MARINE CORPS MARATHON (race report):

The MCM course is tricky. It's hilly (up and down) for about the first 9.5 miles and then almost totally flat until the very end, where there's a rude little finishing hill. The obvious strategy for running such a course is to conserve energy during the early hills, then pick up your pace for miles 10-20 and hold on as best you can for the final 10k, the beginning of which is marked by a long bridge over the Potomac known to me most unaffectionately as The Bridge of Horror. But I have never succeeded at deploying this strategy successfully in my now three attempts, because the hills at the beginning take too much out of me and prevent me from establishing a rhythm. Perhaps one simply must run a more significant negative split on this course than I have attempted? This time I aimed to run an even or only slightly negative split and to finish in under 3 hours. I went through the half in 1:30:14 pretty much on track. Up to that point the weather had not been a factor. It was cloudy, about 60 degrees, and windy from the approach of hurricane Sandy, which didn't really set in on the area for another 24 hours or so. But just after halfway, we rounded a bend and were hit with a steady 15-20 mph headwind. We ran straight into the wind for about 2.5 miles, then were blown around by crosswinds for about 3 miles as we circled the exposed National Mall. Mercifully, the wind wasn't too bad on The Bridge of Horror, but shortly afterwards we turned straight into the wind again for the final 3 miles. The windy second half made the course considerably slower than it otherwise would have been for everyone running this year. But the wind turned out not to be my biggest problem. Shortly after halfway, literally within a minute of rounding that bend and hitting the headwind for the first time, I had a sudden and sharp GI pain after eating a gel (my second of the race) and drinking some water. The pain was low down on my left side and was bad enough that I immediately slowed way down and struggled to continue running at all. It's difficult to tell with hindsight how long it lasted. It was probably a sharp pain for 1-2 minutes and then weakened to a duller pain for about the time it took me to run a mile or so. It was gone after less than 10 minutes, but by then I was broken. Over the next few miles, I tried initially to speed up again, then realized that was impossible to sustain, and finally resigned myself to gritting out the rest of the race at a much slower pace. At least I never walked, but I did stop briefly at a water stop the next time I ate a gel in order to make sure that everything went down ok (it did). After averaging 6:53/mi. over the first half, I ran the second half at an average 7:47/mi., finishing in 3:12:17. Here are my 5k splits:


5k 21:39 = 6:58 pace
10k 42:38 (20:59) = 6:45 pace
15k 1:04:04 (21:26) = 6:54 pace
20k 1:25:33 (21:29) = 6:55 pace
25k 1:48:04 (22:31) = 7:15 pace
30k 2:12:09 (24:05) = 7:45 pace
35k 2:35:57 (23:48) = 7:40 pace
40k 3:01:02 (25:05) = 8:04 pace

So this was a disappointing race for me. I was slowed down by two factors outside my control on race day: GI trouble and wind. I suspect that the GI problem may have been caused by something I ate in the day or two before the race, given how low it was - perhaps too many vegetables? In any case, because of those two factors, the race became more a test of grit than of my marathon training and fitness, and it's impossible to know how close I might have come to my goal had the stars aligned differently. But that's the marathon, isn't it? Not having run one in a year, I had forgotten how much sheer grit is involved in the second half. Oddly, that may be what makes me keep coming back to the marathon: that it's so complex and unpredictable. It has almost as much in common with mountain climbing as with running a 10k. I'm not sure that I can wait another year before doing one again.

MARATHON TRAINING SUMMARY

On June 3, I posted the following about my marathon training plan:

"Main goal: to finish in less than 3 hours. (A more specific goal time is TBD later)

Main strategies: 1) Run more, progressing toward around 80 miles per week.

                        2) Emphasize tempo runs and long runs incorporating tempo-pace running.

                        3) Race less: only 3 tune-up races in late Summer and Fall.

Phases: 1) 10 weeks increasing mileage to around 80 miles per week (June 3 - August 11).

            2) 8 weeks emphasizing long tempo workouts (August 12 - October 6).

            3) 3 week taper (October 7 - October 27)."

