Another 55 mile week

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

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

Working through some lower back issues

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

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

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

Let's try this again

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

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?