WEEKLY SUMMARY (March 24-30): 51 miles (88% easy and 12% tempo paces)
Sunday: 8.4 miles at 7:12/mi.
Monday: off
Tuesday: 8.3 miles at 7:15/mi.
Wednesday: 4 miles at 7:29/mi.
Thursday: 3 E, 3 x 2 miles T averaging 6:14/mi. (2 min.), 1.3 E (10.3 miles total)
Friday: 7 miles at 7:25/mi.
Saturday: 13 miles at 7:14/mi.
This week went well in spite of a dud run on Wednesday, when I misjudged how hungry I was before setting out to run in the afternoon. On Sunday I intended to increase some of my easy runs to 8 miles from a typical 7 recently, but I ran too far because I was feeling good and forgot to turn around. Then I did the same thing again on Tuesday, apparently having established a pattern. Thursday's tempo run was great. I hadn't done more than 2 x 2 mile tempos for a long time, and when I had done more in the distant past it was at a slower pace. But after 2 x 2 miles I felt fine, even though it was a windy day, and I didn't feel any different after 3 x 2 miles. Clearly I could have kept going or run that distance faster. This workout has caused me to lower my goal for next weekend's Cherry Blossom 10-miler to sub-62 minutes, which is 6:12/mi. pace. With some more time I think I could realistically aim to run sub-60, but trying to run faster now would probably just lead to a blow-up. I added some more races to my Spring schedule, though, since my hip seems strong and I feel like I'm just starting to get into shape. So I'll have more opportunities to try to run faster soon at various distances. Next week, although I should rest up some for Cherry Blossom, I want to do another track workout (maybe on Tuesday) for the sake of the 10k two weeks later. This time I was thinking of trying a slightly shorter interval distance - 5 x 1k (600m) - in order to help me speed up the pace. Then I'll do a stretch of slow, easy days before Cherry Blossom, and my weekly mileage might be slightly lower if I don't do a medium-long run. The week after next I'll try to increase the mileage another notch to the mid-upper 50's and gradually lengthen my medium-long or long run proportionately (keeping it around 25% of weekly mileage). For some reason I arbitrarily call runs longer than 10 miles "medium-long" and only runs longer than 2 hours "long." If I do keep my longish runs at or around 25% of weekly mileage, which is also an arbitrary number, then at my current paces I'll have to get back into the mid-upper 60's before doing "long" runs again.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
WEEKLY SUMMARY (March 17-23): 50 miles (95% easy and 5% interval paces)
Sunday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:15/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:32/mi.
Thursday: 13 miles at 7:18/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Saturday: 3 E, 3 x 1200m I averaging 4:27-8 (800m E), 2 E (9 miles total)
I'm happy to have managed 50 miles this week. The plan was to run easy until returning to the track on Saturday, and that's what I did. But I should have run extra easy on Sunday and/or Monday. I didn't do that because I figured the half marathon last Saturday didn't make much out of me, and I felt fine on Sunday's and Monday's easy runs. But after running, especially on Monday, my muscles were too tight. So I took Tuesday off and did the slower run on Wednesday that I should have done several days earlier. That did the trick of loosening things up and I felt strong on Thursday's medium-long run. Several times this week my hip reminded me that it's not entirely back to normal yet, but it was never a real problem. The weather is unseasonably cold and I wonder how much that affects it, especially when I run at dawn. Saturday's intervals were disappointingly slow - about 5:58/mi. pace, which is even slower than the last time I made it to the track two and a half weeks ago, when I did 2 x 1200m. But I think it was just an off day for me. I gave what I had and got through three intervals. In a little over a week I'll do that workout again but with four intervals, and hopefully it'll be a bit faster. I don't really need to train at a faster pace for the 10-miler in two weeks, but I'm also thinking about the 10k two weeks after that. Next week I plan to run 50-55 miles. The only workout will be a tempo run midweek that I'll try to make a bit longer than the previous one but at the same 6:15-ish pace, which is roughly the pace I'm thinking of trying to run in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler (to finish under 63 minutes). I'm happy to report that, although it's now late March, my allergies are still not bad at all. The irresistible coughing that prevented me from sleeping for weeks on end last year has not returned - at least not yet. Tree pollen was high for a couple days, and I noticed it, but it didn't last long enough to have a significant, cumulative effect. My hope is that when the weather does finally start acting like Spring it'll be too late for another really bad allergy season to get going. But I probably won't be able to avoid running with the allergy mask at some point soon.
