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

Nice Paul! 6:37 pace is an awesome average for 26+ miles. Congrats on the 5 minute improvement too!

JMac: I agree, as long as the niggle(s) keep migrating, it's all good. Good timing for a recovery period. Tokyo? Very Cool !!  I hear there's a marathon there, so there must be somewhere to run 

TN: yeah I remember the lower ab and my worries my advice for hip exercises had something to do with it! It will be interesting to see what your scans say. There has to be more to the whole bone density scan thing though. I was diagnosed with severe osteopenia in my late 20s and they said I had the bone density of an 80 yo, which is the main reason when I started on this training kick at age 40 I only let myself run every other day. I was under the impression I was a walking stress reaction. To this day though all of my injuries have been soft tissue. Bone fx has yet to happen. I see you're running every other day coming back. Smart! Would you really change how you move forward (pun not intended) based on the results of your scans? Do you feel any pain from the stress fx when you ride the bike?

COLEFUND: someone go to Michigan and find him!

ThreeDB: who are you again?

Matt: I guess all I would say right now is to make sure you don't extend a true recovery run. If it's a recovery day, I would do an easy double (like 6 in AM / 4 in PM) if your work/life allows, vs extending a 7-8 miler to 10. But maybe that's what JMac said, I missed that.

JMac: meant to respond re: CIM. I'm more about the experience than the time. I want to try and train to get faster and stronger, because it feels good, but I'm not going to get into a discussion whether CIM is fast or not (or easy logistics). I don't care. Having a good marathon training cycle and targeting a good effort at a marathon isn't something one can do alot - well, I can't anyways. So I want to make them count. I would much prefer running a 3:0x at Paris (or NYC or Edinburgh or etc etc), vs running CIM a couple miles from where I live and get a sub-3. I use running as a way to see and have it as an excuse to experience the world and have fun and stuff. When it's all said and done, I'm not going to say, geez, I wish I would have ran the same marathon x number of times, to bring my marathon time down to x. Instead I'll be smiling thinking of all the wonderful experiences I've had seeing more of the world. I generally don't repeat races for same reason.

Marky: nice work on running a half in challenging conditions! Good workout!

M: 0 - hungover
T: 7 mi (8:05)
W: 5.8 mi (7:49)
T: 11 mi rolling (7:22)
F: 2.5 mi w/u (7:36) then 5 x 800m (2:55) with 60 sec rec, 1 mi easy (8:06), 1 mi (6:04), 1 mi easy
S: 8 mi (7:43)

S: 6.75 mi (8:10)

Blah week. Friday - wasn't in the mood. Half-assed workout.

A few weeks ago I contacted one of the race organizers for a local half to see if they needed any pace leaders. She said they were good but would keep me on the list of alternatives. Last Tuesday morning I got an email from her asking if I was still available and if I could pace the 1:40 group for that coming Saturday. I said I could. I rearranged my schedule a bit so I could go into Saturday feeling good.

My main concern, though, was that my running buddy was hoping I could run with him on his MP run on Sunday. He was pacing the 1:50 group in the same race on Saturday, but planned to do 18 miles with 12-14 at about 7:0x pace on Sunday. I decided to try for both, and just rest as much as possible before, between and after. Both days ended up going pretty well, but I did have to eat a lot and get long Sunday nap. We even had some snow flurries for the half marathon. It wasn't sticking and the surface was not slick at all. Just a fun run in the snow.

Weekly Summary
Monday, Dec 04, 2017 thru Sunday, Dec 10, 2017

This next week has a couple of workouts on the schedule too - 4 mile tempo on Tuesday and 10 MP miles on Sunday which I may move to Friday since I'm taking off work and could then do some easy miles with friends on Sunday.

Paul - Great result!  Not your ultimate goal, but that's still a nice chunk of your PR.  Did you already mention what's next?

ThreeDB - I'm in for Boston, but I think I'll let you get half way through training before I jump in (I'm probably going to do a very focused 9 week plan, getting some down weeks after my Jan 14 half).  What's the goal?

Mark - I've raced a half in that weather, and it's just no fun.  Good job getting through it.  Hopefully the next one will be better conditions.

Cinnamon - ThreeDB is/was PBrickley.  I understand what you're saying regarding running in a bunch of races all over the place.  I disagree with the idea that you only do close races (or any race) multiple times to try to get your time down.  There's a lot to be said about being able to roll out of your own bed to run a race.  Even when it's not a fast course or great conditions.  Good looking week, too.  That Friday doesn't seem bad to me.

Matt - Nice job over the weekend.  I like how you dropped 30s off the pace on Sunday, on tired legs, and your HR stayed more or less the same.  Looks like you're getting in to shape.

