2017 Sub 3 Marathons...and beyond! (Read 403 times)

Kram - busted! JMac picked me up on it too on Strava.  My osteo (who treats a lot of runners and triathletes and tends to err slightly on the side of caution) green-lighted it after I saw her on Monday: short, moderate efforts with rests = OK, longer tempo blocks/harder efforts = not OK yet.  There is a bit of fatigue there but it is mainly my feet at this point (my running gets quite 'stompy' when I get tired, especially my right leg which is stronger than the left due to a previous knee injury).  She said just wear more cushioned shoes for the next few runs or run on softer surfaces.  The run was a few 2 min reps at HMP with 1-2 min rests, so definitely a moderate effort only.  If she'd said no I definitely wouldn't have attempted it.

Weather - nice job in the HM and sounds like there is a lot of upside for you given the tough conditions.

Kram no worries at all buddy.  Great week.  I forget who it was on the old 2:40 forum maybe coopera  but I think he knocked out like 10 or even 12 threshold miles once.  So 9 is tremendous.

Mikkey your joining strava?  Guess I might need to stay on then.

I’ll handle the Richmond tracking while I’m grumbling on my couch about which one of those guys I could have beaten.  I will say I’ve basically been IAM s PR Agent since mid July and the Strugglr might be getting sad.  Man the weather looks awesome for those guys.  You wanna talk about a true green lighter.

As for the X Ray.  The superstar chiro says it looked good to him. He’s waiting on the radiologist to take a second look.  Honestly I’d be surprised if I had a stress fracture because I have actually never had one.  If I was going to get one it would have been when I built up from like 25 mpws to 90 in less then a year or maybe when I introduced a lot more quality.  Actually in the last 3 years I would say I have missed less then 60 days of running and 45 of that was  from the broken ribs and torn Achilles.  That’s pretty bulletproof in some ways.  I’m also insane so there’s that.

Loved the race reports guys but I gotta disagree about Keitany.  If it was going to take 2:23 to win it Flanagan would have done it.  I can’t put into words just how ridiculous her last 10k was,  Aaron Braun ran an even split 2:13:2 in Chicago and there last 10ks were almost identical.  Just think about that for a second.  That’s absurd and as good as Keitany is and man is she ever.  She has never closed a marathon in 32:10 that I’m pretty confident in.

Congratulations!!! Really exciting and inspiring to read!  You are definitely making me wonder if I should do Daniels plan for my next training plan.  I was originally thinking of doing pfitz.  Awesome job!

Race Report - 2017 NYC Marathon

 

Cycle

 

I used Jack Daniels 2Q plan for 55-70 mpw. I slightly modified the plan by changing the 3 long runs of 18-20 into 3 runs of 20-21, as I felt that I needed 3 runs around 2.5 hours to have any chance of succeeding. I averaged 51 mpw for the 15 weeks leading into race week. This was by far my most mileage for a block this long. However, I was concerned about overall endurance because a) it's still pretty low for these boards and b) the 2Q plan does not stress endurance

 

Taper Week

 

To say this past week was an emotional roller coaster is a complete understatement. I went from feeling amazing on Tuesday to wondering whether I had fractured my foot by Friday. I won't go through all those details again, but I went into the race thinking it was more likely than not that I had a stress fracture in my foot after talking to multiple doctors. The only thing that made me hold out hope was just that certain things you normally see with stress fractures (pain while hopping, tuning fork pain, callus on an x-ray around the stress fracture, pain on that specific site, etc.) weren't present. But having 2 different doctors tell you it's probably a stress fracture was devastating.

 

Race Morning

 

I got on the bus after some crazy lines around 6:20 am for a 9:00 am corral close. I sat on that bus through traffic until 8:30. I was getting quite anxious when I thought I might not make my cut off, but made into the corral at 8:45 am. Weather was cloudy as expected.

 

Race

 

The first half was more windy than I expected. It was almost a diagonal wind, so it helped with cooling but certainly hindered in some spots. I did my best to stay cool with dumping water over my head often and drinking probably more water than I had initially planned, but I felt like I was doing a good job of getting things under control when I felt things heating up. My legs felt wonky from the start, but I think it was more rested leg syndrome and not being used to it (plus race nerves) than anything else. However, I did however notice my quads start to feel funny around mile 10, which was concerning. I remembered in my first full that my quads were the first thing to go. However, at the time, I thought I would just manage it to the best of my ability. My plan was to go through the first half around 1:28 and I came in at 1:27:46, so I felt like I was executing exactly as I wanted.

