NEIGH

I like to think I take my recovery very seriously – maybe even too seriously. I feel like I’ve lost a lot of fitness since Grandma’s. The week after the race I ran just once. Then the following week was spent in Canmore/Banff, Canada with my wife where we celebrated 25 years of married with about 30 miles of hiking. I managed 30 miles the week after that and even set out a 6-week plan to focus on speed before embarking on another marathon training cycle. I managed a hill workout and 2 track workouts of 400s before changing my mind.

I settled on doing 400s after listening to a podcast that suggested running 400s at 5K pace, but rather than focusing on eventually running them faster, the focus should be on running the recovery 400s faster. For example, when you first start, you’d run something like 12 x 400 @ 5K pace w/ 400 jog @ easy run pace. Eventually your recovery is done at MP, then HMP, then tempo – all while keeping the 400s @ 5K pace. Then you would extend the 400s to 500 or 600s – again at 5K pace, while adjusting your  recovery pace accordingly. One other suggestion is that you can chunk the 12 reps into sets anyway you like, 3 x 4, 4 x 3, 2 x 6, etc.

It all sounded great on my headphones and looked doable on paper, but I was only able to manage 2 x 4 reps both times. And, while I thought I was running my 5K pace, it just felt too fast – like I wouldn’t be able to hold that pace for 20 minutes. “Luckily” after the second workout my hamstring was sore, so I pulled the plug on my 6-week plan. Quite honestly, I pulled the plug because I don’t really enjoy that type of training. Instead, I’m going back to the 8020 Endurance plan that I used for Grandma’s. I liked the variety of workouts in that plan and the ability to just run by feel, rather than trying to hit splits over and over on a track.

Maybe I’ll get back to the track in the future when I have a summer of shorter road races planned. For now, I’m back on the marathon horse. The start of this week puts me 18 weeks away from California International Marathon.  I’ve never run a marathon later than mid-October, so I’m excited to be able to do most of my training during the fall. I just have to get through August first.

Quote of the day;

“Every part of the journey is of importance to the whole.” – Saint Teresa of Avila

GRANDMA'S MARATHON RACE REPORT

The short version of my Grandma’s Marathon report is that I ran 3:21:21 and qualified for the Boston Marathon.

The long version is that I have mixed emotions regarding this race. If you had told me my finish time a year ago, after running 3:48, I’d have been pretty ecstatic. But after putting in a ton of work and seeing lots of progress, I honestly thought 3:20 would be rather “easy” – at least as far as marathons go. Yeah, I get it, the difference between 3:20 and 3:21:21 is rather small in the grand scheme of things, but it’s not zero. If my BQ had been 3:20 this would have been a huge let down. On the other hand, if I rank my marathons based on age-grading, this is slightly my best marathon ever. Of course, I have to take that with a grain of salt due to all the advances in shoe technology in recent years.

Just based on effort and overall feel, this was my best marathon since June 2014. I ran 3:27 in 2016, dropped out of TCM in 2017, then focused on ultras through 2019, and then we had covid, followed by the aforementioned result last year.

Here are some observations – they are not excuses;

1) The entire week leading up to the race my stomach did not feel well. I went to a graduation party, so maybe I ate something there that didn’t agree with me. In any case, my stomach was rolling. Monday – Wednesday were the worst, with Thursday – Saturday being slightly better.

2) Wednesday night I went to a concert where I had to stand for 3 hours. I knew this going in and really contemplated buying a ticket. But I really wanted to see Tyler Childers, so I pulled the trigger. I don’t regret it.

3) During the race I was relying on the Average Pace feature of my watch and monitoring for 7:38 for 3:20 pace. However, I didn’t account for having to run further than 26.2 due to not being able to run the exact shortest route possible. Even with running the tangents to the best of my ability, I ended up running 26.40 miles. My watch said I ran 7:37 pace – and that I even had a new marathon PR of 3:19:37. But running the extra .20 was equal to about 4 seconds per mile.