My week:

Weekly Summary
Monday, Dec 04, 2017 thru Sunday, Dec 10, 2017

I wasn't super thrilled about my week.  We had a cold front come through that left us with three days of rain, wind and COOOLD temps (for us), so that put me on the treadmill more than I would have liked.  I tried to do my workout at Tue afternoon, but gave up after the first 2 miler.  I finished it off on the treadmill Wed morning.  I know that's not how things should go, but that's what I did.  Hopefully I'll have a better go of it this week.  Also, it's going to be a struggle to get to 300 this month.  Like JMac said, it's a silly number, and I'm going to focus on better weeks than just trying to hit the number (for example, I could have run an easy 4 Friday afternoon, but decided against it to get a good effort in on Saturday).  But I would still likely to get to 300 if I'm feeling good.

Paul - Congrats on the race! Looking forward to a full recap. It would be great to include a summary of your training too.

Cinnamon - I totally hear you on the experience. I know that I'm losing a couple of minutes by running NYC, but am I really going to care on my death bed that I ran a 2:54 instead of a 2:52? Not at all. Maybe for one single race I'd go run a course for a PR, but I'd rather go run the Tokyo or Berlin marathon next than run some small town race that is very boring just to PR. However, I certainly do NOT judge those who do: we spend so much time running, why not try to get the best number you can? I do however

Weather - Another huge week for you!

Andres - 66 mile weeks are nothing to sneeze at.

Me - Going to pick up training again this week and see how the foot responds. Not much else to report on except winter is definitely here and I'm not excited to run in it. It feels like we had no fall. I ran in a t-shirt almost the entire way up to NYC, and then all of a sudden it was in the 40's and lower every day. What happened to those perfect 55 degree fall days for running???

Paul and Mark: Congrats again on the great races this weekend!

Cinnamon: Solid week; even the "half-assed" Friday workout looks good to me.

TN: Hope the return from the stress fracture continues to go well.

Matt: Nice job on the big mileage weekend.

Weatherboy: Another excellent week. That 8 x 1k was flying. Now that Paul is done I think you are up next to race a FM. Can't wait to see what you do!

Andres: Looks like a strong week to me, even if you had to split up that workout. I am also coming to terms with the fact I will need to use the treadmill more after winter arrived here in the Northeast this past weekend.

JMac: Hope the return goes smoothly and that your foot is ok.

Me: I did not post last week; I had a major pain in my lower back for no apparent reason and had to take 3 days off. Was walking around hunched over and felt like I was 120 years old. Fortunately it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. But the week was a wash with just over 40 miles for 4 days and no quality.

This week was much better. I was very happy with the 4 x 2 mi workout. All splits were around 6:10 or faster, except for a 6:18 in the 3rd rep where I sort of fell asleep. This is the best I've ever done for this type of workout on the dirt roads where I live, and was the first time I did 4 reps instead of just 3.

Weekly Summary
Monday, Dec 04, 2017 thru Sunday, Dec 10, 2017

Weather - That's a great looking week there.  I'm looking forward to your race.

JTReeves - That 4x2mi workout was impressive on its own.  And you did it on a dirt road!?!?! That's awesome.  You need to do a tune up half.

JMac - I think we got your Fall down here in Houston.  It's been quite nice, overall, for several weeks now.  This late Fall/Winter is starting out much better than last year.

No posts here in a bit, so I'll pick things up with my Tucson Marathon race report:

Tucson Marathon

Here is the promised Tucson Marathon race report.  I do a marathon about once every two years.  I just don’t like doing them more often than that.  My last marathon was in February 2016, so I moved my timing up a bit for Tucson on December 9, 2017.   I selected this race for two reasons, first my dad lives just a few miles from the finish line, and second, I had heard it was a fast downhill course, and thought I might be able to run a Moose Mug time there (2 hours plus age, sub-2:49 for me).  I didn’t have any recent race results that supported the 2:49 goal, but I felt it was at least in the ball park of what I could do.

My prep for this race consisted of about 8 weeks moving up from about 50-60 MPW to 70-80 MPW followed by the 12-week plan in

Daniels Running Formula 3^rd edition.  I modified the plan where I needed to (for example the Big T workout of 5T+4T+3T+2T+1T I shortened quite a bit to 3,3,2,1). My weekly pattern was typically:

• Saturday 18-22 either easy or with some tempo or MP
• Sunday 12-15 easy
• Monday 6 easy
• Tuesday 10-12 workout plus 5-6 easy on higher weeks
• Wednesday 8 easy
• Thursday 10 easy plus 6 easy
• Friday 8 easy with some pickups

I peaked around 88 miles and averaged around 75 for the 12 weeks.  I also did some body weight strength work three times a week most weeks throughout the training cycle.

