A fishy PR

In my previous post four and a half months ago (what a blogger I am!), I congratulated myself for setting a half-marathon PR at the end of March, which was my first non-marathon PR since 2013 and my first PR at any distance since 2015; I wrote about finally managing to run an ok marathon again at Buffalo in May; and I wondered whether my body is still up to the sort of training I'd need to do to seriously target another sub-3:00 marathon this Fall.

Since then I've made some pretty significant changes, or rather I've reverted to some old ways of mine from many years past, and so far I'm having good results. It's not to do with the MRI or PT exercises I mentioned in my last post. I did get the MRI, which sure enough showed all kinds of gnarly stuff in my lower back. But afterwards my doctor repeated what he told me when I asked him for the referral: at my age (44) almost everyone has lots of gnarly stuff in their lower back that will show up on an MRI, but my level of activity is such that none of it warrants pursuing any of the available treatment options, almost all of which are very invasive. So that was a dead end. I also completely stopped doing any supplementary exercises after concluding that I spend enough time running as it is and they weren't helping anyway. But I did not give up on the goal of solving the muscle tightness problem that I've been complaining about for some time. It had gotten bad enough that I decided to try something that for me was more drastic than any attempted solution I had yet considered: I started eating fish again after seven years as a vegetarian. For some time I wondered whether my problem was nutritional, so I tried making various dietary adjustments consistent with my then-vegetarianism, such as eating more plant-based protein, adding more ground flax seed and Udo's Oil to my food, and taking regular B-complex and iron supplements. Yet the increasing muscle tightness and difficulty recovering from workouts continued. Of course it could simply have been aging, but eventually I decided that I needed to find out whether eating fish again would make any difference. This was a difficult decision for me, because I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but I've always thought it (ethically) better not to eat meat only if a vegetarian diet can be at least as healthy as a non-vegetarian diet. I still believe it can be, at least for some people, perhaps including me again at some point. But it is impossible to deny that since I started eating fish again this summer my recent muscle tightness and recovery problems have basically vanished. I don't mean, of course, that my muscles never get tight anymore or that I don't need any recovery time after workouts. But these are no longer anything close to the problems they had recently become. For the first time in years, I can do two shorter workouts during the week (usually a short tempo run and some intervals) instead of one (or the other), because I don't need several days to recover from each workout anymore. And I don't just recover well enough from a workout to get through the next one - I feel stronger and run better after recovering from workouts (which happens faster) because my body is actually absorbing the training now. It sounds silly, but I had almost forgotten how it feels to benefit from workouts instead of just doing them as some kind of end in itself. On the weekends, I can also pick up the pace on long runs again and even do long, 10+ mile tempos without my hip muscles locking up. I don't know whether it's because I digest protein from animal meat better (than even whey protein, which is also animal based), whether I needed an animal source of omega-3 (which you can get from supplements without actually eating meat), or what is making the difference. Nor, strictly speaking, do I know whether my vegetarian diet caused the problems I had been experiencing in the first place. But I do know that eating fish again is helping - a lot - to solve them.

So eating fish again is the biggest of the changes I've made lately, and I think it has made it possible for me to handle and benefit from the other changes, which are changes in my training. I already mentioned in my previous post that I intended to start trying to do faster interval workouts in order to improve my speed. Almost every week for a few months now I've been doing this: usually 12 x 400m or 10 x 500m with 1:00 or 1:15 recoveries. I run these intervals at a pace that averages in the high 5:30s, which is faster than my 5k PR pace (5:47) and much faster than I've run a 5k for years. Most weeks I also do a 3 mile, 4 mile, or 2 x 2 mile tempo run, which lately have gotten down below 6:10 average pace. In addition to those two types of workouts, which I usually do on Tuesdays (tempos) and Thursdays (intervals), on weekends I not only have been doing a lot of marathon pace work during long runs, but I've also squeezed down my marathon pace in training to the low 6:40s or high 6:30s. I've done a 10 mile tempo, a 12 mile tempo, 2 x 4 miles, and several long runs with sections of push miles in that pace range over the last couple of months. Any one of these variables - more frequent workouts in general, more intervals in particular, faster intervals, faster short tempos, more marathon pace running, a faster marathon pace - would mark a significant change for the better in my training. But all of them are happening at the same time. Once again I very much doubt that any of this, let alone all of it, would be possible if I weren't eating fish again.

Intervals are improving my hip extension

Since Buffalo I've run several summer club races, which were fun but hot and slow, and two 10 mile races. Near the end of August I ran the Annapolis Ten Miler in 1:06:35. It was my first time running that race and apparently the weather (in late August!) was better than anyone can remember. But all the hills were still there, and it's not a fast course. I ran well, though, and was pleased with how strong I felt on the hills after a shorter than usual stint of training in hilly Greece this summer. But the improvements in my training that I mentioned above really got going after the A10. My first opportunity to put them to use in a race was at the Army Ten Miler last weekend (on October 13). Again we had great weather, and the ATM course is fast. In 2013 I ran 1:02:49 (6:17 pace) at the ATM, which was my 10 mile PR until last weekend. Because my weekly short tempo runs have gotten down to 1:01 flat 10 mile pace (6:06) lately, I knew I was in PR shape. But I haven't been doing longer lactate threshold workouts, because my current schedule gives me only one recovery day between tempo and interval workouts, and I don't want to get too worn out on tempo day. Not really knowing what sort of pace I'd be able to handle in the latter part of a 10 mile race, I decided to aim for sub-1:02 (sub-6:12 pace). According to my Garmin, I ran the first 5 miles of the race in 6:04, 6:07, 6:05, 5:59, and 6:08. But, as often happens, my Garmin was measuring the course long, and I crossed the halfway point in exactly 31 minutes. I slowed down a bit from there, especially in miles 8-10, and finished in 1:02:43 (6:16 average). So I averaged 6:12 pace in the first half and 6:20 in the second. It's not the time I set out to run and think I can run with more LT-focused training, but it was still a PR - 6 seconds faster than I've ever run 10 miles, 19 seconds faster than I ran the same race in similar weather six weeks before setting my current marathon PR in 2015, and almost 2 minutes faster than I've covered that distance since then.

Adidas Adios, then air, then the ground

By the way, I ran the ATM in Adidas Adios, the same shoes I wear for short workouts, and the same shoes (but a later version of them) that I wore at the ATM in 2013 and 2015. I mention this because everybody is talking these days about the supposed performance advantage of the Nike Vaporfly 4% (and now the Next %). I wore Vaporflys when I ran my 1:23:45 half-marathon PR in March. According to McMillan, my new 10 mile PR converts to a 1:23:39 half marathon. So either the shoes don't make me faster (at least at those distances) or I'm in better shape now than I was in March. I think it's probably a little of both. I'm certainly in better shape now than I was in March, but I felt like I didn't run as well at the ATM as I did at the B&A half in March relative to my fitness at those times. But the shoes might help a little bit too. As I've written here before, I think the Vaporflys are best suited to the marathon, not to shorter distances. It probably depends on your running style, but I don't think they make me faster at all - in fact, I find trying to run fast in them more difficult than in proper racing flats like Adios (which are on the heavy side for racing flats). But over long distances the lightness and squish of the Zoom X foam in Vaporflys reduces fatigue and helps me avoid slowing down, as well as aiding recovery. It's possible that I could have run a little bit faster in them even over 10 miles than in Adios, but if so I don't think the difference would be very big at all. They're really just shoes, not magic, whatever the Nike marketing division would have you believe.