Sunday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:15/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:32/mi.
Thursday: 13 miles at 7:18/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Saturday: 3 E, 3 x 1200m I averaging 4:27-8 (800m E), 2 E (9 miles total)
I'm happy to have managed 50 miles this week. The plan was to run easy until returning to the track on Saturday, and that's what I did. But I should have run extra easy on Sunday and/or Monday. I didn't do that because I figured the half marathon last Saturday didn't make much out of me, and I felt fine on Sunday's and Monday's easy runs. But after running, especially on Monday, my muscles were too tight. So I took Tuesday off and did the slower run on Wednesday that I should have done several days earlier. That did the trick of loosening things up and I felt strong on Thursday's medium-long run. Several times this week my hip reminded me that it's not entirely back to normal yet, but it was never a real problem. The weather is unseasonably cold and I wonder how much that affects it, especially when I run at dawn. Saturday's intervals were disappointingly slow - about 5:58/mi. pace, which is even slower than the last time I made it to the track two and a half weeks ago, when I did 2 x 1200m. But I think it was just an off day for me. I gave what I had and got through three intervals. In a little over a week I'll do that workout again but with four intervals, and hopefully it'll be a bit faster. I don't really need to train at a faster pace for the 10-miler in two weeks, but I'm also thinking about the 10k two weeks after that. Next week I plan to run 50-55 miles. The only workout will be a tempo run midweek that I'll try to make a bit longer than the previous one but at the same 6:15-ish pace, which is roughly the pace I'm thinking of trying to run in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler (to finish under 63 minutes). I'm happy to report that, although it's now late March, my allergies are still not bad at all. The irresistible coughing that prevented me from sleeping for weeks on end last year has not returned - at least not yet. Tree pollen was high for a couple days, and I noticed it, but it didn't last long enough to have a significant, cumulative effect. My hope is that when the weather does finally start acting like Spring it'll be too late for another really bad allergy season to get going. But I probably won't be able to avoid running with the allergy mask at some point soon.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
WEEKLY SUMMARY (March 10-16): 40 miles (55% E, 33% half marathon, and 12% 8k paces)
Sunday: 2 mile warm up, then 8k race in 30:13 (see below)
Monday: 6 easy at 7:34/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:18/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Friday: off
Saturday: half marathon race in 1:31:16 (see below)
This week I didn't run enough miles, as usual for some time now, and too few of the miles I did run were easy. I did run the half marathon rather slowly, but still my average pace for the week was 7:06/mi. compared with 7:17/mi. for all of 2013 so far before today (Saturday). That's pretty much inevitable for a week with races on a Sunday and again the following Saturday. But this low mileage is really getting ridiculous. Next week I plan to run easy until the weekend, and the mileage just needs to get higher. Today's half marathon was a wake up call that I'm not in the shape I'd like to be in. My hip injury knocked me off course but it's doing well enough to run more now. Anyway, my injury wasn't nearly as bad as Michael Wardian's multiple stress fractures, and look what he managed to do today. (We're the same age, by the way). There are three weeks until the Cherry Blossom 10-miler, and it's time for me to get crackin'.
Sunday: 2 mile warm up, then 8k race in 30:13 (see below)
Monday: 6 easy at 7:34/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:18/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Friday: off
Saturday: half marathon race in 1:31:16 (see below)
This week I didn't run enough miles, as usual for some time now, and too few of the miles I did run were easy. I did run the half marathon rather slowly, but still my average pace for the week was 7:06/mi. compared with 7:17/mi. for all of 2013 so far before today (Saturday). That's pretty much inevitable for a week with races on a Sunday and again the following Saturday. But this low mileage is really getting ridiculous. Next week I plan to run easy until the weekend, and the mileage just needs to get higher. Today's half marathon was a wake up call that I'm not in the shape I'd like to be in. My hip injury knocked me off course but it's doing well enough to run more now. Anyway, my injury wasn't nearly as bad as Michael Wardian's multiple stress fractures, and look what he managed to do today. (We're the same age, by the way). There are three weeks until the Cherry Blossom 10-miler, and it's time for me to get crackin'.
