My recovery from the Foot Traffic marathon on July 4 went smoothly. We headed to Greece two and a half weeks after the marathon and stayed there for five weeks this year (a somewhat shorter trip than usual). I was able to start doing workouts and increasing mileage again basically right after we arrived in Greece, and my training went very well during those five weeks. Here's what I did since just after arriving in Greece (on July 20) until today:
July 23 – 29
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: 3 x (1, 2, 3 min.) with equal recoveries on track
We: 6 miles
Th: 12 miles
Fr: off
Sa: 6 miles
Su: 3 x (1, 2, 3 min.) with equal recoveries on track
Week total: 51 miles
July 30 – August 5
Mo: 7 miles
Tu: 6 miles
We: 5 mile tempo @ 6:35 on rolling hills
Th: 6 miles
Fr: off
Sa: 14 miles with some hills
Su: 7 miles
Week total: 50 miles
August 6 – 12
Mo: 7 miles
Tu: 6 x 800m (400m jog), 3 x 200m on track
We: 7 miles
Th: 7 miles
Fr: 12 x 1k @ 3:56 avg. (90 sec. rests)
Sa: 6 miles
Su: 7 miles
Week total: 60 miles
August 13 – 19
Mo: 16 hilly miles
Tu: 6 miles
We: 7 miles
Th: 10 x 500m @ 1:49 avg. (1 min. rests)
Fr: 7 miles
Sa: 7 miles
Su: 4 mile tempo @ 6:24, 4 x 200m on track
Week total: 65 miles
August 20 – 26
Mo: 8 miles
Tu: 8 miles
We: 18 miles @ 7:36 avg., pushing miles 13-16 into a headwind in 6:58, 50, 53, 46
Th: 8 miles
Fr: off (traveling to US)
Sa: 6 miles
Su: South Lakes 10k in 39:32
Week total: 60 miles
One of the corners I cut in my abbreviated training for Foot Traffic was I neglected to get fit first through shorter, faster workouts before switching into marathon mode. I just didn't have time, but the consequence was that everything faster than easy pace felt harder than it should. So during these five weeks I mainly focused on getting that fitness and a little speed back, though I was also able to increase my weekly mileage to actually a bit higher than it was before Foot Traffic. Now I'm fit and ready for marathon-specific training over the next eleven weeks. I already did one good long run workout this past week just before leaving Greece, but the main ones are still to come.
Today I ran the South Lakes 10k in Reston, VA, only two days after returning to the US. I knew that I'd be jet-lagged and figured I'd have a better time pushing myself in a short race than trying to do a workout on my own. Plus I ran the same race in 2015 after doing 5k-10k training all summer and wanted to see how my fitness now compares with three years ago, because two and a half months later (after taking a short break and then shifting into marathon mode) I went on to run my current PR of 2:58 at the 2015 Philadelphia Marathon. South Lakes is a hilly course, so not fast, but the weather was virtually identical in 2015 and 2018: mercifully cool for late summer (upper 60s) but still somewhat humid, though not oppressively so (dew point around 63). I ran 39:15 in 2015 and 39:32 today, which I think bodes well given how my training has differed this summer compared with three years ago.
In today's race I also tried out the Nike Vaporfly 4% for the first time. I've had a pair for months but deemed my fitness unworthy of them until now, and they're so expensive that I'd only hazard wearing them in a race. My first impression is that they're big and squishy, sort of like the original Hoka Cliftons but with a carbon fiber plate that makes them ride better at faster paces. I wore the original Cliftons as my easy run shoe in the Fall of 2015, as it happens. (I have also worn the Clifton 3, which is quite different, but no other versions). I think the light weight of the Clifton helped me increase my stride rate (which was a problem for me then) while their max cushioning enabled me to avoid injury during my best ever marathon build-up. The Vaporfly is more than an ounce lighter still (officially 6.5 oz.) than the original Clifton. Still, it's so big (i.e., the stack height) that it doesn't feel at all like a fast 10k shoe that might have a similar weight. The Vaporfly is strictly a marathon shoe. I wore it today just to test it out, but I wouldn't wear it again in a 10k or shorter race. I can see how it will save the legs in later miles of a longer race, though. The carbon-fiber plate and surrounding squish made all the ups and downs of the South Lakes course seem to involve a lot less pounding than a normal shoe would. Afterwards I changed into Adidas Supernovas for my cool down. Supernovas typically feel heavy and soft to me, but immediately after taking off the Vaporflys they (the Supernovas) felt small and hard. It was an odd sensation. Given all the hype, I expected the Vaporflys to feel like a super fast shoe, but they don't at all (at least not to me after one try). They feel like Hokas on steroids, engineered somehow to enable you to run kind of fast (MP) for a really long time with miraculously little impact stress. That may indeed enable people to run faster marathons, and maybe half marathons (I'll test that out in two weeks). But it's not a fast 10k shoe. I'd be interested to hear whether others have similar or different impressions of the Vaporfly.
On another note, it's almost September, which means registration for Boston is around the corner. I've run Boston once (in 2015, which seems to be my theme today). Last year I wanted to run it again but didn't have a qualifier due to my injury-plagued 2016. But I got a qualifier in Chicago last Fall and planned on registering for the 2019 Boston. Now that registration is rolling around, though, I'm starting to feel the way I have usually felt in past years - like I don't really want to run Boston. Lest you accuse me of heresy, let me clearly state that Boston is a great race and I really enjoyed running it (and PRing) in 2015. But there are also reasons not to run Boston. The Boston hype kind of makes me gag. There are other marathons in the Spring that I haven't already run and would like to do, including Cleveland, Vermont City, Buffalo, and smaller local races like the B&A Trail and new Salisbury Marathons (which I tried to do this year but couldn't due to injury and illness). None of those races costs $200 plus Boston hotel rates. Marathons aside, wouldn't it be fun to devote the Spring to racing shorter distances and get back to marathon mode next Fall? Finally, weather is the single most important factor out of your control that influences marathon performance. I wonder how many people will skip Boston in 2019 just because of how bad the weather was in 2018. But it isn't just 2018 - the weather almost always sucks in Boston, just usually not quite as much as it did this year. So I'm having doubts about registering. Would anyone like to try convincing me to register, or does anyone want to run one of the other marathons mentioned above with me next Spring?