Some of the DC Road Runners after the Army Ten Miler

My next races will be the Veterans' Day 10k on November 10 and the Philadelphia Marathon two weeks later on November 24. I've run Philly twice before and PR'd both times, including my current PR of 2:58:56. Maybe the third time will be even more charming.  

Back on track?

In my previous post I described my DNF in Richmond last November, chalked it up to not enough marathon pace training runs, worried about my trend of stinker marathons for the past couple years, and pledged to run conservatively in my next marathon, which I identified as the Buffalo Marathon, after enjoying some Winter club races and then taking aim at non-marathon PRs.

Since then more than six months have passed, which did indeed begin with some very fun Winter club races, where I especially benefitted from competing with my friend and fellow age-grouper Shawn Zeller (whom I never managed to beat, however). Those races gave me a good base of fitness from which to target either my half marathon or ten mile PR in late March or early April. I registered for both the B&A Half Marathon on March 31 and the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler the following weekend, intending to target the first of these unless the weather or something else was off that day, in which case I could change my target to Cherry Blossom at the last minute. The training for 10 miles and the half marathon is essentially the same in any case (emphasizing lactate threshold workouts). I ended up going for it at the B&A Half Marathon and took down my old PR of 1:24:39 (6:27 pace) from 2013 by almost a minute, running 1:23:45 (6:24 pace). This was my first PR at any distance in three and a half years, since the SI-joint injury in early 2016 from which I seem never to have fully recovered. I knew that my old half marathon PR was the lowest hanging fruit among all my PRs, which is one reason why I targeted it, and had no doubt that I could beat it when in shape and in good conditions. My various chronic injuries are also such that lactate threshold workouts are the easiest for me to do, unlike faster intervals which require more recovery time and are more likely to cause acute injuries, and unlike very long runs during which I've increasingly been experiencing a lot of muscle tightness lately. Still it was very gratifying to set an all-time PR after such a long dry spell and at the age of 44 (after running regularly for 10 years). I think I can go faster still in the half marathon but will take aim first at my ten mile PR of 1:02:49 (6:17 pace), which according to McMillan is basically equivalent to my new half marathon PR anyway. Or at least I'll do so if we ever get good weather again at the Army Ten Miler in October (where I set my ten mile PR in 2013 and am registered to run again in 2019).

After the B&A Half, I turned my attention to preparing for the Buffalo Marathon on May 26. Since my goal was not to attempt to run especially fast but just to finish without completely falling apart, after my recent marathon DNFs, I did not end up emphasizing marathon pace training runs after all. I'll explain why below. But first, here are my training details for the 16 weeks leading up to the Buffalo Marathon:

February 4-10 (week 16)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: 4 mile tempo averaging 6:44/mi.
We: 6 miles
Th: 16 miles @ 7:33/mi.
Fr: 4 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: 6 x 4:00 (averaging 6:08/mi. pace) with 2:30 recoveries
Week total: 58 miles

February 11-17 (week 15)
Mo: off
Tu: 7 miles
We: 7 miles
Th: 5 mile tempo averaging 6:26/mi.
Fr: 7.5 miles
Sa: 20 miles @ 7:25/mi.
Su: 7.5 miles
Week total: 60 miles

February 18-24 (week 14)
Mo: off
Tu: 10 miles with 1 mile pick-up
We: 8 miles
Th: 3 x (2, 3, 4 min.) with 1, 2, 3 min. recoveries
Fr: 9 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: Club Challenge 10-miler (hilly) in 1:05:29
Week total: 57.5 miles

February 25-March 3 (week 13)
Mo: 4 miles
Tu: 9 miles
We: 8 miles
Th: 18 miles @ 7:23/mi.
Fr: 6 miles
Sa: 7 miles
Su: Burke Lake 12k (offroad, muddy) in 48:17
Week total: 63.5 miles

March 4-10 (week 12)
Mo: 7 miles
Tu: 10 miles in Greenbelt Park (hilly)
We: off
Th: off
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: Fort Hunt 10k in 38:59 (6:17/mi.)
Week total: 41 miles

March 11-17 (week 11)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: 8 miles
We: 18 miles @ 7:28/mi.
Th: 6 miles
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: off
Su: 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile averaging 6:22/mi.
Week total: 58 miles

March 18-24 (week 10)
Mo: 6.5 miles
Tu: 10 miles in Greenbelt Park
We: 6 miles
Th: 8 x 3:00 with 2:00 recoveries
Fr: 5 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: 20 miles @ 7:29/mi. with Greenbelt Park near the end
Week total: 65.5 miles

March 25-31 (week 9)
Mo: off
Tu: 10 miles
We: 8 miles
Th: 10 x 500m averaging 1:50 with 1:15 rests
Fr: 7 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: B&A Half Marathon in 1:23:45 (PR!)
Week total: 60 miles

April 1-7 (week 8)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: off
We: 9 miles
Th: 6 miles
Fr: 7 miles
Sa: off (sick)
Su: off (sick)
Week total: 28 miles

April 8-14 (week 7)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: 10 miles
We: 6 miles
Th: 6 x 3:00 with 2:00 recoveries
Fr: 6 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: 10 miles
Week total: 55 miles

April 15-21 (week 6)
Mo: off
Tu: 19 miles @ 7:26/mi. twice through Greenbelt Park
We: 6.5 miles
Th: 10.5 miles
Fr: 6 miles
Sa: off
Su: planned 8 x 3:00 with 2:00 recoveries (aborted after 3.5x)
Week total: 51 miles

April 22-28 (week 5)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: 7 mile progression from 7:12 down to 6:34/mi.
We: 6 miles
Th: 20 miles @ 7:38/mi.
Fr: 4 miles
Sa: off
Su: Pike's Peak 10k in 38:34 (6:12/mi.)
Week total: 54 miles

April 29-May 5 (week 4)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: 7 miles
We: off
Th: 6 miles
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 6 miles
Su: 22 miles @ 7:26/mi.
Week total: 55 miles

May 6-12 (week 3)
Mo: 4 miles
Tu: 6 miles
We: 2 x 3 miles (2 min. rest) averaging 6:36/mi.
Th: off
Fr: 10 miles in Greenbelt Park
Sa: 6 miles
Su: off
Week total: 37.5 miles

May 13-19 (week 2)
Mo: 6 miles
Tu: off
We: 4 miles
Th: off (back freaking out)
Fr: 6 miles
Sa: 4 miles
Su: off (left foot hurting)
Week total: 20 miles

May 20-26 (week 1)
Mo: 4 miles
Tu: 10 miles in Greenbelt Park
We: off
Th: 4 miles
Fr: off
Sa: 2 miles
Su: Buffalo Marathon in 3:09:43 (7:14/mi.)
Week total: 47 miles
16 week average: 50.7 miles