4) Typically, pacing is a strength of mine. I think it still is, but I also think that some of that skill deteriorated while I was running trails. I bring this up because my first 10K was at 7:26 pace, then I slowed to 7:44 pace through the half, before dropping down to 7:38 pace until mile 20. The last 10K were at 7:58 pace. Normally, I wouldn’t slow down and then speed up.

5) One more comment on pacing is that I probably could have benefited from running 5-10 seconds per mile slower in that first 10K. One “problem” was I was just trying to run by feel, so I wasn’t checking my splits at every mile. I saw 7:35 at mile 1 and thought that was perfect, but then didn’t notice miles 2 and 3 where 7:23 and 7:19. This is all pretty minor though because I hit 10 miles right at 7:30 pace. Plus, a friend in my age group, who I beat by 13 seconds in my last 5K, went out at 7:20 pace and was able to hang on for a sub-3:17 – right where I wanted to be.

6) My plan was to make a concerted effort to run a strong last 10K. That started well with splits of 7:30 and 7:38 for miles 21 and 22. Lemon Drop hill is during mile 23, so even that 7:53 wasn’t too bad. After that hill there are some nice gradual downhill sections, but I just didn’t take advantage of them because my quads were fried. I ended up running, 7:55, 7:48 and 7:57 for the last 3 miles. There had to been nearly 1-minute slipping away just in those 3 miles.

While there’s some disappointment, I know it’s minor. Overall, I’m happy with these results, but I also feel like there’s a lot more to come.

Quote of the day;

“Trial often exhibits truly wonderful results.” – Chinese Proverb

STAYING FLEXIBLE

As of today, I’m 13 days from Grandma’s and feeling fit and confident. I’m probably over-analyzing the numbers, but I still feel very good about going after 7:30 pace, which is right around 3:17. Of course, if that feels too quick on June 17^th and 7:40 pace feels better, that’ll still get me in at 3:20-3:21, which was my original ‘A’ goal when I started this training cycle. 

A few notes on my recent training;

I jumped in a 5K race on Memorial Day and was very pleased to run 20:21. I never thought I’d sniff sub-20 again and this race left me feeling like that’s possible.

It feels like there was a flick of a switch and we went from nice spring weather to rather hot and humid. One thing I’ve always felt is that poor weather conditions are less of a concern the fitter you are. But still, I’ve been doing some of my training in the middle of the day to get used to the heat.

Last Saturday my schedule called for my last long run, a 19-mile tune-up with 16 miles at MP. That seemed very aggressive to me considering that I was only 2 weeks out from my race. I looked back at Scott Fauble’s training, and he did a similar workout, but it was 4 weeks before his race. Then 2 weeks later he ran 8 miles at MP. With this in mind I went into the workout with the main goal of getting in some solid work at marathon pace but being flexible – especially since it was the most humid day we’ve had so far. I ended up with 14 miles total, including 6 miles at 7:34 pace. I feel like I could have gone further and/or faster, but I didn’t feel like I needed to. 

WEEK #15
RECAP OF WEEK 5/21 – 5/27

Sunday – 4 easy miles
Monday – AM: Strength, NOON: 8-mile structured fartlek ladder 1/2/3/2/1/2/3/2/1:00 ‘on’ w/ 1:00 ‘off’ [1s at ~6:20, 2s at ~7:15, 3s at ~7:45]
Tuesday – 6.5 miles
Wednesday – 7.5 miles
Thursday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout, Noon: 7 miles, including 5 x 2:00 hills w/ 3:00 jog
Friday – 7 miles on trails w/ Pat
Saturday – 16 miles
Summary: 59 miles and 2 strength sessions

 

WEEK #16
RECAP OF WEEK 5/28 – 6/3

Sunday – Day off
Monday – 8 miles total, including the Brian Kraft 5K in 20:21 (6:27, 6:30, 6:35)
Tuesday – 5 easy miles
Wednesday – AM: Strength, PM: 6 miles
Thursday – 7 miles, including 3 x (10 x :30 w/ :15 jog)
Friday – 6 miles on trails w/ Pat and Scott
Saturday – 14 miles (1 mile easy, 6 miles moderate ~8:10 pace and 6 miles at MP, ~7:34 pace, 1 mile easy
Summary: 46 miles and 1 strength session