ROCK N ROLL USA HALF MARATHON (race report):
I screwed up and didn't get to the start line on time for this race. I mainly just underestimated how big it is and didn't plan to arrive early enough for an event of this size. This was the second year that this was an RnR race. Before that it had been the National Marathon, which I did two years ago. That event was much smaller than this one, and I failed to realize how much bigger it had become. It has now become comparable to the Marine Corps Marathon in size - which is to say, huge. I arrived at 6:30am, an hour before the gun, and promptly got into a huge bathroom line. I got out of the bathroom at 7:15 and still needed to drop off my bag in the bag trucks. Since they were right next to the bathrooms, and the start line was not terribly far away, I figured that I was still fine but would have to do a shorter warm up than planned. But the bag trucks were unbelievably poorly managed. They were organized alphabetically by last name instead of by corral or bib number, and for some reason you couldn't just walk up and hand your bag to somebody. The single volunteer at my truck (and every other one too, as far as I could tell) took a while to make sure that the last name on each person's bag fell into the right alphabetical range. This caused lines to form that were even longer than those at the bathrooms. The bag trucks were school busses parked front-to-back in a long row on the side of the road, and the line for my truck began five busses down the road. I arrived at the back of this line around 7:20, when it became clear that I was going to miss the start by a long shot. It seems that very many people missed the start of their corral for this reason, but I was supposed to be in corral one at the front of the race. Instead I ended up starting with corral seven or eight (I'm not sure). So from the beginning I was surrounded by people running much slower than I wanted to run. Long story less long: I finished in 1:31:16, which is a 6:58/mile pace and at least 30 seconds per mile slower than I had hoped for. Running even that pace took a lot more energy than it normally would have because, when possible, I was weaving through crowds of people from one side of the street to the other, hopping onto and off of curbs and medians, and sometimes running on the wrong side of the road toward oncoming runners when the course doubled back onto itself (which resulted in my 5k split being recorded about a mile earlier than it should have). Sometimes none of those methods of running faster than people around me was possible and I had no choice but to slow down to their pace, so that I was frequently speeding up to much faster than 6:58 pace and slowing down again to a much slower pace. This was worse in the early miles, because the crowds around me were denser then; but I was passing people at roughly the same rate for the entire race. Even though my finishing time was five minutes slower than my PR, which itself was set in a race in which I exploded by halfway and slowed down drastically over the second half, I'm still quite tired afterwards. Part of this is also because I'm not in very good shape right now, though. It is ultimately my fault that I missed the start, but the baggage truck mess was irritating, and it was worse after the race (for half marathoners, at least). When I arrived at my truck after finishing, there were maybe a dozen people in line ahead of me who said they had been standing there for 20-30 minutes, during which time nobody had been given a bag. I don't know what the two people working at the truck (volunteers?) were doing - it seemed like they were looking for those people's bags that whole time and couldn't find them. But after I had been there for another 20-30 minutes, runners started revolting and stormed the truck. The workers kind of retreated and gave up while half a dozen runners took over searching for and distributing bags. (I think similar mutinies occurred in other trucks as well, but I was pretty wrapped up in my own). Inside the truck, bags were somewhat organized by runners' bib numbers: they were more or less in piles by 2,000 digit increments, but within those piles there was no organization, and very many bags were in the wrong piles. Because bib numbers did not correspond to last names, and only bags from people whose last names fell within a certain alphabetical range were in each truck, there really was no way to organize the bags much better than that. Why didn't they assign bags to trucks by bib number instead of by last name? This mess really made me appreciate the mass efficiency and organization of the MCM, which I've done three times without ever waiting more than a minute or two on either end of the baggage check. Today I spent around an hour at the bag truck after the race, and it seems that some others were standing around shivering in sweaty clothes for longer. It's not enough to cause me to foreswear RnR events in the future, but I won't jump at the opportunity to participate in them. I like doing big races sometimes, especially marathons, as long as I get to start up front. But in the future I'll be sure to arrive earlier, and maybe I'll start taking more of an interest in less massive events in general.