I was still racing myself into shape at club races through week 12, and the B&A Half was at the end of week 9. But already in week 15 I started doing the main type of training run that I did in preparation for Buffalo: long runs in the 7:20s, in which I tried to incorporate more and more hills as I progressed (because I expected the Buffalo course to be hillier than it turned out to be). I ended up running Buffalo only slightly faster than my typical pace on these long training runs: officially 7:14 pace for 26.2 miles, although there were so many turns in the course that I believe my Garmin which tells me that I actually ran 26.56 miles at 7:08 pace. So I averaged somewhere between 10-20 seconds faster per mile than I ran on most of my long training runs, which is a difference that can easily be accounted for by advantages afforded by tapering and a race environment. Here are my mile splits:

Mile 1 - 7:08
Mile 2 - 6:46
Mile 3 - 6:47
Mile 4 - 7:05
Mile 5 - 7:03
Mile 6 - 7:01
Mile 7 - 6:54
Mile 8 - 6:59
Mile 9 - 7:04
Mile 10 - 7:02
Mile 11 - 7:02
Mile 12 - 6:46
Mile 13 - 6:53
[Halfway - 1:32:??]
Mile 14 - 6:54
Mile 15 - 7:12
Mile 16 - 6:59
Mile 17 - 6:51
Mile 18 - 7:23
Mile 19 - 7:12
Mile 20 - 7:10
Mile 21 - 7:09
Mile 22 - 7:24
Mile 23 - 7:37
Mile 24 - 7:42
Mile 25 - 7:56
Mile 26 - 7:26
Finish - 3:09:43

My average pace through 21 miles was 7:00-01. I slowed down the last 5 miles but didn't completely fall apart. Before then I found myself running a bit faster than I had expected but went with it because I felt good and my heart rate stayed below 160 until halfway, after which it hovered just over 160 until mile 18, and it never hit 170. My pace fluctuations before mile 22 correspond mainly with undulations in the course, although in the upper teens I hit a low point when the course went through an area with little tree coverage and the sun was bearing down on us. But I soon rallied when a clever volunteer shouted that I was probably second master, and then he repeated probably, which in my marathon haze I believed but which turned out to be completely false. (I finished 55th overall and 8th in the male 40-44 group, with four more older men ahead of me). That stirred enough competitive juices to keep my head in the game until mile 22, when just putting one foot in front of the other became difficult. There were enough people around me suffering more than I was, however, that I was able to stay motivated to pick off as many people as possible before the finish line. I don't recall anyone passing me during almost the entire race, after the first 10k or so.

The day before the race, I told my wife that I predicted a 3:10 finish and pretty much nailed it. Although this is not historically a fast time for me, it's (barely) the fastest I've run since my 2:58 PR in 2015 and the ensuing string of injuries (I also ran 3:10:57 at Chicago in 2017). It's what I needed after my DNF in Richmond and other recent stinker marathons in order to give me some confidence again that I can handle this distance. So I'm quite happy with this result.

I think my training was appropriate for this sort of goal, because I basically just needed to coax my body into tolerating a moderate pace for longer and longer distances, over increasingly hilly terrain, up to some point just a bit short of the marathon distance. This is how first time marathoners train. The speed work is sprinkled in mainly just to make your normal training pace feel easy and to increase efficiency. Otherwise, it's all about the long run, which gradually increases in length and either (for first timers, surprisingly) pace or (for me) hilliness. I needed to do that sort of training in order to get back to a baseline, which apparently is roughly 3:09-10 marathon shape for me, from which I can now hope to progress (again) toward more advanced marathon training.

I stand by the main point of my previous entry after my DNF in Richmond: the key element of advanced marathon training is marathon pace running. After running a half marathon at 6:24 pace at the end of March, which pegs my lactate threshold around 6:20 or so, my true marathon pace should have been in the 6:40s, assuming I was properly trained for the marathon. The right way to train for a marathon that optimized my abilities at that point would have been to throw in blocks of push miles in the 6:40s during every long run, especially towards the end, and occasionally to replace midweek speed or tempo workouts with something like 2 x 4 miles or 3 x 3 miles in the 6:40s. I've done this in the past, but my plan for Buffalo was not to attempt to run that fast. Physiologically, there didn't seem to be much point to replacing tempo workouts with runs at 7:00 or 7:10 pace, since that would not have been much of a workout for me. It would have made sense to throw in blocks of push miles around 7:00 or 7:10 during long runs, and sometimes I did manage to do this. But, again, I've been struggling lately with muscle tightness during the latter part of long runs, which often prevented me from accelerating to the pace that (somehow) I actually ran in Buffalo. Evidently this didn't matter as far as my preparations for Buffalo were concerned. But going forward, I'm going to need to solve this muscle tightness problem if I want to get back to more advanced marathon training and to targeting a marathon time under 3:00 again.

At the end of my previous post, I mentioned that I intended to make a point of regularly doing exercises to strengthen my right glute medius, which two PTs had suggested was the focal point of my recent injuries and muscle imbalances. To this end, for the past six months or so I have done the following supplementary exercises 2-3 times per week in the evenings: front and side planks, clam shells (with resistance band), lying side leg raises (weighted), single leg squats, and standing hip abduction (with resistance band). Sometimes I threw in a few upper body exercises as well, and I always did some stretching afterwards. I realize that muscle building and strengthening takes time, and that there's going to be a period of adaptation during which the muscles you're trying to strengthen actually feel worse because of the increased stress of the supplementary exercises on top of regular training. Nevertheless, after six months I think it's safe to say that the verdict is now in: strengthening my right glute medius did not solve the problem, which means that a weak right glute medius was not the (primary) problem. On May 13, during my (steeper than intended) taper for Buffalo, I visited yet another PT who suggested a different explanation for the muscle tightness I've been experiencing in my right hip. He suggested that it may stem from a bulging disc or two in my lower back and suggested that I get an MRI, which I've never had. To be honest, I've always suspected this, so I made an (upcoming) appointment with my primary physician at which I will try to persuade him to give me a referral for an MRI. This PT also gave me a new regime of lower back and (especially) abdominal exercises to do every day on the suspicion that I have a minor disc problem in my lower back. I started trying to do these exercises after my May 13 appointment but immediately realized that I couldn't handle them yet. So I set them aside until after Buffalo and have now just begun doing part every other day of what this PT says I should be doing every day. So I expect a period of adjustment to these new supplementary exercises, which should at least partially coincide with my recovery from Buffalo anyway. We'll see whether, after a period of adjustment, this new supplementary exercise regime helps address my right hip muscle tightness problem.

As for the future, there's not much to do in the summer running-wise besides working on speed and turnover. I mean, you can't run fast for very long in the heat and humidity. I realize that there are many physiological benefits to running moderately far and slowly in the heat, and to doing some limited tempo work in warm weather as well. But, really, where's the pleasure in that? You need to do it, and it'll pay off in the Fall. But the fun in summer running comes from running fast over short distances. This is something I have done little of recently. As I mentioned, fast interval workouts require a lot of recovery time for me these days, so I don't do them very often. As a result, I can't run faster than 5:50 or so pace over any distance to save my life, which means in a 5k (the shortest race distance I've ever run) I'm basically running flat out the whole time. I hope to get some better speed back this summer by patiently prioritizing speed workouts and the supplementary workouts I mentioned earlier. I'll do some short club races over the next couple of months to orient me in this direction.