Race weekend I flew to Tucson (from LAX) Friday morning and my dad picked me up.  We stopped at the expo on the way to his house.  The expo was fairly small which is typical for a race this size (about 500 marathoners plus significantly more half marathoners.  I rested for the remainder of the day at my dad’s house.

Race morning my dad drove me to the bus location and I took the bus to the start.  We arrived at the start about 6:00 AM for the 7:00 AM start.  Fortunately, the busses stayed at the start line until the beginning of the race.  I spent most of the time on the bus, but did a half mile jog just help with going to the bathroom.  About 20 minutes out I had my first gel, a 50mg caffeine Clif shot.  I removed my warmup outfit and stripped down to my shorts and singlet.  I also was wearing a $3 pair of knit gloves I picked up at the expo, plus a Buff under my running cap.  I headed to the start line and started shivering.

The RD plays the national anthem, counts down and we are off.   At first, I have trouble settling into a pace.  The course profile provided by the race shows it steadily downhill but the course undulates a bit.  It also occurs to me we are at 5000 feet, so I might find myself working a little harder due to altitude.  At about 2 miles in a ditch my Buff and the gloves.  Finally at the 6 mile mark we turn onto route 77 where we stay for most of the rest of the race (2-mile out and back to the Biosphere at mile 10 and then 2 miles 2 miles on side streets to the finish at the end).  First 6 miles go by pretty quickly in my mind – 6:20, 6:29, 6:26, 6:26, 6:17, 6:15 (all times Garmin splits, mile marker splits maybe 2-3 seconds slower).  (full Strava splits here).

Miles 7-10 is steady, downhill with no rollers.  I feel pretty good on this stretch.  I’m not working hard and the pace is dropping.  Not much to report here.  One interesting thing.  Around 8 miles a guy passes me.  We run together maybe 30 seconds before he moves on.  Anyway, I ask him about his goal and he says sub-3:00.  I think, either he is going to blow up big time, or he’s a heckuva lot faster than 3:00.  Turns out he ran a 2:46.  Miles 6-10:  6:07, 6:17, 6:15 and 6:19.  At this point I’m well under MM pace (6:27), but I know there are some hills coming up, and expect to warm up a bit.

The next two miles are a climb to the biosphere in an out and back section.  I intend to calculate my position as I watch runners come back to me, but my concentration just isn’t there and I lose track.  The net climb is only around 80 feet, but it rolls a bit along the way.  I’m glad to finally make it to the turnaround with splits of 6:42 and 6:47 for 11 and 12.  Coming back down I run 6:27 and 6:19 for miles 13 and 14.  1:24:27 official HM split, so right on track for sub-2:49 after giving back some time up to the biosphere.

Back on route 77 I’m hoping to regain my previous rhythm, but I feel like I’m working just a hair harder now to maintain the same paces.  My legs are also starting to feel a little heavy.  Around mile 14 a guy blows by me, but I notice a baton in his hand – relay runner.  I pass him back a couple miles later and never see him again.  Miles 15-19 – 6:19, 6:21, 6:17, 6:18, 6:26.

After the 6:26 at mile 19 I knew the MM was off even though I only need maybe 6:30 pace to the end.  I didn’t have it anymore.  I just wanted to hold on at this point and avoid a big blowup.  So I eased up a bit.  Mile 20 and 21 are 6:38 and 6:41.  Then it really started to get tough, especially as it is getting warmer.  I really want it to be over at this point.  It is getting fairly uncomfortable but I still manage to run – miles 22-24 are 7:04, 6:55 and 6:55.  At mile 25 we encounter some hills and I continue to struggle.  Towards the end of the mile I give in and walk for maybe 45 seconds.  7:55 for mile 25.

During the latter miles we are mixed in with the slower HM runners who started at the halfway point at the same time as the marathoners.  There are not that many of them, and it is not too bad, but hard to know who ahead of me is in which race (although I am fairly sure no woman is ahead of me so that rules out many of the runners).  I see a guy in a yellow singlet maybe a quarter mile ahead, and he is struggling.  I’m pretty sure he is a marathoner and I’m slowly gaining on him.  I don’t want to get into a finish line battle with this guy but I keep gaining on him.  Finally, about a tenth of a mile out I’m right at him and decide I have to pass him strong so I kick it up and pass him.  I’m halfway to the finish and I start to feel my quad locking up.  I slightly adjust my gait and keep pushing and it holds out until I cross the line in 2:53:07.  I’m ahead of the yellow singlet guy by 3 seconds in the final results.  In a way, the quad nearly locking up validates my earlier decision to pull back a bit.

Overall, I’m happy with the result.  Of course, I wonder if I did more downhill training, or if I held back just a little more in the early miles if I could have made the MM.  I’ll never know of course, but I think I gave it a good shot.  My next marathon will be Boston in 2019 so maybe I’ll give it a try there (and I’ll have another minute!)