A week from today I’ll be up in Wisconsin, running the Green Bay Marathon. Much like my post one week prior to the New Orleans Marathon, I’m feeling rather happy to be done with the last long run. Better yet, unlike back then I’m thankfully not recovering from any sort of illness. My current problems are all mental (and/or generic joint achy-breakiness). I was taking at look at my training log – I love that it’s so easy to export this to CSV format from daily mile! Anyway in the time since January 16th, the day I started my 18 week training cycle, I’ve run 723.4 miles, roughly 42.5 per week. This is a bump of 60 miles over the pre-New Orleans cycle, which should translate into greater fitness later in the race when the going gets tough. And as the plot to the right should show, I’m still making some gains in the speed department.
Let’s google race news! Unfortunately it looks like the mayor of Green Bay (Jim Schmitt) has twisted his ankle and is dropping out. Well that sucks. And registration is down this year due to our not finishing in Lambeau Field. Huh. We really need some positive news here. Ok here’s something about volunteers helping some disabled folks in the race. That’ll do.
Song of the week, Slow Show by The National. I’ve listened to this song entirely too many times.
Pain free week here, good news. At 48 miles, this has been my highest mileage week since late February, three weeks prior to New Orleans (conincidentally, Green Bay is three weeks from today). I think I’m in better position now than I was then – my long run this week came in under 20 miles (19.3) but the split was 8:22, ~0:20/mile under the longs I mentioned in that previous post.
My goal for Green Bay is to run a 3:50 marathon, an 8:46 split. This would be a PR for me by ~5 minutes. If my first 19 miles are anything like yesterday’s run, I’ll be under that. My long term goal for the rest of the year is to work down to a 3:40 marathon, or an 8:23 split. That’d still be 25 minutes too slow to be a Boston Qualifying time, but that’s a problem for another time.
Speaking of yesterday’s run – this was the first time I’ve ever used the Minuteman Bikeway. I picked this up at Alewife and ran to the far terminus in Bedford. What a fantastic resource this is. I can’t believe I’ve never done this before. It’s so much easier to make good time when there are pedestrian underpasses and overpasses. And safer too, to not have to contend with sharing infrastructure with cars.
Also, to mix things up I swapped out the entirety of my (17.7 hour!) long run mix for an older mix I used to train for San Francisco in 2009, so my song of the week isn’t something I’ve heard in a while. This clicked on as I crossed from Bedford to Burlington yesterday morning, and is the only song I know of that namechecks Boston, Kansas City & Shreveport. Also, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, which I’ll pass through on May 19th. Me and Johnny, traveling the world.
Second week in a row with some troubles on my long run. Last week I was pretty sure I just ran out of fuel – this week the outside of my left knee was bothering me to such a degree that I stopped my run at mile 15.6 (of a planned 18.4) & walked the rest of the way home. I’m going to pull back a bit & rest a bit more next week (not on miles so much, but on midweek pace) and run a shorter sub-race pace long run next weekend & see if I can get this back under control.
In ‘better news’ – ran my first ever 5K with hondo & YJP (&, for that matter, LZ) as part of the BAA pre-marathon festivities. 5K, a tricky distance and actually somewhat difficult to run at an anaerobic threshold. Not as difficult as an 80+ degree marathon, which is what VK will be doing tomorrow.
Five weeks until Green Bay. Song of the week is Piano Fire from Sparklehorse.
Kind of a difficult running week, finishing up 12 of 18 for the Green Bay Marathon. I did the 20 mile long run I mentioned missing last week on Saturday but I think I didn’t fuel properly because I crashed into the pretty-damned-real-feeling-for-a-metaphor brick wall three quarters of the way through. Hondo says you have to take the good with the bad and expect the occasional bad long run along the way but there’s got to be something more scientific than that I can do to prevent this from happening in a race. More fluids, more sleep, more Gu, less booze (if that’s even possible). I don’t know. I’ll try again next weekend. Really the only good part of the 20 was the buck I found blowing along Memorial Drive between miles 12 & 13.
Looking at the week as a whole though, I was really quite happy with my tempo run on Wednesday, where I hit 8.6 miles in just under an hour, a sub-7:00 split. This is the longest run I’ve sustained this pace. My goal for the next few Wednesdays is to repeat this effort until it comes easier.
Next Sunday is the BAA 5K which I’m pretty sure I can pop a PR without crashing, considering I’ve never raced that distance before. And day after that, it’s our elite fluids volunteer gig for the big show, the Boston Marathon. Somehow, someway, VK’s almost to his fundraising target – we’re looking forward to cheering him on, if we can figure out which side of the course both he and we will be on.
Song of the week, one of my favorites and a new arrival on the marathon long run mix, Grandaddy, A.M. 180.