After that, I'll spend less time in Greece this summer than usual, and I've registered for two ten milers in late Summer and early Fall: the hilly Annapolis Ten Miler on August 25, and the Army Ten Miler on October 13. Ten mile races are excellent targets because your ten mile race pace is basically your lactate threshold, and long distance running in basically about lowering your lactate threshold. So by signing up for these races I'm not really committing myself to anything other than trying to get better at long distance running in general. And to be honest I'm kind of on the fence about what to do in the Fall. I'd love to target a 2:5x marathon again, but I don't know whether my body can handle the training I'd need to do to seriously pursue that goal. Maybe this new regime of supplementary exercises will work and I'll be able to get back on track with harder workouts and higher mileage. Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws and getting too old for this crap. Again, we'll find out. I'm not much interested in running another 3:09 marathon, though. So either I need to be convinced that my body can handle the training for another sub-3 marathon in the Fall, or I'm going to focus instead on the 10k through half marathon, not only because my PRs for those distances are still just barely in range, but also because frankly I'm just better at those distances and training for them hurts me less. I love the marathon and will pursue it for as long as I have any hope of success, but for me success in the marathon begins with a 2. Can I ever run that fast again?

What happened in Richmond

Here's how I trained for the Richmond Marathon, picking up where my last post left off:

August 27 - September 2
Mo: 8 miles
Tu: 8 miles
We: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min. with half recoveries
Th: 8 miles
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 18 miles with 3 x 2k (2 min. rests), 8k easy, 3 x 2k (2 min. rests)
Su: 8 miles
Week total: 70 miles

September 3 - 9
Mo: off
Tu: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min. with equal recoveries
We: 8 miles
Th: 8 miles
Fr: 7 miles plus 6 strides
Sa: 4 miles
Su: Parks Half Marathon in 1:26:24
Week total: 53 miles

September 10 - 16
Mo: 8 miles
Tu: 9 miles
We: 8 miles
Th: 9 miles plus 8 x 40 sec. hills
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 20 miles easy
Su: 8 miles
Week total: 70 miles

September 17 - 23
Mo: 9 miles
Tu: 3 x (2, 3, 4 min.) with equal recoveries
We: 9 miles
Th: 8 miles plus 6 strides
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 19 with miles 3-6 and 15-16 at marathon effort
Su: 9 miles
Week total: 75 miles

September 24 - 30
Mo: 8.5 miles
Tu: 8 x 3 min. hard / 2 min. jog
We: 8.5 miles
Th: 8.5 miles plus 8 strides
Fr: 8.5 miles
Sa: 22 with miles 15-20 at 6:52, 34, 25, 27, 15, 28
Su: 8.5 miles
Week total: 75 miles

October 1 - 7
Mo: off
Tu: 10 x 500m (1 min. rests)
We: 9 miles
Th: 9 miles
Fr: off
Sa: 6 miles
Su: Army 10 miler in 1:06:25
Week total: 49 miles

October 8 - 14
Mo: 8.5 miles
Tu: 9.5 miles
We: 8.5 miles plus 5 strides
Th: 8.5 miles
Fr: 2 x 4 miles (2 min. rest) at 6:46 avg.
Sa: 8 miles
Su: 24 miles easy
Week total: 80 miles

October 15 - 21
Mo: off
Tu: 9 miles
We: 3 x (2, 3, 4 min.) with equal recoveries
Th: 9 miles
Fr: 9 miles plus 5 strides
Sa: 9 miles
Su: off (skipped planned MP tempo)
Week total: 50 miles

October 22 - 28
Mo: off
Tu: 2 mile test jog in PM
We: 8 miles
Th: 7 miles
Fr: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min. with half recoveries
Sa: 7 miles
Su: 6.5 miles
Week total: 42 miles

October 29 - November 4
Mo: off
Tu: off
We: 6 miles
Th: 14 with miles 8-12 at 6:53, 30, 35, 35, 23
Fr: off
Sa: 5.5 miles
Su: 11.5 miles
Week total: 37 miles

November 5 - 11
Mo: off
Tu: 5 miles
We: 3 x 1k (1 min. rests)
Th: 4 miles
Fr: off
Sa: Richmond Marathon
Su:
Week total: 16 miles pre-race

Three things about this training block stand out and led me to think, going into Richmond, that I was in PR shape. First, it was consistent. I was not sidetracked by injury or illness, with the exception of two hip / hamstring niggles at either end of a 10 day stretch that began 3 weeks before the race. But by then I figured I had it in the bag anyway, and I was able to bounce back and get sharp in plenty of time before the race. Second, my overall volume was higher than it's been for I think 5 years, averaging 58 miles for the last 12 weeks. Probably my only other marathon training block that compares with this one was before my 2:58:56 PR at the 2015 Philadelphia Marathon, which averaged 55 miles for the last 12 weeks. I consciously modeled this training block on that one but incorporated a few minor changes, including slightly higher volume. Third, I had several workouts that compared with or improved upon my best ever. This started with the Parks Half Marathon. Although I've twice run half marathons 1:30-2:00 faster than I ran this race (in 2013 and 2016), those times were run on much faster courses than Parks, and there was a lot of standing water on the Parks course from heavy rainfall. So considering the course and conditions, this was arguably a PR-level performance. Two weeks after Parks I struggled on a tempo-run-tempo attempt in humid weather, but the following weekend (on Sept. 29) I felt smooth on a 22 miler while hitting paces that I don't think I've ever been able to touch at the end of such a long run before. Was it a fluke? Maybe. Warm and humid conditions at the Army 10 miler the following weekend prevented comparisons with other 10 milers I've run, and injury niggles forced me to skip a planned long tempo two weeks later. But when those niggles subsided, the same power seemed to be at my disposal when I hazarded a 14 mile progression run 10 days before Richmond.

So I was fit and there were signs that I was in PR shape. Plus the weather looked great: mid-40s and sunny but breezy, which happen to be exactly same conditions I had in Philadelphia in 2015. There are, however, two relevant differences between Philadelphia and Richmond: I had run the Philly course before, and the Richmond course is hillier. The Philly course isn't totally flat either, but the hills are not as significant and I knew where they are, having run my first BQ there in 2013. (Plus I used to live in Philadelphia). I ran the Richmond Half in 2016, but the hilly portions of the full marathon course are not part of the half marathon course. I had of course looked at the elevation profile online, but that's different from actually knowing the course, which I had never even seen.

Before the race I made a conscious decision to go for a PR and take the risk of blowing up. I'd already run 13 marathons, and I'm proud of my 2:58 PR. I'd like to see whether I can run faster, but I don't really care about racking up yet another marathon finish in a slower time, certainly not over 3:00. So my plan was to aim for 1:28:30-1:29 at halfway, to put myself in a position to run between 2:55 and 2:58. I expected miles 15-18 to be the most difficult of the course, with hills and a headwind on a long bridge. So I expected to slow down a bit there. Whether I could just eek out a PR or run for 2:55 glory would depend on how much I could rally after 18 miles, if things went to plan. Again, I knew perfectly well that things might not go to plan at all, as often happens in marathons. But the whole point of training for and racing Richmond was to try to run 2:55 or at least a PR. My training indicated that I had a chance, so I went for it.