I screwed up and didn't get to the start line on time for this race. I mainly just underestimated how big it is and didn't plan to arrive early enough for an event of this size. This was the second year that this was an RnR race. Before that it had been the National Marathon, which I did two years ago. That event was much smaller than this one, and I failed to realize how much bigger it had become. It has now become comparable to the Marine Corps Marathon in size - which is to say, huge. I arrived at 6:30am, an hour before the gun, and promptly got into a huge bathroom line. I got out of the bathroom at 7:15 and still needed to drop off my bag in the bag trucks. Since they were right next to the bathrooms, and the start line was not terribly far away, I figured that I was still fine but would have to do a shorter warm up than planned. But the bag trucks were unbelievably poorly managed. They were organized alphabetically by last name instead of by corral or bib number, and for some reason you couldn't just walk up and hand your bag to somebody. The single volunteer at my truck (and every other one too, as far as I could tell) took a while to make sure that the last name on each person's bag fell into the right alphabetical range. This caused lines to form that were even longer than those at the bathrooms. The bag trucks were school busses parked front-to-back in a long row on the side of the road, and the line for my truck began five busses down the road. I arrived at the back of this line around 7:20, when it became clear that I was going to miss the start by a long shot. It seems that very many people missed the start of their corral for this reason, but I was supposed to be in corral one at the front of the race. Instead I ended up starting with corral seven or eight (I'm not sure). So from the beginning I was surrounded by people running much slower than I wanted to run. Long story less long: I finished in 1:31:16, which is a 6:58/mile pace and at least 30 seconds per mile slower than I had hoped for. Running even that pace took a lot more energy than it normally would have because, when possible, I was weaving through crowds of people from one side of the street to the other, hopping onto and off of curbs and medians, and sometimes running on the wrong side of the road toward oncoming runners when the course doubled back onto itself (which resulted in my 5k split being recorded about a mile earlier than it should have). Sometimes none of those methods of running faster than people around me was possible and I had no choice but to slow down to their pace, so that I was frequently speeding up to much faster than 6:58 pace and slowing down again to a much slower pace. This was worse in the early miles, because the crowds around me were denser then; but I was passing people at roughly the same rate for the entire race. Even though my finishing time was five minutes slower than my PR, which itself was set in a race in which I exploded by halfway and slowed down drastically over the second half, I'm still quite tired afterwards. Part of this is also because I'm not in very good shape right now, though. It is ultimately my fault that I missed the start, but the baggage truck mess was irritating, and it was worse after the race (for half marathoners, at least). When I arrived at my truck after finishing, there were maybe a dozen people in line ahead of me who said they had been standing there for 20-30 minutes, during which time nobody had been given a bag. I don't know what the two people working at the truck (volunteers?) were doing - it seemed like they were looking for those people's bags that whole time and couldn't find them. But after I had been there for another 20-30 minutes, runners started revolting and stormed the truck. The workers kind of retreated and gave up while half a dozen runners took over searching for and distributing bags. (I think similar mutinies occurred in other trucks as well, but I was pretty wrapped up in my own). Inside the truck, bags were somewhat organized by runners' bib numbers: they were more or less in piles by 2,000 digit increments, but within those piles there was no organization, and very many bags were in the wrong piles. Because bib numbers did not correspond to last names, and only bags from people whose last names fell within a certain alphabetical range were in each truck, there really was no way to organize the bags much better than that. Why didn't they assign bags to trucks by bib number instead of by last name? This mess really made me appreciate the mass efficiency and organization of the MCM, which I've done three times without ever waiting more than a minute or two on either end of the baggage check. Today I spent around an hour at the bag truck after the race, and it seems that some others were standing around shivering in sweaty clothes for longer. It's not enough to cause me to foreswear RnR events in the future, but I won't jump at the opportunity to participate in them. I like doing big races sometimes, especially marathons, as long as I get to start up front. But in the future I'll be sure to arrive earlier, and maybe I'll start taking more of an interest in less massive events in general.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
ST. PATRICK'S DAY 8K (race report):
This was my first race in more than two months, since before injuring my hip in January. I've done the course many times, since it was my fourth time running this race and the Jingle All the Way 8k in December is on the same course as well. I don't particularly like the course, but it's a biggish downtown race that kind of signifies the beginning of Spring racing season in DC. It didn't seem right to skip it and I wanted to shake off some dust before next weekend's half marathon. I aimed to run 5:58/mi. pace, which would have given me that ever-elusive sub-30 minute clocking at this distance. For the first half of the race I felt quite strong and was right at 5:58/mi. average pace after three miles. But then, as usual, I slipped quickly into survival mode and finished in 30:13 after dragging myself the last couple miles about 20 seconds slower per mile. My hip felt fine but my stomach was moderately uncomfortable, which (together with dying after three miles) can be chalked up to under-training. The race served its purposes, though: I shook off some dust, tested out my hip and found it to be ok, got in some hard running in advance of the races to come, proved that trying to run sub-60 at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in three weeks would be too ambitious, and even somehow got a 17-second PR.
