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