Here's what happened: (A 2:55 marathon is 6:41-43 avg. pace)
Mile 1 - 6:42
Mile 2 - 6:43
Mile 3 - 6:37
Mile 4 - 6:41
Mile 5 - 6:43
Mile 6 - 6:53
Mile 7 - 6:22 (downhill)
Mile 8 - 6:38
Mile 9 - 6:42
Mile 10 - 6:44
Mile 11 - 6:51
Mile 12 - 7:01 (trouble)
Mile 13 - 8:27 (includes almost 2:00 in a bathroom)
Mile 14 - 6:51
Mile 15 - 6:40
Mile 16 - 7:20 (then I pulled the plug)

Through 10 miles all seemed well. During the first 10k I was a little worried that the pace was going to come back and bite me, but I felt ok and it was clear that I was already committed. After gliding downhill in mile 7 and crossing the river, I started thinking: ok, I can actually do this. I prepared myself for the hills that I expected to begin in mile 9. Looking back now, I realize that my HR was already too high before the hills started. It was already in the high 160s, and I'm pushing once I hit 170. So I should not have let it get higher than low-mid 160s by that point, but I was focusing on pace instead of HR (which, however, I was aware of). The first hill came right at 10 miles, and most of mile 11 was up and down. Looking back, I should have let myself run that hilly mile slower than 6:51, but it was probably too late for that anyway.

After the hilly mile 11, or rather during it, I knew I was in trouble and tried to regroup. At the beginning of mile 12 there was a short downhill, but I could see the next (bigger) hill up ahead. That's when something strange happened. As I was running downhill trying to relax, my heart fluttered and I suddenly felt faint. I looked at my watch and saw that my HR had suddenly jumped from around 170 to almost 180, while I was coasting downhill. (My max heart rate is around 185). It occurs to me now that maybe it was the sight of the next approaching hill that sent my HR up. But at the time I thought something had shifted in my gut, which I've noticed can cause a HR spike. My stomach had felt off this whole time - in fact, since the previous night - and I figured whatever was bugging me down there had finally reached its breaking point. So I immediately backed off to around 7:30 pace up the hill, then hopped into a porta-potty just after the 12 mile mark. As I entered the bathroom, I looked at my watch and told myself: 2 minutes max. But nothing happened in there. I was just cooked and sat there trying to recover. After almost 2 minutes, I burst out of the bathroom and continued running. Now I knew 2:55 was not going to happen, but maybe I could shake this off and still run a PR. Luckily the next two miles were either flat or downhill. I went through halfway in just under 1:30, which meant that I had been on roughly 1:28 flat pace before my break. But there were a lot of miles left, and they weren't all going to be downhill. At 15 miles I reached the long bridge that everybody complains about on the Richmond course. There was a moderate headwind and a modest uphill just after we crossed back over the river. I handled the headwind ok, but once the uphill began I felt the same funny fluttering feeling and faintness that I had felt 4 miles earlier. Looking back, I see that my HR had jumped to the mid-upper 170s again. At that point I knew I was toast. I stopped at the 16 mile mark, got a drink and ate a gel, after which I briefly and half-heartedly started jogging again for a bit. But what's the point of jogging another 10 miles when my body was clearly telling me it was done? I had gambled and lost, so I stepped over to the sidewalk and took off my bib. Luckily the course had circled around near to my hotel at that point, as my Fenix 5x mapping watch enabled me to discover. I only had to walk for around 10 minutes.

I do not regret going for it or dropping out when I did. In fact, I think this experience puts me in a good position to reassess my training and try again, hopefully with more success in 2019. It makes me think back to another DNF of mine in 2014 at the Pisa Marathon in Italy. Then I made it almost 22 miles on what was probably 2:57 pace before my hip locked up and I was reduced to walking. At the time my PR was 3:06, so that experience convinced me that I could go much faster. Sure enough, I set PRs in my next two marathons: a lower 3:06 into a cold, rainy headwind on the slow Boston course in 2015, then my current PR of 2:58 in Philadelphia later that same year. (Pisa was also one of the earliest signs of the hip weakness that still plagues me and that, I later realized, underlies the injury problems that sidelined me for much of 2016). But the comparison with Pisa is not perfect. I made it much further in Pisa than I did in Richmond (but perhaps only because the Pisa course is completely flat), and my PR is much faster now than it was then. Then it was clear that I was due for a big PR if I basically just kept doing what I had been doing. Now, however, it's not at all clear that I'm capable of running faster than 2:58, even on a flatter course than Richmond. I had a great training block this time but fell apart surprisingly early. For that matter, it's not even clear that I'm capable of running sub-3:00 any more. Here are all of my marathon results since my 2:58 PR in 2015:

Houston (January 2017) - DNF (3:43)
Chicago (October 2017) - 3:10:57
Foot Traffic (July 2018) - DNF (3:37)
Richmond (November 2018) - DNF

Richmond was the first marathon I started but did not actually finish. But the only reason I crossed the finish line in Houston was because I needed to get back to my hotel, which was right next to it, and the course was such that I was far away when I blew up. At Foot Traffic my sister and son were waiting for me in the start / finish area, so after blowing up I got back to them as quickly as possible by the only route I knew: the course. But those were both effectively DNFs as well. If somebody had been waiting with a car to pick me up when I decided all was lost at both of those races, I would have hopped into the car. Only Chicago counts as a proper marathon finish, and my time there wasn't even fast enough to get me into 2019 Boston in the 40-44 age group (which, however, I did not apply for). It's true that all three of my marathons between 2015 Philadelphia and 2018 Richmond were warm: they were all in the 60s and 70s, and Houston in particular was also very humid. Richmond was my only marathon attempt in good weather since Philly. Still, I DNF'd, and this is becoming a trend.

Considering this trend, part of me is tempted to throw in the towel and say it's been a good run but everything comes to an end. To be clear: no part of me is tempted to quit running. I mean part of me is tempted to quit running marathons, or at least to take a break from them for an indeterminate amount of time, while focussing only on half marathon or shorter races. It's obvious anyway that at some point it's not going to be realistic for me to aim for PRs anymore, and I'm not sure whether I will keep running marathons once I'm convinced that I've reached that point. (I will definitely keep running shorter races forever). But I'm convinced that I have not yet reached that point, and the marathon continues to captivate me in a love/hate kind of way. Plus, looking over my training, I think I detect something missing that may account for my DNF in Richmond.