I stayed up stupid late last night after KU squeaked out a win over OSU in the Final Four, and that (plus excessive vegan nachos, and being sick) made for a less than full speed long run today. Regardless, 41 miles for the week. The Green Bay Marathon is 7 weeks from today which means I should probably be figuring out where my pre-race 20s will be mixed in – now that I think about it I probably should have done one today. This is week 11 of 18 for Green Bay – I did three 20′s before New Orleans on weeks 11, 13 & 15. So yeah, looks like I’m off schedule.
In shorter distance news, the BAA 5K is two weeks from today, and the day after that, our Boston Marathon volunteer team will be working at the 35k elite fluid station. I don’t know exactly what that entails yet but I’ll assume it’s one of the most essential & sexy job assignments possible.
Song of the week (from the 2010 Foss Fest interlude double album mix) is Essex Green, The Late Great Cassiopeia. Excellent song to kick home to.
I’ve been sick this weekend which has put a kink in my training schedule but I managed to get 14.4 done yesterday and hit my 40 mile goal for the week, albeit with a bit less energy than I would like. Still, done is done. Green Bay is 8 weeks from today.
The one small regret of the week is that I didn’t get up to Maine to run the Eastern States 20 this morning, but given how I’m feeling it just wasn’t realistic. Hopefully I’ll get to do that next year. Instead I slept in crazy late then met up with Nate & Lucy to watch KU beat Roy & co to advance to the final four!
Song of the week is from a 2010 mixcorps album, Kate Nash, Foundations.
The rest of Team HB & I rolled down to Quincy this morning for my first crack at the Half of Quincy. Interesting course, starts out along the water, runs up through a gorgeous neighborhood in Squantum, around Marina Bay a bit before winding it’s way through under the interstate back to the start. I felt pretty pent up at the start and ran much of the first mile on the sidewalk to dodge the crowd. My goal had been 8:00 splits but after the first few miles I decided to stick with 7:30, a pace I’ve been using for my Wednesday hour runs. I managed to hang with that number for the majority of the race (mile 10 clocked in a 8:00 but the final mile was back down to 7:19) to finish with a 1:36:50, a PR for me. My previous best at this distance was many years ago in the 2003 BAA Half, running for Team DFCI long before I worked there or started doing cancer research.
One thing SMHB & I noticed about this time – if you double it you get 3:13:40, less than the 3:15:00 qualifying time for the Boston Marathon in my age range. So one (generous) way of looking at it is to say I’m halfway there.
Anyway, many thanks to my support squad who came down and saw me on the course twice. They definitely make me run faster. Hopefully this time won’t stand for another 9 years.
Also of note, today marks the halfway point (week 9 of 18) in my preparation for the Green Bay Marathon. I’m not planning to run a 3:15 there, but say a 3:50, that could be doable.
One week post-New Orleans, it’s almost like it never even happened. Life rolls on, the legs recover and the small wounds heal. I put in 44 1/2 new miles this week as I continue to prepare for the next-next that is the Green Bay Marathon (ten short weeks from today). Next weekend I’ve decided to run a previously unknown-to-me race, the Half of Quincy. I’m fully expecting to finish behind a not inconsequential number of hungover leprechauns.
Song of the week, You’re My Flame by Zero 7. Lots of tracks from this particular mix cropping up in my headphones lately.
Not much good to say. It hasn’t been terribly positive week, I haven’t been feeling healthy or strong, and as of yesterday morning I was pretty well convinced I was going to have to drop out of my race in New Orleans, two weeks from today. It’s also the first time year I haven’t hit 40 miles for the week. Also, I’ve stopped posting POTDs, something that has almost always given me joy.
But, tomorrow is a day off, a good thing. And some tomorrows are better than today.
Edit to add: I’ve realized from looking back this week marked 20 weeks in a row with a half-marathon length long run. A positive to build off of.
A solid and interesting weekend. Five weeks to New Orleans, and I feel ready to go tonight. Next Sunday in Cambridge is the Super Sunday 5, a little pre-marathon party around Kendall Sq. Then, Patriots.
Song of the week, back to another Bon Iver track that swirled up around mile 16 yesterday. It’s entirely possible I need some new music.
Today marks the end of week 12 of 18 for training for New Orleans Marathon training, as well as week 1 of 18 for Green Bay (woo! for overlapping). This morning was also the Boston Prep 16 Miler in Derry, NH. I was (and I guess, am, or am trying to be) happy with my times today – despite a (“moderately challenging“) hilly course the first 13.1 was the fastest gun time (1:48:31) I’ve run in a half-marathon since… 2004? And my total 16 mile time was a PR (I have a local 16 mile route I run and my time today was ~2 minutes faster than my best there). Honestly the only thing that is bothering me is that I placed 47/50 in my age/sex division (M30-39) – this is disheartening. I know I really should be assessing myself against myself but it’s hard to look at the rest of the times and realize how slow I am in comparison with a competitive, motivated field.