Quote of the day;

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

A POSSIBILITY

I’m currently 3.5 weeks out from Grandma’s and the roller coaster continues. After the 22 miler that I mentioned in my last post, I only did 1 workout the following week. I even cut that a little short by cutting out the last 4 minutes of CV work. Then on the following Saturday I was signed up for a 15K race. Being a little conservative, as well as wanting to prepare for race day, I decided to run this at marathon pace. I figured I’d go out in 7:40 pace and make it feel as comfortable as possible. This race ended up being way smaller than I thought it’d be and after the start I found myself with the first two women. We were running 7:30 pace, so I just went with that. The only problem was that it felt much faster than marathon effort. It’s hard to imagine running 7:40 pace for 26.2 miles when 7:30 pace feels hard for 9.3 miles. 

However, weeks 13 and 14 have me thinking that 7:30 pace is possible. Week 13 included 2 solid workouts, plus 20 miles that included half at marathon effort. That long run included hills and wind, so I wasn’t too concerned when my splits were anywhere from 7:38 to 8:26.

I think the real confidence boost came 3 days later when I was scheduled to run 10 miles, including 6 at 10K pace + 5%. As my friend Evan pointed out on Strava, “Isn’t that basically HMP?” Yes, that’s what it turned out to be. While I like these types of workouts, I often stress about hitting my splits. The goal for this workout was 7:05 – 7:15 pace. This scared me a little because 4 weeks ago I ran a 6-mile steady-state run at 7:30 pace, which felt hard but doable. Anyway, I decided to “just run” and not check my splits. Once I finished, I was pleasantly surprised to see; 7:15, 6:59, 7:00, 6:57, 6:59, 7:14 for a 7:04 average. It really did feel like I could hold that pace for a half marathon in a race situation.

All of this has me thinking that 3:17 or 7:30 pace is at least a possibility. I’m trying to wrap my brain around that, so that if I find myself running that fast at Grandma’s, I won’t freak out.

WEEK #12

RECAP OF WEEK 4/30 – 5/6

Sunday – 22 miles w/ Derek
Monday – AM: Strength
Tuesday – 6 miles w/ Nordica
Wednesday – 7-mile progression run (:16 at steady-state, :08 at LT – skipped :04 at CV)
Thursday – AM: Strength, Noon: 6 miles
Friday – 7 miles on trails w/ Scott and Pat
Saturday – 14 miles total – Rochester 15K

Summary: 62 miles and 2 strength sessions

 

WEEK #13

RECAP OF WEEK 5/7 – 5/13

Sunday – 4 easy miles
Monday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout, NOON: 8 miles including 4 x (3:00 @ HMP, 4:00 @ 10K pace, 2:00 easy)
Tuesday – 6 easy miles
Wednesday – 8 miles
Thursday – AM: 7 miles, Descending Intervals at Max Aerobic Speed; PM: 3-mile shakeout
Friday – 6 miles on trails w/ Pat and Scott
Saturday – 20 miles (10 miles easy, 10 miles at marathon effort)

Summary: 65 miles and 1 strength session
 

WEEK #14

RECAP OF WEEK 5/14 – 5/20

Sunday – Day Off
Monday – AM: Strength + 4-mile shakeout, NOON: 6 miles
Tuesday – 10 miles, including 6 at HMP.
Wednesday – 4 miles
Thursday – AM: Strength – skipped run/workout due to track meet
Friday – 9 miles on trails w/ Pat
Saturday – 12 miles, including 2 x 3M at HMP w/ 1:00 jog

Summary: 45 miles of running and 2 strength sessions

 

Quote of the day;

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still.” – Chinese Proverb

GOLDILOCKS

What do we do when things are going well and we’re “motivated and ready for more”? We keep pushing to find out where “the line” is. “The line” being that hard-to-define limit between ‘just right’ and ‘too much’. I’m not sure if I’ve crossed it, but I feel like I’m getting close.