I go on to say that in accordance with strategy 2) I'll follow the key workouts in Jack Daniels' marathon training plan. I have pretty much done exactly what I planned to do, with the main exception being that I only managed to run 80 miles in a single week. Here are my weekly mileage totals for the 20 weeks prior to the marathon, beginning on June 10, with some notes about how much non-easy pace running I did each week:

Week 20: 60 miles (including 4 miles at tempo pace)

Week 19: 63 miles (including a 4 mile race)

Week 18: 65 miles (including 3.25 miles at tempo pace and a 5k race)

Week 17: 45 miles (all easy)

Week 16: 68 miles (including 3 miles at tempo and 2.25 miles at 5k paces, and lots of hills)

Week 15: 63 miles (including 3 miles at 5k pace, and lots of hills)

Week 14: 72 miles (including 3 miles at 5k and 4 miles at tempo paces, and lots of hills)

Week 13: 45 miles (including 1.5 miles at 5k and 5 miles at tempo paces)

Week 12: 70 miles (including 4 miles at tempo pace)

Week 11: 53 miles (including 6 miles at tempo pace)

Week 10: 70 miles (including a 20k race at marathon pace and 3 miles at tempo pace)

Week 9:   75 miles (including 5 miles at tempo pace)

Week 8:   75 miles (including 4 miles at tempo pace)

Week 7:   40 miles (including 4 miles at tempo pace)

Week 6:   60 miles (including a half-marathon race)

Week 5:   80 miles (including 10 miles at tempo pace)

Week 4:   76 miles (including 3 miles at tempo pace)

Week 3:   40 miles (including a 16.3 mile metric-marathon race at marathon pace)

Week 2:   52 miles (including 8 miles at tempo pace)

Week 1:   41 miles (planned, with 3 miles at tempo pace)

Avg. last 20 weeks: 60.65 miles

Avg. last 16 weeks: 61.25 miles

I started shifting my training toward a marathon focus around 20 weeks out but didn't fully get going until 16 weeks out, once I put a couple more short races behind me. So I include averages for both 20 and 16 weeks. For pretty much this entire period, my 5k training pace has been between 5:45-6:00/mi., my tempo pace has been around 6:20/mi., and my marathon training pace has been around 6:45/mi. I've done most of my easy and long runs in the range of 7:30-8:00/mi.

By August 11, which is the end of week 12 and the date by which I hoped to reach 80 miles, I had reached 72 miles instead. That isn't far off, but it took 7 more weeks to get up to 80 miles, since my workouts became more difficult after August 11 (due to the introduction of long tempos) and it's difficult to increase both mileage and intensity at the same time. As I said in my original post, 80 miles was just a number and I didn't want to fixate on it. Despite slightly lower volume than planned, I still averaged about 10 miles per week more than before my last marathon a year ago, which is a substantial increase. More may have been too much anyway.

Another thing that stands out from this summary are the down-weeks I took about every 3 weeks, as planned. Next time around I might not do that and might instead try to reach a more or less stable high mileage before starting in on the long tempo workouts. But this time around I think it was appropriate, since both those workouts and the higher mileage were new to me, and my body probably needed regular recovery weeks. Next time I may also want to throw in a little bit of running faster than tempo pace even after 12 weeks, though perhaps not as often as weekly, for two reasons. First, it'll help with stride mechanics and efficiency. Second, that's the only way to race a half-marathon around tempo pace. As I learned in the Navy Air-Force Half about a month ago, it's just not possible to run very far at that pace unless I've been doing at least some training at a faster pace. So I'll either need to do only M-pace tune-up races in the lead up to my next marathon, or I'll need to add some regular training at 5k pace or faster.

In general, though, I think this has been a fantastic training cycle for me, however the marathon race itself ends up going. Before this past June, I had never done regular tempo runs, and the last few months have begun to remedy that serious deficiency. I'm not much, if any, faster than I was last Spring, since I haven't focussed on speed. But the longer tempo workouts have increased my strength/endurance substantially, as my tune-up races have shown (especially the metric marathon a couple weeks ago). Whether my weekly volume and long runs have been enough to enable me to sustain that pace through 26.2 miles remains to be seen, but I couldn't dream of even attempting that last Spring. As I said, there are a couple things I might tweak next time around, and after the race I might think of a couple more things. But, in general, I think this is the first time that I've managed to do the right kind of training for a marathon (on my fifth attempt). We'll see how it goes.