But the Patriots won & are heading to the Super Bowl again so who am I to complain. All in all, all is well.
Song of the day is from Florence & the Machine – this came up randomly and kicked me across the last half mile.
I’m not sure why daily mile thinks there were 53 weeks last year but no first week this year, but regardless. Today marks the end of week 10 of 18 in New Orlean’s Rock & Roll Marathon preparation. I bumped yesterday’s long run to 19 miles and have been feeling some effects from that since, but it’s a necessary evil as 3 of the next 5 weeks are scheduled 20′s. This weekend has been one of the warmest January weekends in Boston’s history – I was overdressed yesterday and quite comfortable running in shorts & no gloves today.
So – New Orleans. I’ve bit the bullet, booked my flight and hotel and now just need to find some sort of Sunday night tourist-type plan beyond the race to help justify the trip. It needs to fit into the realm of activities possible after running 4 hours (ie, nothing walking or standing) and in a best case scenario would involve a single impressive alligator or multiple smaller alligators. Ideas?
If you follow my little section of the photoblog you may have seen the sad news that my big camera has (…maybe) bit it, not with another loud flashy bang across the pavement it deserved, but a sad & sucky ambiguous error message indicating Something, Somewhere has gone wrong. Honestly – I’ve been using SLR less and less on a day to day basis since I got my new phone, but it gives me considerable anxiety to consider not fixing or replacing it. So I’m not gonna do that. I want to have a real camera, whether I still carry it every day or not. I do though think it’s prudent to stall a couple months til I’ve squirreled away a little cash (and until the new T4i comes out).
Today ends training week #7 of 18 for New Orleans Marathon. The past few days have been the toughest temperature of the season but I am still frostbite free.
Dishearteningly, the guys on the BCS selection show reminded us that K-State hasn’t won a bowl game since 2002. Our Cotton Bowl opponent Arkansas lost two games this year, to #1 LSU and #2 Alabama. I’m not sure how I feel about all this, but honestly I’m not terribly confident about how this is gonna turn out.
Today ends week 5 of 18 in my training cycle for the New Orleans Marathon. I’ve had a pretty good week, both mileage and pace-wise, taking advantage of our extended moderate temps. As long as the snow stays away, I’m optimistic about the possibilities for this March.
Oh also, today was our annual joint birthday party for my sister & her daughter. It was pretty much exactly like this with slightly older nieces pieces. Isaboo went with me to the mall to help me find gifts for everyone, for which I am extremely thankful.
I haven’t posted my mileage here recently, and the tabular form was too complicated and in reality no one cares enough to think through numbers. A new idea, here are my weekly totals for the past six months in handy bar chart format. I’m going to come up just short of finally reaching my (2010) resolution of 1000 miles this year, but in 2012, definitely.
My rough recollections of yesterday’s Baltimore Marathon with highly inaccurate mile marker estimations.
Mile 0: The 8am start was cool but not quite chilly, a beautiful day to run. YJP, VK & I start together, but I lose them within the first few hundred yards.
Mile 2: Without a lot of forethought I had decide to try to run with the 4:15 pace group. I lose them ahead when the leader puts his sign down. I catch & pass them, and decide to run & time my own splits rather than worry about hanging with them.
Mile 3: The first three miles have been great, negative splits as the crowd thins. Into the zoo – the entry gate is flanked by two ravens. No Orioles in sight.
Mile 5: Team HB is there cheering, for me! I am lucky. There’s an absolutely gorgeous lake here, particularly given the early morning light (Druid Lake). I’m giving back a lot of the early elevation gain which makes these miles fast.
Mile 6: Johns Hopkins. The neighborhood here is not nice, lots of boarded up townhouse but the locals are out and cheering for us. There are several stretches throughout the race like this, obvious pockets of poverty. Somewhere around here I notice the Federal Land Bank of Baltimore building which makes me wonder how many of these empty buildings will be condemned or taken via eminent domain. Across the street from the land bank building is a large empty fenced lot, no urban farming here. Later I find out that particular building is actually luxury condos now, go figure.
Mile 9: Back to the inner harbor to find CNHB & Ebs! Chrissy told me later she had been in that spot for only one minute before I came by. Lots of energy in the air here, the half-marathon is getting ready to start. It was around here I realize the field for the half is bigger than full – the area is packed.
Mile 10: Federal Hill is a gorgeous neighborhood. This is one of the areas we had been considering living in had LZ & I moved here back when Johns Hopkins was on the table.