Actually, I see two things missing. One of them is hill training, since it was the hills that got me in Richmond. I should incorporate more hills the next time I run a hilly race. But I think my next PR attempt should be on a flat course, so I'll set this consideration aside for the moment. The other and main gap I see in my training as recorded above are marathon effort workouts. Consider: my problem in Richmond was basically that my HR was too high even before I hit the hills. Even on a flatter course, I surely could have run 2:55 pace for longer, but not easily enough to go the full distance. I was not able to run relaxed enough at that pace. Why not? Well, probably because I hardly ever trained at that pace; and even when I did, I almost never practiced running relaxed at that pace. My mid-week workouts nearly always, with only one exception, involved some sort of intervals that alternated between running much harder and much easier than marathon effort. Don't get me wrong: that's great. But it's the only kind of mid-week workout I did, with the single exception of a 2 x 4 mile MP workout on Oct. 12, which however averaged slightly slower than 2:55 marathon pace. I was also planning a long MP tempo on Oct. 21 but skipped it due to a hip / hamstring flare up. But didn't I run marathon effort during some long runs? Well, not much. Often during long runs too I went from running easy pace to running faster than marathon pace; and even when I did run marathon pace during long runs, it was usually towards the end when my heart rate was high. Again, that's great, but it's all I did. The gap I'm noticing is that I did not train my body to run 6:41-43 pace while keeping my HR low enough that I could maintain it for the full marathon distance, and that's critical. Those other kinds of workouts are important too, but in place of some of them I should do more pure marathon pace runs. I did only one before Richmond. Before 2015 Philadelphia, I did three. Next time, I think I should do four, with the focus on keeping my HR down.

I am registered for the Buffalo Marathon on May 26, 2019. That will be my next marathon. It is not flat, so I will need to incorporate some hill training. The date also means that the weather may not be ideal. Of course I knew this when I registered, but I wanted a late Spring marathon so that I have a good chunk of time to focus on shorter distances before switching back to marathon mode. Given these factors, plus my recent string of DNFs, my goal in Buffalo will just be to finish strong. I'll get into the best marathon shape I can, but my race strategy will not involve taking the sort of risks I took in Richmond. I'll keep things relatively conservative in the first half and maybe use HR instead of pace as a gauge to make sure I get to the finish line. Then, if that works out tolerably, I'll make another PR attempt next Fall. After Richmond some people in my club were throwing around the idea of doing Philadelphia in 2019. That sounds good to me. After that, who knows?

For the immediate future, though, I'm going to turn my attention to speed and LT workouts with a view to having fun at some winter club races and then taking aim at some of my non-marathon PRs - every single one of which is from 2013! I've gotten within seconds of both my 10k and half marathon PRs since then, but it's silly that they've lasted this long. I think the trouble I've had in recent years with faster running is rooted in my weak right glute medius, which I've now diagnosed with two PTs and know how to strengthen. I'm going to prioritize that in the coming months.

Late summer training and the South Lakes 10k

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?

Foot Traffic Flat Marathon: training and race report

Look, I ran another marathon: the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon on Sauvie Island outside Portland, Oregon! It's a fantastic event that I encourage others to do, even though my race did not go well. Since an actual human being recently mentioned to me that he had read this running blog, I'll take this opportunity to do some catching up.

After Chicago last Fall, my previous marathon, I had hoped to run a Spring marathon but a minor injury to my pes anserine tendon (of whose existence I thus became aware) forced me to take 10 days off in late February shortly after I had shifted back into marathon mode. At that point I was not far enough along to be able to recover my fitness quickly after 10 days off, but it was too late to start over and get in a full build-up. So I abandoned the Spring marathon idea and briefly refocused on running a half in April instead. But I only managed to get running again for 5 weeks before the flu forced me to take another 10 days off in late March and early April. So I ended up just doing a few club races this entire Winter and Spring, mainly as workouts.

Usually we head to Greece for the summer sometime in mid- or late-June. But this year my nephew's birth was the occasion for my son and I to visit my sister in Portland, Oregon, in early July. When we were making plans for this visit in March, before I got the flu, I mentioned to my sister that I noticed there was a marathon near Portland on July 4. She replied enthusiastically that she knew of the race, that I must do it and get the Portland race experience, and that she wanted to drive my son and I up to the race early that morning and hang out there with him while I ran. So I registered and booked our tickets. In retrospect, I don't think it was a good idea to do this race 4 weeks after my nephew was born, because my poor sister was hardly getting any sleep and had more important things to worry about. I should have done it another year instead. But she had been trying to get me to run a marathon in Portland for years and seemed to enjoy it, somehow, despite barely sleeping. She's really into biking and soaks up that outdoor, endurance sport ambience. I guess it runs in the family.

The day I started running again after being leveled by the flu was exactly 12 weeks before the marathon. Normally I like to make sure I'm generally fit before beginning a 12-week block of marathon-specific training, but this time around I was starting from ground zero. I had no residual fitness since the flu had hit me quite hard and I wasn't in great shape before getting the flu anyway. Plus, this year's germs seemed to take longer to recover from than usual, so it was really slow going at first. Here are my 12 weeks of training for this race since recovering from the flu:

Wk 12 – April 9-15

Mo: off

Tu: 3 miles

We: off

Th: 4 miles

Fr: off

Sa: 5 miles

Su: 4 miles

Week total: 16 miles

Wk 11 – April 16-22

Mo: off

Tu: 6 miles

We: 4 miles

Th: 6 miles with 6 x 40 sec. hills

Fr: 4 miles

Sa: off

Su: 10 miles

Week total: 30 miles

Wk 10 – April 23-29

Mo: 3 miles

Tu: 7 miles with 8 x 40 sec. hills

We: 4 miles

Th: Fartlek: 2 x (3, 2, 1 min.) with equal recoveries

Fr: off

Sa: 14 miles

Su: 4 miles

Week total: 40 miles

Wk 9 – April 30-May 6

Mo: off

Tu: Fartlek: (5, 4, 3), (4, 3, 2), (3, 2, 1) min. with half recoveries

We: 5.5 miles

Th: 7 miles

Fr: 6 miles

Sa: 16 miles, pushing 3 miles after 11

Su: off

Week total: 45 miles

Wk 8 – May 7-13

Mo: 4 miles

Tu: 5.5 miles

We: 8 miles

Th: 5.5 miles

Fr: 8 miles plus 5 strides

Sa: 5.5 miles

Su: 16 miles, pushing 3 miles after 11

Week total: 53 miles

Wk 7 – May 14-20

Mo: 8 miles

Tu: 6 miles

We: 9 miles

Th: Fartlek: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 min. with equal recoveries

Fr: 9 miles

Sa: 7 miles

Su: 7 miles

Week total: 59 miles

Wk 6 – May 21-27

Mo: 18 mile progression, with miles 12-16 under 7:00

Tu: off

We: 7 miles

Th: 8 miles

Fr: 3 miles

Sa: 8 miles

Su: 16 miles

Week total: 60 miles

Wk 5 – May 28-June 3

Mo: 6 miles

Tu: 8.5 miles

We: Fartlek: 3 x (1, 2, 3 min) with equal recoveries

Th: 10 miles

Fr: off

Sa: 6 miles

Su: off

Week total: 40 miles 

Wk 4 – June 4-10

Mo: 6 miles

Tu: 18 miles, tied up early and slowed down after 12

We: 6 miles

Th: off

Fr: off

Sa: 6 miles

Su: 9 miles

Week total: 45 miles

Wk 3 – June 11-17

Mo: 6 miles

Tu: 7 x 1 mile (2 min. rests), from 6:46 down to 6:08

We: 6 miles

Th: 7 miles

Fr: off

Sa: 21.5 miles

Su: 6.5 miles

Week total: 60 miles

Wk 2 – June 18-24

Mo: off

Tu: 8 miles

We: 6 miles

Th: 4 mile tune-up in 25:14

Fr: 7 miles

Sa: off

Su: 11 miles

Week total: 45 miles

Wk 1 – June 25-July 1

Mo: 5.5 miles

Tu: 3 miles @ 6:37 (3 min. rest), 2 miles @ 6:32 (2 min. rest), 1 mile @ 6:20

We: 5.5 miles

Th: off

Fr: 5.5 miles

Sa: 3 x 1k @ 6:38 (1 min. rests)