WEEKLY SUMMARY (October 14-20): 52 miles (84.6% at E and 15.4% at T paces)

  Sunday: 6 miles at 7:31/mi.

  Monday: 2E, 2 x 2 miles T @ 6:19/mi. (3 min.), 4E (10 miles total)

  Tuesday: 6 miles at 7:38/mi.

  Wednesday: 8 miles at 7:38/mi.

  Thursday: 6E, 2T @ 6:18/mi., 4E, 2T @ 6:18/mi., 2E (16 miles total)

  Friday: off

  Saturday: 6 miles at 7:32/mi.

This week went to plan, except that I took Friday off in order to feel more rested. The mild cold that worried me towards the end of last week was gone by the beginning of this week. Another cold scare worried me at the end of this week, but as I write this (on Sunday) it seems to have passed as well. I felt pretty strong all week and let myself glide a tad faster on my shorter, easy runs. But I intend to reign that in next week. Thursday's run was my last significant effort 10 days out from the marathon. I didn't feel great from the beginning but had no trouble with the tempo segments. By the second one, I was feeling low on energy but stuck it out without eating a gel, at least not until my cool down. Afterwards I wasn't more tired than I'd expect but figured that I should rest up more than usual because of the taper, so I took Friday off and did a short easy run on Saturday. For next week, I've decided that I can't think of a better schedule than Daniels', who gives a daily schedule for the final week before the marathon, whereas every other week on his schedule specifies only the two key workouts and leaves it to you to fill in the remaining days. So here's the plan for October 21-28:

Sunday: 12 miles easy

Monday: 8 easy

Tuesday: 2E, 4 x 3/4 miles T (2 min.), 2E (7 miles total)

Wednesday: 6 easy

Thursday: 4 easy

Friday: off

Saturday: 4 easy

Sunday: marathon

That'll be 41 miles for the final seven days before the marathon. I probably won't write an additional post about next week, except perhaps if I diverge from this plan significantly. Since the weather forecast is predicting warmth and sun this coming week, which may extend to race day on Sunday, I ran yesterday (Saturday) in the early afternoon and will do the same today (Sunday) in order to re-acclimate to bright sun and what warmth there is now. I'll switch back to morning runs at some point during this coming week, though, since running in the middle of the day is not always possible for me on weekdays. The rest of my plan for next week is basically to sleep and eat well, and to try not to let myself get stressed out about anything, especially towards the end of the week. My mind is turning now to the details of the race itself, and how my training over the past few months may have prepared me for it, which I'll discuss in a separate post.

WEEKLY SUMMARY (October 7-13): 40 miles (60% at E and 40% at M paces)

  Sunday: 1 mile warm up, then metric marathon race (see below)

  Monday: off

  Tuesday: 4 miles at 8:05/mi.

  Wednesday: 6 miles at 7:51/mi.

  Thursday: 6 miles at 7:45/mi.

  Friday: off

  Saturday: 7 miles at 7:46/mi.

This week was, as planned, very easy after the marathon-pace tune-up on Sunday. I was pretty sore afterwards and couldn't motivate myself to get out and run in the (relative) cold the next day. I was surprised by how tired and weak I was two days later. By Wednesday I started feeling marginally better, but on Thursday I felt weak again and realized that I was fighting off a cold. So I took Friday off and tried to get as much sleep as possible. I feel ok on Saturday but am still fighting off the cold. My plan for next week depends on how much of a grip this cold gets on me. I'd like to run about 60 miles, with a light tempo workout on Monday and a medium one (my last significant workout of any kind before the marathon) on Thursday. I need to push myself at least some to feel sharp before backing off again the following week. But my first priority right now is making sure that I don't end up with a prolonged cold. So I'm prepared to postpone or modify those workouts, and to lower the overall volume for the week, if necessary. 