Mile 11: We loop around the Under Armour headquarters. There’s a DJ here, far too loud, painful to the ears. Regardless, a good sponsor, the shirt is cool.
Mile 12.5: I see YJP across the way, heading the other direction. I shout but she doesn’t hear me.
Mile 13.1: I reach the half-way mark in under two hours, about 4 minutes slower than last week’s half. I’m fairly sure I’m running too fast, lessons from NYC unlearned. I see all of Team HB for a happy high-five.
Mile 16: Here we merge with the half-marathon field. There are tons of them. Given how stretched out the marathon field is by now, it feels like they outnumber us 20:1. In reality the numbers are more like 5000 full, 11,000 half.
Mile 17.5: I pick up my pace runner. This is against the rules and turns out to be absolutely necessary. I feel no guilt.
Mile 19-20: This is where things start to fall apart. I have 19 in my head as a goal since that’s where the NYC meltdown happened, but passing this mark does not help as it’s been mostly uphill since mile 16. There’s another lake here (Montebelo) and it’s beautiful, but suddenly very windy, challenging. Our mile splits are plummeting to the 10:30 range, I’m forced to give up my fleeting delusions of sub-4 hour grandeur.
Miles 21-24: These miles are mostly a blur. I’m having a hard time breathing, I can hear an audible wheeze that should not be there. Rolling hills, feels like more up than down. I have a vague memory about two furries in tiger suits standing on top of a station wagon. These neighborhoods are all out for the marathon with swedish fish and bands but I’m not in mental shape to appreciate any of it. SMB helps me fill my water bottle whenever possible – I’m drinking twice per station and as much as I can in between and can tell I’m still dehydrated.
Mile 24: We cross a bridge (in retrospect, the pretty cool looking Howard Street Bridge) and even that little incline kills me. SMB tells me later about the cool views of the city coming in but I’m only watching the ground.
Mile 25: I know it’s all downhill from here, but it’s not easy. Feeling really, really sick, hard to catch my breath.
Mile 26: The finish is just beyond Camden Yards. I touch Cal Ripken’s #8 on the way through. I remember seeing Christine shout but am having a hard time not crying, emotions & body chemistry are way out of whack. There are two instances when I think I’m having an asthma attack, my lungs grasping for air and not able to take any in. My right calf has a sharp cramp at 25.8, the left at 26. I think I might fall but don’t. Then, just like that, we’re under the last bridge and it’s all over.
After some time passed out on the concrete behind the bagel tent we recover enough to cheer for the others. Later we saw a mysterious dumpster fire behind my hotel (a metaphor for something), had a very many bananas and somewhat fewer celebratory beers and tried not to fall asleep at dinner. Ain’t no party like a post-marathon party!
Here are five more weeks of training accountability as we approach the looming Baltimore Running Festival. This span includes some interesting runs – 21 miles along Chicago lakefront (pictured above), 20 miles to Castle Island assisted in parts by the rest of Team HB, a 1/10th marathon river run as part of my 35th birthday & today’s BAA Half Marathon. Week 15 was marred by illness but I’ve moved past that and won’t begrudge the few days off that had to be taken.
The marathon itself is six day hence, Saturday the 15th, starting at 8am. I’m going to try again to get Glympse to sync to Facebook if you’re interested in tracking along. Until then, short runs & rest, no twisting of the ankles. I’m mostly trying not to psyche myself out mentally at this point.
Team HB helped me make number twelve into one of my best training weeks so far (notwithstanding today’s disaster of a run). I’m over my mileage target and am feeling confident about my goals for Baltimore. Now, to just focus all remaining psychic healing energy in the general direction of YJP’s all-broke-up feet and we’ll be good to go.
Some bad things have been happened to me and to my family in the last month and a half which have preempted updating this blog. But in the meantime, I’ve still be running in preparation for the Baltimore Marathon. I thought I was doing pretty well, staying mostly on top of things (barring odd hurricane here and/or road trip to Canada there), but when I look at the table laid out like this, I see I’ve been behind every week (other than 8). It’s a little disheartening.
The Baltimore Marathon is 12 weeks from this weekend. I’m pretty happy with my totals this week, and had some good individual runs despite the ridiculously hot weather (Thursday was the hottest day in Boston since 1922!). For better or worse I have a lot of free time on my hands these days, so that makes things easier. I mean, it unequivocally sucks, but at least it helps with mileage goals.
I was taking at look at my training log – I love that it’s so easy to export this to CSV format from daily mile! Anyway in the time since January 16th, the day I started my 18 week training cycle, I’ve run 723.4 miles, roughly 42.5 per week. This is a bump of 60 miles over the pre-New Orleans cycle, which should translate into greater fitness later in the race when the going gets tough. And as the plot to the right should show, I’m still making some gains in the speed department.
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