 

As discussed on this board though, the second half can be brutal. The climb up the Queensboro Bridge at mile 15 was longer than I remembered, but I felt great at the top. As we exited the bridge, I noticed it had started misting. This development was probably one of the biggest things to help me during the race, as I felt nice and cool the entire rest of the way, even a little chilly at some points when the wind blew. This was the point where it was supposed to be getting warm and humid, but the mist kept it perfect.

 

After getting through the excitement of First Ave, I did my first real mental check at mile 19. I realized I felt phenomenal. This was where the wheels started come off 2 years ago, so it was exciting to say the least. However, as still a relative newcomer to the marathon, I wanted to be conservative. I felt like the worst outcome would be to start pushing it there and fall apart at mile 24.

 

Through the Bronx we went, and at mile 21, I decided to see if sub 2:55 was in the cards. I did some mental math and thought it would be close. I figured I needed to go sub 6:30 the rest of the way. I still felt amazing, but once again, was afraid to push it. However, I knew that if I could get up the 5th Ave climb that everyone dreads and still feel good, I could possibly hammer it home in Central Park.

 

After getting through that awful hill and reaching Mile 24, I still felt great. It was like night and day compared to my first marathon. I felt like it was just more towards the end of MP run than anything, not like I was racing. At that point, I decided there were only 2 miles left and it was time to just give it my all. Here, I have to give major credit to the 2Q plan. TLT runs are exactly what I needed in training, as this was effectively what I was about to execute. So once I got to the top of the hill, I just said it's time to give it everything I have.

 

At no point in those last 2 miles did my legs feel terrible, which still shocked me. However, I start getting some serious intestinal cramps. They felt exactly like stitches, but lower down in my abs, which was not a place I was used to feeling them. This was probably my biggest limiting factor, but I was still able to get those last 2 miles home in 6:06 and 6:13.

 

Finish - 2:54:02 (18 minute PR!) with a 90 second negative split

 

Takeaways:

 

1) The 2Q plan is the real deal. Two runs a week of 15-16 miles with quality in it can definitely make up for the lack of very long runs. I only had those two 20's and a 21 and I never felt like endurance was an issue during the race. I cannot recommend the plan enough and I am 100% using it again for my next marathon. If you feel like you need a lot of long runs though, I would go more towards Pfitz. But don't be scared by the lack of them in this plan!

 

2) This board has inspired me so much seeing how much work you guys put in. I only had about 1900 miles to date for this race, but seeing the sort of gains that can be had by averaging 60+ instead of 50 really motivates me for my next marathon to try to get some serious mileage in. I think I still have a lot of room to grow in this distance

 

3) Mikkey - thank you for tracking me!

 

4) Probably the biggest one for anyone reading this that is lurking: make sure to take into account your own training to determine what speed you can run in a marathon. Some things work better for others. I did great on a 2Q plan, but some people need lots of long runs. Some people can BQ on 40 mpw, some need 80. Your genetics, training history, previous race times, and other factors play a large role that determine how well you can do in this distance. But, I will certainly say that more mileage is one of the biggest things that helped me and I can't wait to get at this race again soon!

Swim -  That’s sounding positive and fingers crossed on the radiologist’s report! Yeah that’s great if you track Richmond....who all from the RW crew is running it apart from IAM and Strugglr?

JMac - If Chicago and NYC are 4 weeks apart then just register for them both. If the weather isn’t ideal for Chicago then use it as a long training run. If the weather is good and you race well then just have fun with NYC. Problem solved.

Good luck Iam, Strugglr and anyone else running Richmond this weekend!

My screen name is a little different here.... And I'm too lazy to change it. This is dcv... Good luck in Richmond to IAm and Strugglr... Big things await...

 

Mikkey -  don't forget, your Russian hacker buddy would have also steered him to CIM. Almost always good weather there in December!

 

Yep, Chicago wasn’t good enough for Calbears as the course was too flat and boring for him. 

Good luck to everyone racing Richmond tomorrow! Can't wait to see what you all do (especially I AM)!!