This was my first race in more than two months, since before injuring my hip in January. I've done the course many times, since it was my fourth time running this race and the Jingle All the Way 8k in December is on the same course as well. I don't particularly like the course, but it's a biggish downtown race that kind of signifies the beginning of Spring racing season in DC. It didn't seem right to skip it and I wanted to shake off some dust before next weekend's half marathon. I aimed to run 5:58/mi. pace, which would have given me that ever-elusive sub-30 minute clocking at this distance. For the first half of the race I felt quite strong and was right at 5:58/mi. average pace after three miles. But then, as usual, I slipped quickly into survival mode and finished in 30:13 after dragging myself the last couple miles about 20 seconds slower per mile. My hip felt fine but my stomach was moderately uncomfortable, which (together with dying after three miles) can be chalked up to under-training. The race served its purposes, though: I shook off some dust, tested out my hip and found it to be ok, got in some hard running in advance of the races to come, proved that trying to run sub-60 at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in three weeks would be too ambitious, and even somehow got a 17-second PR.
WEEKLY SUMMARY (March 3-9): 30 miles (95% easy and 5% interval paces)
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:16/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Tuesday: 2.5 E, 2 x 1200m I @ 5:55/mi. pace (800m E), 2 E (7 miles total)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 5 miles at 7:18/mi.
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 miles at 7:22/mi.
I didn't run much this week, though my hip has been doing well. On Tuesday I went to the track for the first time in a couple months but took things easy. I just wanted to do a couple longish intervals a bit under 6:00/mi. pace in order to get the feel of it again without wearing myself down. It was overdetermined that I wouldn't run on Wednesday: there was a big storm and I had a migraine. The latter explains my lighter run on Thursday too, when I also switched back to morning running after running in late afternoon (when I could) for most of the past two months because my hip seemed less tight then, in part because it's warmer. On Friday I didn't manage to run in the morning and so just skipped running altogether instead of running later. I'm not naturally a morning person at all, so getting myself onto a morning schedule requires drawing firm lines like that. On Saturday I still felt kind of stunned running in the morning and also took it easy because of the 8k race the next day. That brings my average weekly mileage so far in 2013 to 41.5. That's low in part because of my hip injury, but now I'm doing well enough that a low mileage week like this one is due to plain slacking. In the back of my mind I may also have been trying to get in a little rest before picking things up when Spring races begin (today).
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:16/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Tuesday: 2.5 E, 2 x 1200m I @ 5:55/mi. pace (800m E), 2 E (7 miles total)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 5 miles at 7:18/mi.
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 miles at 7:22/mi.
I didn't run much this week, though my hip has been doing well. On Tuesday I went to the track for the first time in a couple months but took things easy. I just wanted to do a couple longish intervals a bit under 6:00/mi. pace in order to get the feel of it again without wearing myself down. It was overdetermined that I wouldn't run on Wednesday: there was a big storm and I had a migraine. The latter explains my lighter run on Thursday too, when I also switched back to morning running after running in late afternoon (when I could) for most of the past two months because my hip seemed less tight then, in part because it's warmer. On Friday I didn't manage to run in the morning and so just skipped running altogether instead of running later. I'm not naturally a morning person at all, so getting myself onto a morning schedule requires drawing firm lines like that. On Saturday I still felt kind of stunned running in the morning and also took it easy because of the 8k race the next day. That brings my average weekly mileage so far in 2013 to 41.5. That's low in part because of my hip injury, but now I'm doing well enough that a low mileage week like this one is due to plain slacking. In the back of my mind I may also have been trying to get in a little rest before picking things up when Spring races begin (today).