ANNAPOLIS STRIDERS METRIC MARATHON (race report):

This was my first time running this 26.2k or 16.3 mile course in Harwood, MD, whose terrain is similar to the Capital Ale House 10-miler in (coincidentally) Hartwood, VA, which I did last year. The race is three weeks before the Marine Corps Marathon, so many and perhaps most people running it were, like me, tuning up for the MCM. The course has beautiful, rural scenery and rolling hills throughout, which become a bit steeper from around 11 miles and include a moderately long but not especially steep uphill from the end of mile 13 into mile 14. The weather wasn't too bad: low 50's and no wind to speak of, though it did start raining lightly when I was around halfway and picked up from there but never rained hard. The race went well for me: my goal was to run marathon pace and I succeeded. My finishing time of 1:49:15 corresponds to a 6:43/mi. pace, but my Garmin put my average pace at 6:46/mi. So either the course was a bit short, or the clouds messed up my Garmin a little. Either way, that's about what I had been thinking my marathon pace should be before my discouraging half-marathon a few weeks ago, after which I scaled back my hopes to the high-6:40's or 6:50. It's encouraging that I felt comfortable running at that pace today on terrain that's more difficult than the MCM course. I started feeling tired around mile 12 when the course got hillier, but I didn't slow down and I think that it was the hills (and the rain) rather than the distance that started wearing on me. I recovered well enough to run the mostly flat mile 16 in 6:29, so clearly I wasn't spent at the finish. Somehow my back, which had been tight for a couple days, didn't bother me during the race at all. So I'm feeling confident going into my taper now and will probably keep the rest of this week easy with whatever mileage feels comfortable.

WEEKLY SUMMARY (September 30 - October 6): 76 miles (96% at E/L and 4% at T paces)

  Sunday: 22 miles at 7:39/mi.

  Monday AM: 4 miles pushing a stroller very slowly (no watch)

               PM: 6 miles at 7:36/mi.

  Tuesday: 9 miles at 7:50/mi. on a treadmill

  Wednesday: 6E, 2T at 6:19/mi. (2 min.), 1T at 6:20/mi., 3E (12 miles total)

  Thursday: 9 miles at 7:55/mi.

  Friday: 10 miles at 7:38/mi.

  Saturday: 4 miles at 7:57/mi.

This final pre-taper week went pretty much to plan. For Sunday's long run I had beautiful, cool, dry weather. Instead of trying to run faster, I focussed on getting my body to metabolize fat better by taking in very little sugar before and during the run. I ran the first half conservatively, averaging 7:48/mi. at halfway, then ate my only gel of the run and started progressively picking up the pace. Soon I realized that I'd have to chose between a) eating another gel and getting down to marathon pace for the final 2-3 miles, or b) not eating another gel, getting down only to MP + 30 seconds or so and then probably bonking a little near the end. I chose b) and did indeed bonk a little, but not so much that I couldn't keep the pace in the 7:20's at the end. That was the first time the weather has allowed me to do a low-fuel long run this season, and I'm very glad to have gotten it in. The weather turned first rainy and then just muggy from Tuesday through Thursday, which caused me to cut back my second quality workout of the week on Wednesday a little. The problem was humidity rather than the tightness in my back and hamstring that I was worried about last week, but by Friday that tightness had come back and I still haven't shaken it. That plus the weather forecast have me a bit worried about tomorrow morning's (Sunday's) metric marathon. A cold front blew over us this afternoon and is supposed to bring rain and much cooler air (upper 40's) by tomorrow morning. If it's windy and rainy, then much cooler air than we're used to could cause already tight muscles to stiffen up further. We'll see how it goes. My plan is to run marathon pace: high 6:40's or 6:50 average. If the weather slows me down, then I'll try to put in that kind of steady effort anyway. It'll be my last hard and sustained effort before the marathon. I have no particular plan for next week except to start resting up, lowering weekly mileage, and shortening workouts. For starters, I'll probably do only a very easy run on Monday and then take Tuesday off.