I think any plan going 6 months of training it would be hard not to repeat workouts. I might look at the 2Q daniels plan to see if I can make it work. He has some LONG workouts for 70 miles per week.

rlk I think his "goal" is to be a great MUT runner who can jump into a road race and not need much training. I've watched it happen for like three years. He gives all this advice about coaching, doesn't listen to it, admits he didn't then repeats. Cool that your friend is coached by Sandy (sandi?). She's a cutie and apparently pretty badass in her own right.

Thought I had the plan picked but apparently DW wants weekends to camp and do family stuff so I’ll look at the 2Q workouts/plan and compare it to Hanson. I thought I had this adultinf thing figured out but apparently my wife can find areas where I’m lacking. I’ll probably follow JD 4 week for a while and see how I do with fast running. 24 weeks is nice simply because I like having runs at marathon pace and I don’t have a coach or running club with weekly workouts. It’s easier to train solo with a ‘coach’ out of a book that probably matches what a coach would tell me in person. So the plan has become following JD workouts with weekend training to see how it goes but factor in camping, hiking, fathering, and dealing with the pressure of Chicago being my entry to 4/20/20. I might need a beer but that might hurt training.

Hehe.  FB called us old.