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Summary of the previous three weeks:
February 10-16: 49 miles (100% easy pace)
Sunday: 5 miles at 7:29/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Friday: 5 miles at 7:19/mi.
Saturday: 18 miles at 7:20/mi.
February 17-23: 35 miles (89% easy and 11% tempo paces)
Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:24/mi. on a treadmill
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:15/mi.
Thursday: 2.5 E, 4 x 1 mile T @ 6:16 avg. (1 min.), 1.5 E (8 miles total)
Friday: 6 miles at 7:17/mi.
Saturday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Feb. 24 - March 2: 51 miles (92% easy and 8% tempo paces)
Sunday: 16.5 miles at 7:21/mi.
Monday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7.5 miles at 7:16/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Friday: 6 miles at 7:35/mi.
Saturday: 3E, 2 x 2 miles T @ 6:15/mi. (3 min.), 1E (8 miles total)
I've been very busy over the last few weeks. But now I'm on Spring break, even though it's not yet Spring and the weather is not substantially different than it was on Winter break. Over that time my hip initially seemed better, then slipped back, and now seems to be stabilizing again. By now I'm getting used to living with at least some tightness down there even on good days, which I don't expect to go away until I build up a stronger "core" in general over time. At the end of the first week, on Feb. 16, I was encouraged to make it through 18 miles at a respectable, easy pace. My hip felt strong throughout, and I began thinking about trying a faster long run the next weekend and running the marathon on March 16 after all. I took a couple days off after that run simply because I was busy, which - together with not doing my next long run until the following Sunday - resulted in that week's mileage number turning out misleadingly low. But I got in an encouraging set of tempo intervals on Thursday of that week as well, with my hip again feeling stable. The set-back was on Sunday, Feb. 24, when I attempted a 20-miler in which I hoped to pick up the pace after halfway. The main problem was that it was very windy, and the wind was coming from a direction that made me run straight into it for miles 11-13 and then again from 16-20, in addition to generally blowing me around pretty much the whole time. My hip hurt much of the way, especially during and after running into the headwind in miles 11-13, which dampened my hopes of speeding up after halfway. When I turned back into the wind after 16 miles, it was just too much for me and I ended up stopping and taking the metro home. My hip continued to ache for several days after that. It loosened up only after I took an especially easy, slow day on Friday, which enabled me to get in a solid 2 x 2 mile tempo run on Saturday. I think that last Sunday pretty much killed any chances that I had of running the marathon on March 16. It was less windy the following day, and if I had been able to wait and attempt that run on Monday then maybe it would have gone well enough for me to attempt the marathon. But as it is that was my last real chance to get in a hard long run before March 16, and I don't see the point of running my 6th marathon when I haven't been able to do any hard long runs for two months because of an injury. Realistically, I could probably do the marathon, run 7:10/mi. pace for 15 miles or so (3:07 marathon pace), and try to pick it up from there if things were going well, hoping for maybe a 3:05 at best and likely still beating my current PR of 3:12 at worst. But I respect the marathon too much to tangle with that beast when I'm not properly trained for it, and especially when my head's not really in it. I'm looking forward to a lot of other Spring races as well, and in my current state of fitness running the marathon would either risk jeopardizing those other races or essentially amount to jogging 26.2 miles at my easy pace, neither of which I'm able to get excited about. So I'm going to do the half-marathon on March 16 instead, thanks to the RnR policy that allows registered runners to decide up until race day which race they want to run. Of course, I'm not in great half-marathon shape either, but my tempo runs are starting to come along and at least I can see the half as good training for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks later. Before my hip injury I had dreamed of running Cherry Blossom under 60 minutes, but that seems very unlikely now. Maybe 62-3 seems possible now, if my hip holds together, but I'll see how the half goes before setting goals. I might do the St. Patrick's Day 8k next weekend (March 10) just to shake some dust off and test out 5:58 or so pace for 5 miles. Then in the RnR half I might start around 6:30 pace and, after some mid-race hills, try picking it up to bring the pace down into the low 6:20's, which would be a 1:23-4 finish. At least those seem like non-crazy goals. It's March now - almost Spring - and time to start thinking about running fast!