Su: 4 miles

Week total: 38 miles 

Wk 0 – July 2-8

Mo: 4.5 miles

Tu: off

We: Foot Traffic Flat Marathon

As you can see, this was very much an abbreviated build-up. The first baby marathon workouts were in weeks 9 and 8, while I was still building mileage, and neither of them went well. It wasn't until 6 weeks to go that I had my first good long run workout while at a conference in Vancouver, running around Stanley Park on May 21. But that turned out to be my only good long run workout of the entire cycle, probably not coincidentally since the weather in Vancouver was so much nicer than in the DC area. Later that same week, back in DC on May 27, I tried to run 21 miles easy on a very humid day but barely made it 16 miles. The next long run on June 5 was not much better: that time I made it slightly further (18 miles) and briefly got going faster but then fell apart even more spectacularly. I finally concluded after that run that the shoes I had been wearing since January for faster and longer runs, the Nike Elite 9, were not working for me and probably had precipitated my pes anserine injury, which was then starting to bug me again. I just about pulled the plug on the marathon after that run too, but instead I hoped that reverting to my trusty Adidas Bostons would help me turn things around. (Why did I ever set the Bostons aside?) I was able to get in a couple of good workouts in my final pre-taper week (3), although I never got going faster than 7:15 pace in my final long run that week. I figured it might be just enough to run a slowish marathon in good weather, though. In the end I averaged 44.25 miles per week during these 12 weeks, compared with 53 miles per week before Chicago. But this time around I had done almost none of the major workouts that have formed the backbone of my marathon training blocks for the past several years.

I wasn't hoping to set any records in a summer race with inadequate training. But I thought my fitness was beginning to come around and figured I was capable of running 3:05 or so in ok conditions. My 3:10 in Chicago will probably put me in the second wave at Boston, so I was hoping to beat that by just enough to get into the first wave. The weather was indeed ok: at the start it was cloudy and cool, maybe 60 or just under, and not very humid. It warmed up gradually during the race to over 70 by the end, but the humidity stayed in check and the sun peaked out from behind the clouds only during that last 30-40 minutes. These were somewhat better conditions than I had in Chicago, which was more humid and warmed up sooner, although the Chicago course is flatter and I was in much better shape for Chicago.

I decided to take advantage of the cool start and go out a little faster than my goal pace, intending to execute a modest and controlled slowdown during the second half as it warmed up. Despite the name of this race, its course is in fact not flat but consists of rolling hills for most of the first 17 miles, including one or two modest hills, after which it is mostly flat with one bigger hill on a short out-and-back segment. Only the 250 or so marathoners start first at 6:30am, and the entire course is on farm roads around a rural island outside of Portland with majestic views of Mts. St. Helens (especially), Adams, and Hood. There were few spectators or really anyone at all out on the course, so I was quickly by myself in a semi-meditative state, alone with the views, until after a turn-around just past 10 miles, when other runners passed me going the other direction, and then after 17 miles when the marathon course joined the half-marathon course and I started passing groups of walkers until the finish. At each water stop there were a few people handing out water in absurdly small cups who sometimes noticed that a runner was coming. I didn't manage to get a great deal of water during the race.

I settled into a pretty consistent pace just under 7:00 and went through halfway in 1:31:13 (6:58 pace). But I already started feeling crappy by 11 miles, which is really early in a marathon. In mile 11 I got the distinctive metallic taste in my mouth that I only get during migraines, though no migraine actually developed until later that evening. I've learned from 30 years of experience, however, that the symptoms I mainly associate with migraines are only the tip of an iceberg. Other physiological events occur below the surface that leave me mysteriously out of sorts for up to 2-3 days before and after migraines. Sometimes I'll feel incomprehensibly crappy during a workout and have to abandon it early, believing that I must be in worse shape than I had thought, only to realize when a migraine surfaces in the next day or two that it was the cause of my feeling crappy all along. Then it passes and I'm fine again, always relieved to have the migraine behind me. It has almost become a tradition for me to have a migraine 2-4 weeks before a marathon, which derails one workout but puts me at ease knowing that I'm not going to get another one that affects the race itself, since I usually don't get them very often (and the actual migraines I get nowadays are pale images of the ones I used to get). But this time around I did not have a migraine during my taper and one did affect me during the race. I felt crappy from 11 miles and never recovered. Despite getting the distinctive metallic taste in my mouth, I still wasn't sure that was the cause until the full migraine arrived later that evening. "Oh, that's what it was," I thought, almost welcoming this excuse to have run so poorly.

I did not immediately slow down in mile 11 but only started slowing a little in miles 15-16 when the rolling hills went more up than down, and then I stopped to stretch at a water stop at mile 17 where the marathon course rejoins the half-marathon course. After that I jogged a few miles more slowly and then basically jog-walked the final 10k. What first slowed me down was muscle tightness in all my usual weak spots. But in the final 10k it was GI discomfort that led me to jog-walk, which is consistent with both the warming conditions and the presence of a migraine, since at least my migraines have some sort of deep connection with my gut (the headache part is just the cherry on top). I finally crossed the finish line in 3:37:56, having assured my sister that I would take no longer than 3:45 even if I blew up spectacularly. This was in fact the least slow of my now 4 marathon blow-ups, which includes my first marathon and Houston a year and a half ago. This one was also by far the most fun, because my son and sister were there, the race environment was scenic and chill, and my hopes weren't very high in the first place.

I was hoping to run a solid, if not fast race, and didn't manage that. But more importantly I wanted to get my training back into the ballpark where, after recovering from this race, I can handle a proper marathon build-up to Richmond this November, and I did manage that. For Richmond I'm going to restore all the corners I cut for this race, since I'm now more familiar with the purposes they serve. We'll head to Greece in a couple weeks and I promised my wife that I wouldn't do serious marathon training there this year (since I did nearly all my Chicago training there last summer). But I do plan to establish a solid base of mileage with the usual hills, fartleks, eventually some tempos, and easy long runs by the time we return in late August and Fall marathon training picks up in earnest. I'm registered for the Parks half on September 9, the Army 10 miler on October 7, and the Richmond Marathon on November 10, and I may do the South Lakes 10k in late August as well.

So, on to Richmond....

Chicago Marathon and so on

I ran the Chicago Marathon three weeks ago and am just now getting around to registering that fact on my now rarely updated running blog. It was on the whole an underwhelming race experience. On a warm day, I ran 3:10:57, which is not a fast time for me but at least will get me back to Boston in 2019.

