It's Fall!

My weekly mileage for the last 6 weeks, since I started running again after taking two weeks off for a knee injury in the first half of August, has been: 14, 35, 42.5, 50, 55, 60. (Before my knee injury I was running 45-55 weekly miles consistently). So I have built my weekly volume back up to where it was and am now increasing it further. This past week was my first 60 mile week in a year, and I don't plan to stop there. The plan for next week is (surprise!) 65 miles, and then I might take a down week heading into the Army Ten Miler on October 9. If all goes well, I hope to go higher after the ATM. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Last weekend I also got my first taste in a while of what at least used to be my marathon pace. I had registered for the DC Half before injuring my knee and had intended to put in at least a race effort, expecting that the weather would probably not permit fast times. But a hard race effort so soon after my knee injury was out of the question. So instead I set out to run 3:00 marathon pace (6:50/mi.) for at least 8 miles, which I figured wouldn't be so hard, and maybe I'd hold the pace further or even speed up after that if I felt good. Well, those 8 miles (which I ended up running a tad faster than 3:00 pace) felt plenty hard, so I shut it down after that and just ran easy the rest of the way. My knee actually hurt a bit after the race for the first time in weeks, but I didn't notice it while running and it was fine a few days later. My coach, back when I had one, used to give me 10 miles at MP to kick off marathon training around 12 weeks out (the DC Half was 11 weeks out), and every single time that workout turned out to be much harder than I expected going into it. How on earth is this my marathon pace? Last weekend was no different, although now of course it's even less clear that upper 6:40s is a feasible marathon pace for me anymore. I'll give it a go anyway and adjust later to whatever the reality turns out to be. The weather dramatically improved a few days after the DC Half bang on the Fall equinox, so now (and at least for as long as this autumnal weather holds) running any given pace is easier than it was just recently. That'll help a lot. This is a major reason why I decided to run Rehoboth in early December: so that not only the race itself but also the hardest part of the training is in cooler weather. I hate summer weather and look forward to Fall and Winter at every moment during the rest of the year. And I look forward especially to running in it. If I can stay injury free, then I'll be doing plenty of that.

September 12-18:
Mo: 6.5 miles with 6 strides
Tu: 7 miles
We: 3 x 1 mile (2:00 jogs) in 6:25, 6:18, 6:10
Th: 7 miles
Fr: 7 miles
Sa: 2 miles
Su: 17 miles with 8 miles in the high 6:40s at the DC Half
Week total: 55 miles

September 19-25:
Mo: 5 miles
Tu: 8 miles
We: 10 x .25 miles (1:00 rests)
Th: 8 miles
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 20 miles @ 7:35/mi.
Su: 2 miles
Week total: 60 miles

A knee injury and recovery

I took an unplanned break from running for two weeks in Greece with a knee injury. After I returned to the US and was able to run again, I went to my usual doctor for all things running related, the guru Josh Bross, who said I must have strained my VMO. I'm not sure how that happened, but at the time I had noticed some medial hamstring tightness, which Dr. Bross said could have made my VMO work harder. I suspect the primary cause was that we do a lot more walking in Athens than elsewhere, and the sudden increase in walking (the injury happened after about a week in Athens) on top of my usual running was just a bit too much for my aging legs. In the future I need to turn down the running at the beginning of trips to Athens to give my legs a chance to adapt to the increased overall step count. Anyway, the medial side of my knee hurt for several weeks and made even walking difficult during that time. My knee cap wasn't tracking correctly and would click, sometimes painfully, with almost every step. Eventually it improved a bit and we were able to do some hiking. Then, in the third week of August, I was able to start doing very short jogs every other day or so. I worked up to a 9 mile run on our last full day in Greece, August 24, and then joined the DC Road Runners SLR horde for a 12 mile run on Saturday, August 27. That last full week of August I ran 35 miles, slower than usual but without knee pain. Obviously I wasn't able to race the Annapolis 10 Miler on August 28 as I had planned, but it turns out I could defer my race entry until next year. Below is a summary of the next two weeks, which is to say the past two weeks. I've ramped the mileage back up pretty steeply in hopes of being able to handle running the DC Half next weekend on September 18. I won't be fit to race it but hope to use the race, weather permitting, as an introduction to marathon goal pace or at least marathon effort, since I'm now 12 weeks away from the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Marathon, which is my primary goal race this Fall. I did manage to get a spot in the Army Ten Miler, which is still far enough away that I'm holding out hope to be fit enough to put in a race effort there. Later on, I'll probably also do the Veteran's Day 10k (November 6) and the Rothman 8k in Philadelphia (November 19) as tune-ups. Thinking even further out, this coming week registration opens for the 2023 Boston Marathon. I ran Boston in 2015 and enjoyed it, but since then I usually complain about groupie marathoners who return to Boston every year and wear BAA jackets around (unless they have some actual connection to the city of Boston), and about the resulting lack of alternative Spring marathons to run. I usually prefer to do other Spring marathons instead where they exist, like Shamrock last year and Buffalo in 2019 (both great races). I've had my eye on the relatively local Salisbury Marathon since it started a few years ago and had assumed it would be next on my list. But I find myself seriously entertaining the idea of returning to Boston in 2023 instead. I like small and medium sized races, but I also like doing big races occasionally, and I guess I'm feeling like it's time for a big marathon next year. Unfortunately, in the US, there is only one big, exciting Spring marathon, and when I get past complaining about that fact I remember that it is indeed a magical event. So I'm leaning toward "applying" to run Boston. It's unclear whether my 3:15:34 at Shamrock is good enough to get me a spot. The current qualifying time for men 45-49 is 3:20, so I would need the cut off time to be 4:26 or less. But if it's not, then I can run Salisbury and do a big race next Fall. That's my thinking right now anyway.