I had a very hard session on April 24^th – I lifted in the morning, followed by a 3-mile shakeout. Then at noon I ran 10 miles that included 7 x 4:00 at CV w/ 2:00 rest. I remember looking forward to that workout because I have a nice 10-mile loop that I haven’t run in a while. The workout went well, and the rest of the week was supposed to be high volume. However, I ended up skipping my Thursday workout and even took a day off on Saturday (that was mainly due to being on my feet at a track meet all day – and having a long run planned for Sunday).

Sunday’s run was the longest of the program, 22 miles. I ended up running with my buddy Derek who’s a little bit faster than me. I also ran my last 20 miler with him and that felt good, so I didn’t hesitate to run with him again – especially since it was 40 degrees with 25 mph winds, and no one what’s to run solo in those conditions. I remember getting to mile 12 and already being rather tired. At 16 I reminded myself that I only had a 10K left. We did finish the run and energy-wise I felt okay, I just didn’t have a lot of pop in my legs.

Since then, I’ve been focusing on recovery while trying to get in some harder work. All while reminding myself of what Alexi Pappas’s coach told her about the Rule of Thirds; if you’re training for a big goal, 1/3 of your workouts should be awesome, 1/3 should be so-so and 1/3 should be bad. If they’re all awesome, you’re not pushing hard enough. If they’re all bad, you’re pushing too hard. I’ve also been thinking about Scott Fauble’s training in Inside a Marathon and how exhausted he says he is in the middle of his marathon cycle. Granted, he’s a professional runner, but I should feel some residual tiredness after a 22-mile run.

 

WEEK #10

RECAP OF WEEK 4/16 – 4/22

Sunday – Day off
Monday – AM: Strength, NOON: 7 miles
Tuesday – 10 miles w/ 6 miles at 7:30 steady-state pace
Wednesday – 5 miles
Thursday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout, PM: 5 miles including 8 hill repeats w/ trac team
Friday – 7 miles on trails w/ Scott
Saturday – 14-mile depletion run w/ Nordica (no calories before or during)
Summary: 51 miles and 2 strength sessions

 

WEEK #11

RECAP OF WEEK 4/23 – 4/29

Sunday – 4 easy miles
Monday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout, NOON: 10 miles including 7 x 4:00 @ CV w/ 2:00 jog
Tuesday – 6 easy miles
Wednesday – 7 miles
Thursday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout
Friday – 6 miles on trails w/ Pat
Saturday – Day Off
Summary: 39 miles of running and 2 strength training

Quote of the day;

“All the preparation you’ve done will finally be paying off!” - from a fortune cookie a received recently

  

CONFIDENT MOTIVATION

I’m trying to determine which is a harder concept to define/capture; confidence or motivation. In my last post I mentioned gaining confidence and fitness. It’s true, I have been gaining confidence, but it seems like such a slippery concept. If I build my weekly mileage for weeks on end and include a couple workouts each week, my confidence will build over that timeframe. However, miss one workout or catch a slight cold and confidence starts to slip. Meanwhile, motivation can be just as elusive. This really occurred to me last weekend when it I entered a 25K race with the intention of running 5K easy, then 20K at MP. It was typical April weather in Minnesota, meaning, 40 degrees and light rain. I thought nothing of the weather and went out and executed my plan. Where motivation comes in is when I compare this to a low-key 4-mile race last 4^th of July. After getting my packet I went to my car where it started raining – keep in mind it was probably 75 degrees. After sitting there for a few minutes, I talked myself out of racing, started my car and went home. The point is, motivation was definitely lacking in July, but it’s currently very high.