February 10-16: 49 miles (100% easy pace)
Sunday: 5 miles at 7:29/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Friday: 5 miles at 7:19/mi.
Saturday: 18 miles at 7:20/mi.
February 17-23: 35 miles (89% easy and 11% tempo paces)
Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:24/mi. on a treadmill
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:15/mi.
Thursday: 2.5 E, 4 x 1 mile T @ 6:16 avg. (1 min.), 1.5 E (8 miles total)
Friday: 6 miles at 7:17/mi.
Saturday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Feb. 24 - March 2: 51 miles (92% easy and 8% tempo paces)
Sunday: 16.5 miles at 7:21/mi.
Monday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7.5 miles at 7:16/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Friday: 6 miles at 7:35/mi.
Saturday: 3E, 2 x 2 miles T @ 6:15/mi. (3 min.), 1E (8 miles total)
I've been very busy over the last few weeks. But now I'm on Spring break, even though it's not yet Spring and the weather is not substantially different than it was on Winter break. Over that time my hip initially seemed better, then slipped back, and now seems to be stabilizing again. By now I'm getting used to living with at least some tightness down there even on good days, which I don't expect to go away until I build up a stronger "core" in general over time. At the end of the first week, on Feb. 16, I was encouraged to make it through 18 miles at a respectable, easy pace. My hip felt strong throughout, and I began thinking about trying a faster long run the next weekend and running the marathon on March 16 after all. I took a couple days off after that run simply because I was busy, which - together with not doing my next long run until the following Sunday - resulted in that week's mileage number turning out misleadingly low. But I got in an encouraging set of tempo intervals on Thursday of that week as well, with my hip again feeling stable. The set-back was on Sunday, Feb. 24, when I attempted a 20-miler in which I hoped to pick up the pace after halfway. The main problem was that it was very windy, and the wind was coming from a direction that made me run straight into it for miles 11-13 and then again from 16-20, in addition to generally blowing me around pretty much the whole time. My hip hurt much of the way, especially during and after running into the headwind in miles 11-13, which dampened my hopes of speeding up after halfway. When I turned back into the wind after 16 miles, it was just too much for me and I ended up stopping and taking the metro home. My hip continued to ache for several days after that. It loosened up only after I took an especially easy, slow day on Friday, which enabled me to get in a solid 2 x 2 mile tempo run on Saturday. I think that last Sunday pretty much killed any chances that I had of running the marathon on March 16. It was less windy the following day, and if I had been able to wait and attempt that run on Monday then maybe it would have gone well enough for me to attempt the marathon. But as it is that was my last real chance to get in a hard long run before March 16, and I don't see the point of running my 6th marathon when I haven't been able to do any hard long runs for two months because of an injury. Realistically, I could probably do the marathon, run 7:10/mi. pace for 15 miles or so (3:07 marathon pace), and try to pick it up from there if things were going well, hoping for maybe a 3:05 at best and likely still beating my current PR of 3:12 at worst. But I respect the marathon too much to tangle with that beast when I'm not properly trained for it, and especially when my head's not really in it. I'm looking forward to a lot of other Spring races as well, and in my current state of fitness running the marathon would either risk jeopardizing those other races or essentially amount to jogging 26.2 miles at my easy pace, neither of which I'm able to get excited about. So I'm going to do the half-marathon on March 16 instead, thanks to the RnR policy that allows registered runners to decide up until race day which race they want to run. Of course, I'm not in great half-marathon shape either, but my tempo runs are starting to come along and at least I can see the half as good training for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks later. Before my hip injury I had dreamed of running Cherry Blossom under 60 minutes, but that seems very unlikely now. Maybe 62-3 seems possible now, if my hip holds together, but I'll see how the half goes before setting goals. I might do the St. Patrick's Day 8k next weekend (March 10) just to shake some dust off and test out 5:58 or so pace for 5 miles. Then in the RnR half I might start around 6:30 pace and, after some mid-race hills, try picking it up to bring the pace down into the low 6:20's, which would be a 1:23-4 finish. At least those seem like non-crazy goals. It's March now - almost Spring - and time to start thinking about running fast!
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