August 29 - September 4:
Mo: 6 x 200m
Tu: 5 miles
We: 3 mile moderate tempo @ 6:43/mi. 
Th: 5 miles
Fr: 5 miles
Sa: 14.5 miles @ 7:55/mi.
Su: off
Week total: 42.5 miles

September 5 - 11:
Mo: 5.5 miles with 4 strides
Tu: 6 miles
We: 3 mile tempo @ 6:21/mi.
Th: 6 miles
Fr: 6 miles
Sa: 17 miles @ 7:53/mi.
Su: 2 miles
Week total: 50 miles

Hot runner summer

After running 55 miles for two weeks in a row, my highest volume for some time, I started the first of these two weeks with a longer fartlek than I've been doing lately. It felt hard, and of course it's hot and humid now. So I decided the next day to take a down week by moving my long run to Monday of the following week and taking Friday off. I then ended up taking off the following Friday as well because my hamstring was a bit tight (possibly from some supplementary exercises I did on Wednesday afternoon). So both of these weeks ended up smaller than the previous two. But the quality was good, especially given the challenging weather conditions. The long run on July 18 went particularly well considering that the TDP (temperature + dew point) was over 150, and I managed to do both a workout and the College Park Parkrun 5k each week as well. I'm evidently pretty locked in to 19:3x for a threshold effort 5k in summery weather right now, which is also pretty much where I was in 2019 (my last good running year). I was hoping to put in a harder effort and try to sneak under 19 minutes before heading to Greece, but frankly I'm just trying to survive the summer weather at this point. So I'll defer that hope until September and continue also to wonder whether I can get under 18:30 when the weather begins to improve in the Fall (if that sort of effort is even compatible with the longer distance training I'll be focusing on then). That would be my fastest 5k in nearly a decade. After PRing in both the half marathon and 10 mile in 2019, I set out in the Spring of 2020 to see how close my old body could get to my 5k and 10k PRs, both of which date back to 2013, before the pandemic shut everything down. That's still in the back of my mind, but right now I need to shift toward strength work in advance of the Annapolis 10 miler on August 28 and the DC Half on September 18. I'd love to do the Army 10 miler as well but neglected to register before it filled up. Maybe I'll somehow manage to get a bib, but actually I'd be better positioned to take some swings at the 5k then if I don't. We'll see.

July 11 - 17:
Mo: off
Tu: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes with half recoveries
We: 8.3 miles
Th: 8.5 miles
Fr: off
Sa: College Park Parkrun 5k in 19:31
Su: 8.4 miles
Week total: 45 miles

July 18 - 24:
Mo: 16 miles @ 7:48/mi.
Tu: off
We: 3 x (3, 2, 1 min.) with half recoveries
Th: 8.5 miles
Fr: off
Sa: College Park Parkrun 5k in 19:34
Su: 8.5 miles
Week total: 50 miles

Another 55 mile week

I skipped the Parkrun again this week, this time because of heavy rain. But my back is doing well, and I managed to run 55 miles again this week in spite of some scheduling challenges. I'm now feeling the slightly higher volume since this is the highest consistent mileage I've run in two years. My weight is even beginning to drop back in the direct of pre-pandemic levels, which had been stable for around 8 years until late 2020 - not that I'm losing weight on purpose. I just unavoidably slim down when I run more miles, especially in the summer. It would make sense to take a down week around now, but I have two more weeks in the US before heading to Greece. So I'm hoping to keep it going for another two weeks if the body plays along, and then take things easier that first week in Athens. We'll see how things go, but I've penciled in 60 miles for next week including a fartlek on Tuesday and the Parkrun on Saturday.