Looking at a recap of week #8 below, you’ll see a lot of easy days after my 10-mile race. My friend Evan and I have debated this over the years. He adheres to the rule of no workouts after a race for the number of days equal to the number of miles raced. Therefore, a 10-mile race would be followed by 10 days without a hard workout. My rule is slightly more lenient. No workouts after a race for the number of days equal to half the number of kilometers raced. Therefore, 10 miles equals 16K divided by 2 equals 8 days without a hard workout.

I think both formulas work. The key being that you take time after a race to really recover. Honestly, that can be very hard to do when you’re in the middle of a training cycle and just coming off a great race. The first instinct is to get back out there and keep working hard – especially when your pre-set plan doesn’t know you raced, and it already has workouts slotted for the following week. It takes discipline to skip those workouts and just run easy.

Here's a little bit about the Ron Daws 25K. If you’re not familiar with Daws, he was a 1968 Olympian in the marathon. He wrote a couple of classic books; Self-made Olympian and Running Your Best. He was from Minnesota and the claim is that he used to train on this 25K route as preparation for Boston. It’s a multi-loop course that includes two rather significant hills. One you go up 4 times and the twice on the other one. The main reason I bring this up is that it’s difficult to get consistent splits on this course. My 20K at MP ended up being anywhere from 7:35 – 8:13 per mile. In the end, I averaged 7:48 pace or roughly 3:24 for the marathon. While I think I can run faster than that, it was a very good test run after -back-to-back high mileage weeks. Also, after checking splits on the first couple of miles, I just ran by feel and was pleasantly pleased with the results.

That means I’m halfway through this training cycle and still feeling confident, motivated and ready for more.

 

WEEK #8

RECAP OF WEEK 4/2 – 4/8

Sunday – 13 miles, including Goldy’s 10-mile race in 1:10:59

Monday – AM: Strength, PM: 4 easy miles

Tuesday – 4 easy miles

Wednesday – 6 miles

Thursday – 5 miles

Friday – 7 miles w/ 12 x :20 strides

Saturday – 20-mile-long run w/ Derek

Summary: 59 miles and 1 strength training

 

WEEK #9

RECAP OF WEEK 4/9 – 4/15

Sunday – 4 easy miles

Monday – AM: Strength, NOON: 7.5-mile Structured Fartlek, PM: 3-mile shakeout during track practice

Tuesday – 6-mile foundations run

Wednesday – 6.5-mile foundations run

Thursday – AM: Strength + 3-mile shakeout, NOON: 6 miles, including 8 x 1:00 HILLS w/ 2:00 jog

Friday – 7-mile foundations run w/ Scott

Saturday – 17 miles total, including Ron Daws 25K (5K easy at 8:40 pace, 20K at MP ~7:48 pace)

Summary: 60 miles of running and 2 strength training

 

Quote of the day;

“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” – Jane Austen

MAKING PROGRESS

 An 18-week marathon program sure seems like a long time. But then I blinked, and I was already done with 6 weeks of the training. At the start of this 80/20 program, I was a little concerned with having 2 workouts per week, plus long runs. But, as of right now, I’m really happy with how the program is going. I basically hit all of the workouts in the first 6 weeks (except for one workout in week #5). There is a lot of variety, and I don’t feel like I’m doing the same workouts over and over. And, best of all, I’m seeing results. Despite all the shitty weather, and running by feel due to snow and ice, I’m feeling much more fit and I’m gaining confidence. What more do you want from a program?!

At the end of week #6 I pushed my long run from Saturday to Sunday because I was at an indoor track meet Saturday morning. This worked well too because I had a 10-mile race planned the following Sunday. The Monday of week #7 I was thrown my first curve ball as I woke up not feeling well. The only thing that comes to mind is that I ate some homemade sprouts that had been in the fridge for over a week. No big deal, I took the day off – my first unscheduled day off this cycle – and then bounced back with a great workout on Tuesday. I skipped my second workout of the week – substituting in some strides instead. Mainly, I didn’t want 2 hard workouts and a race all in one week.