After running a warm and very humid marathon earlier this year (Houston), as well as a warm and very humid tune-up half-marathon a few weeks before Chicago (the Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon), I was not pleased by the weather forecast for Chicago predicting race temperatures mostly in the 60s. It ended up being in the upper 50s at the start and probably around 70 by the time I finished. At least it wasn't too humid, and I had done much of my training in far warmer conditions this past summer in Greece (which is not humid). But I've come to regard weather as nearly determinative of my performance in marathons: basically, the cooler, the better. My PR race was in the upper 40s and breezy, so overheating was not an issue. Although I've run poorly in cool weather before, I've never run very well in warm weather. The temperature in Chicago was not warm enough to make trying to run a decent time pointless, but it was definitely not PR weather. My coach and I agreed that I was in shape to aim for 2:55 in ideal conditions, but neither of us was quite sure just how much the forecast dictated that I should scale back my ambitions. The night before the race he reluctantly gave me permission to go out at 3:00 pace for the first half, but it was clear that I'd need to monitor carefully how my body was handling the conditions and adjust my pace accordingly.

As it happened, I had little idea how fast I was running during the first half of the race because the tall buildings and underpasses in Chicago threw off my GPS. By the finish, my Garmin thought I had run 28.4 miles and set a world record of 3:25 for the mile midway through (in mile 14). I could have hit the lap button at mile markers or just calculated splits by looking at the elapsed time, but I didn't because I figured that in the warm weather I was probably better off running by feel anyway. I went through halfway in 1:30:39, and that's pretty much the time I expected by that point, so my ability to judge pace by feel is apparently surprisingly accurate. But I was already feeling warm by then and knew that I was going to run a positive split. The only question was by how much. A little past halfway the sun started bearing down on us as we moved away from the tall buildings downtown. I slowed down preemptively, rather than wait until I had no choice a few miles later. There's no point in killing myself for a mediocre time, I thought. Since I had bombed at Houston earlier this year, and didn't run a marathon in 2016 due to injury, I had no Boston qualifier for the 2018 race and wasn't able to register. The Boston qualifying standard for my age group (40-44) is 3:15, and these days you need to run at least "BQ-5" to be confident that you'll get in. So in Chicago, by 18 miles or so, I just wanted to make sure to run a 3:10 so that I can run Boston in 2019. To do that after a 1:30 first half, I didn't need to run the second half fast but basically just needed to keep running. In the last 5km I did have to stop a few times, for perhaps 15-20 seconds each time, to avoid throwing up (which ended up happening after I finished anyway). I guess the heat was getting to my stomach, or maybe it was just the previous night's dinner not agreeing with me. If I had been on track for a great time, then I might have gotten to find out whether I'm badass enough to puke while continuing to run (probably not). But by that point my GPS was working well enough that I knew there was no need.

I suppose it's possible that going into Chicago I wasn't really in the sort of shape that I had thought I was in. Because of my injury-filled 2016, our primary goal for the build-up was to stay injury free. That meant scaling back my peak mileage (to 65 miles per week) and spacing out hard long run workouts to every other weekend. Also because an early October race meant that all my training occurred in warm summer conditions, and it was especially hot this past summer in Europe where I was for most of this build-up, I ran much more slowly on non-workout days than I ever have in the past. For the first time, I went by heart rate instead of pace, keeping my heart rate below 140 on all non-workout days, which often required me to run 8:45 pace when I might have run 7:45 pace in the past. I'm not really sure what effect this had on my fitness, but at least I didn't get injured, and that was the main goal. In hindsight I think it was a good idea to have very slow recovery days, but I should not have run so slowly on every non-workout day. Since I only do two workouts per week in marathon mode, I should distinguish the remaining 4-5 days into recovery and easy days instead of effectively making them all recovery days. Anyway, perhaps I wasn't really in 2:55 shape under ideal conditions - I'm not saying I wasn't, but I don't know whether I was or not since the conditions were far from ideal. I think that's what was most frustrating to me about this race: it didn't even give me license to mope around feeling like I didn't train hard enough. It just didn't really tell me anything at all. Well, it did tell me that I want to steer clear of warm weather marathons in the future.

It has been three weeks since Chicago and I'm back running regularly again, apparently injury-free and beginning to slowly get back into things. After working with a coach for three years, I'm also back to "coaching" myself now. My plan is to do several club races in the next few months from 5km to half marathon distances, starting with a 5 mile turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Then in January I'll decide whether to start training for a Spring marathon or stay focused on shorter stuff. Either way, I've registered for a small club race on rail trails in early April, the B&A (Half-) Marathon with the Annapolis Striders. I registered for the full marathon but can choose to switch to the half, which cost only $5 less anyway. I'll train toward that as a goal race whether I end up choosing the half or the full. If I choose the B&A half as my goal race, then I'm tossing around the idea of possibly doing the Vermont City Marathon in late May as well, not as a goal race, but just so that I don't have to wait a year before doing another marathon. We'll see. I'm pretty sure that the Richmond Marathon is going to be my goal race next Fall.

Update

In my last post here nearly two years ago, I laughed off the suggestion of a friend that maybe I'd quit running after going sub-3 at the 2015 Philadelphia Marathon. If there's anyone who reads my running blog and has no other contact with me, it might appear as if I did in fact simply quit running after that. At least I seem to have quit commenting about running on this blog. Much of the reason for this, however, is simply that I joined Strava around that time, which makes blogging about running seem redundant. In any case, I have not in fact stopped running, although I haven't managed any PRs or other great achievements since Philly that seemed worth writing about.

For the first half of 2016 I was on sabbatical in Greece, mostly Athens. Since I was in Europe, I planned to run the Paris Marathon in early April. But after months of hard training, I got injured during my taper only two weeks before the race. I still had a nice family trip to Paris but was unable to run the race. That injury, mainly to my lower glute but also implicating my upper hamstring and other nearby muscles, continued to plague me for most of the rest of 2016. I probably would have quit running if Dr. Josh Bross at Elite Chiropractic & Sport hadn't helped me turn things around that Fall. I went to see him only as a last ditch effort, not really expecting ever to be able to run again like I had the previous few years, if at all. But he was not so pessimistic and encouraged me to keep running while receiving treatment. I ran some pretty dismal races that Fall, but after a couple months I managed to give my PR a scare at the Richmond Half Marathon. Although the glute was not yet fully recovered, it was just strong enough for me to move forward with training for the Houston Marathon in January of 2017. I didn't end up running well at Houston, but not because of that injury. It was warm and humid, and I didn't slow down early enough to avoid cratering two-thirds of the way through the race. Mostly I was happy just to have made it to the start line in Houston and to be in a position to look forward to future races.

My plan for 2017 was to hit the gym in late Winter and Spring in order to get my glute strong again, while running some shorter races. Then I hope to return to PR form by Fall at the Navy Air-Force Half Marathon in September and especially the Chicago Marathon in October. Currently I'm back in Greece, where I've started training for Chicago. For details (and photos) see my Strava profile linked above. Maybe I'll even get back to updating this blog occasionally as well.