July 4 - 10:
Mo: 8 miles
Tu: off
We: 10 x .25 miles with 1:00 rests
Th: 8 miles
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 16 miles @ 7:43
Su: 7 miles
Week total: 55 miles

Working through some lower back issues

The injury cycle I mentioned in my previous post included, among other things, some lower back issues that impacted much more than just my running. Unfortunately a bit of that returned last week, but fortunately it was not nearly as bad as before and at this point I have it under control. My torso is very long compared with the length of my legs. I'm 5'10", my dad is 6'1", my mom is 5'0", and I joke that I inherited my dad's torso with my mom's legs. I'm not built like a runner at all. I've had lower back problems since my early teens, when I first hurt myself lifting weights with bad form (it happened other times later as well). But I think the lower back issues I've had as an adult are mostly or entirely related to poor posture, aided perhaps by my odd proportions. My chiropractor tells me I have a curve in my spine that is not supposed to be there (front-to-back, not left-to-right as in scoliosis). When my back locks up it does seem to be in the area where that unwelcome curve is located. I have a gadget called a posture pump disk hydrator that I use to straighten up that curve and coax those muscles to loosen up, or to discourage them from locking up in the first place, and you can do basically the same thing with a foam roller. Anyway, my back tightened up on me last week on Friday (June 24), the day after a long run. I don't think it's caused by running, but rather my posture tends to be especially bad when I'm tired after some long or hard runs. When my back locks up, running can initially help to loosen things up. So I did an easy run after waking up with it tight on Friday. Then on Saturday I planned to run easy again at the Parkrun but ended up running at tempo effort for 5k. That was probably dumb, but it's difficult to restrain myself when running with others who are putting in effort. I took the following day, Sunday, off as penance. Over the next couple days, on each of which I ran easy, my back loosened up enough that I was able to hazard a workout on Wednesday. It felt almost normal before the workout but did tighten up again somewhat afterwards. So I did a recovery run the following day and then took another day off. By Saturday, July 2, it felt pretty much fine again, but I didn't want to risk it tightening up from running faster. So I skipped the Parkrun that weekend but did a long run on Sunday. I'm writing this the day after that long run, and my back is still fine. In spite of these back issues I was able to run 55 miles this past week, which is my highest weekly volume yet this year. Assuming my back cooperates, I'm planing to keep it there or inch upward very slightly next week and to return to the Parkrun next Saturday.

 June 20-26:
Mo: off
Tu: 3 x (3, 2, 1 min.) with half recoveries
We: 7.5 miles
Th: 16 miles @ 7:34/mi.
Fr: 7.5 miles
Sa: College Park Parkrun 5k in 20:07 (6:35/mi. pace)
Su: off
Week total: 47.7 miles

June 27 - July 3:
Mo: 7.5 miles
Tu: 8 miles
We: 3 x (1, 2, 3 min.) with half recoveries
Th: 7.5 miles
Fr: off
Sa: 8 miles
Su: 15 miles @ 7:39/mi.
Week total: 55 miles

Let's try this again

Hi there! It's been a while. Since my last post more than two and a half years ago, a lot of things have happened which cannot be summed up on a running blog. The pandemic has been rough on all of us, but on some more than others. I have been fortunate in most important respects. None of my close family members or friends died or suffered severe cases of Covid, and I myself never knowingly got it (still!) or at least never had symptoms. But my running has of course regressed over the past couple years at least partly as a result of the pandemic, and I'm also not getting any younger (I'm now 47). In addition to the general lack of motivation to train without any races to train for, I fell into an injury cycle that lasted over a year. Hopefully that is behind me now. I've been running consistently again since the beginning of 2022 leading up to the Shamrock Marathon in March. My goal at Shamrock was just to cover the marathon distance at whatever pace I could manage, which turned out to be a 7:28 average pace for a 3:15 marathon. That's better than I expected, especially since I had only been running for 10 weeks and only two of those weeks were over 40 miles. Since then I've been gradually reintroducing speedwork and slowly increasing overall volume. In the past month I strung together three consecutive 50 mile weeks before taking a 40 mile down week, usually with one speed workout per week. I've also run three 5ks in the past two months to gauge the progress of my speedwork (not much yet!) and to give me short term goals to focus on. I hope to turn the screws a bit in the next month or so by doing a 5k on the weekends and also a speed workout during the week, at least most weeks. We'll see how that goes. My goal for the summer is to get some speed back and to adapt to a consistent training schedule with volume at the sort of level where I can handle more serious training for longer races in the Fall, eventually leading up to the Rehoboth Seashore Marathon in early December. In late July we'll head back to Greece for the first time in three years! I'm really looking forward to that and will try to post some photos here as well as on Strava, etc. Then I plan to return to the Annapolis 10 Miler on August 28 to close out the summer and shift towards longer distance races in the Fall. Mostly for the sake of accountability and to force me to think about the overall coherence of my training, I'll try to return to posting weekly training summaries here.