I was a little concerned about Sunday’s race because we received another 10” of snow Friday night and into Saturday morning. Luckily it was enough time to clear the snow and let the sun dry out the pavement. The course ended up having some slippery spots, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Sidenote: we are now up to the 3^rd snowiest winter in Twin Cities history. Yay us!

I’m happy to report that the race went very well. I started this recent journey with a Thanksgiving 8K at 7:12 pace. I was able to manage 7:10 pace for 10 miles last Sunday. That’s according to my watch. The official results had me one second under 1:11, which is 7:06 pace. If you believe all the pace charts out there, that means my marathon fitness level has gone from 3:30 to 3:20. I’m really pleased with that progress. I initially set my “B” goal as 3:25, which is my BQ, and my “A” goal as 3:20. To have race results in early April that point towards my “A” is quite reassuring.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’m in 3:20 shape quite yet. The pace calculator that I’m using says I’m in about 1:36 half marathon shape. If I double that to 3:12, I only have to add 8 minutes to get to 3:20. Looking back at my race history leading up to marathons, my results are typically an additional 12 minutes more than double my half marathon times. That means I’m in more like 3:24 shape. In any case, I still have 10+ weeks of training left to keep improving.  

Back when I was training a lot and racing more frequently, it seemed like my fitness never changed. I could always predict my race times within a couple of seconds – marathons within a minute or two. Race fitness was one of those things I took for granted, until I didn’t have it.

This time around, starting the process out of shape, it’s been really fun to feel myself improving and see my race times getting faster.

WEEK #4

RECAP OF WEEK 3/5 – 3/11

Sunday – 4 miles

Monday – AM: Strength + 2.5-mile shakeout, NOON: 8.5 miles, including 6 x 4:00 @ CV

Tuesday – 6-mile foundations run

Wednesday – AM: Strength, NOON 7-mile foundations run

Thursday – AM: 7.5 miles, including 3 x (10 x :30)

Friday – AM: 5.7 miles w/ Pat, PM: 2.8-mile shakeout

Saturday – 12-mile-long run, including 3 x 2 miles @ HMP – first 2 reps w/ Evan

Summary: 56 miles and 2 strength training

WEEK #5

RECAP OF WEEK 3/12 – 3/18

Sunday – 4 miles

Monday – AM: 8.5 miles, including 4 x (3:00 at Z3, 3:00 at ZY, 3:00 at Z1)

Tuesday – AM: 2-mile shakeout, PM: 3.2-mile foundations run

Wednesday – AM: Strength, NOON: 7-mile foundations run

Thursday – Feeling out of sorts, skipped main workout; PM: 3.7 miles, including 8 x 1:00 hills w/ track team

Friday – 5-mile foundations run

Saturday – 18-mile-long run w/ Scott on pack snowy trail

Summary: 55 miles and 1 strength training

 

WEEK #6

RECAP OF WEEK 3/19 – 3/25

Sunday – Scheduled day off

Monday – AM: Strength + 2.5-mile shakeout, NOON: 7-mile Progression Run (12:00 @ Tempo, 6:0) @ TH, 3:00 @ CV)

Tuesday – 5-mile foundations run

Wednesday – 7-mile foundations run w/ strides

Thursday – AM: Strength + 2.5-mile shakeout, NOON: 8 miles, including 12 x (:45 w/ 1:45 jog)

Friday – 5.2 miles foundations run w/ Scott

Saturday – 4-mile recovery run

Summary: 41.2 miles of running and 1 strength training

 

WEEK #7

RECAP OF WEEK 3/26 – 4/1

Sunday – 11-mile Fast Finish, including last 10:00 @ Z3

Monday – day off – not feeling well (sprouts?)

Tuesday – 10-mile run, including 8 x 1K @ 10K pace w/ 1:00 rest

Wednesday – 6-mile foundations run w/ PRG group

Thursday – 6.5-mile foundations run w/ Scott

Friday – 5 miles foundations run w/ 8 x :20 strides

Saturday – day off (race tomorrow + shoveled snow)

Summary: 38.5 miles of running

 

Quote of the day;

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” – Aesop