Today was a hill work out. I was planning on a 2.25 mile warm-up, about 6 miles of the hill work out, then 2.75 mile cool down. But there was nothing cool about today. OK, so I'm a little spoiled with Colorado Summers, but it was in the mid 80's - hot enough to mean times were gonna suffer. Or maybe it was me that was gonna suffer...
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Know When to Head Home
It has been an interesting year since the marathon, but it feels like my training is finally back on track. One week after running Napa, I had minor surgery for a hernia repair. That was 30 days with no running. And a relatively slow come back when I did start back. It was probably good to give my body a break anyway after the marathon training, but I felt like I lost a lot. It really wasn't until June when I began to feel like I had fully recovered. Then I had another 7 day break in early July for another unrelated medical issue. But since mid-July I have been consistently over 30 miles a week, including a long run of either 13 or 15 miles.
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Catching Up
I had my alarm set for 4:30am, so that I could arise, and prepare my coffee and oatmeal in time to eat by 5:00am, exactly 2 hours before the start of the race. I woke up early and often. I saw 1:25am, 3:00am, and then at 4:10am I decided it wasn't worth laying in bed any more and got up. I started the coffee maker - no grounds, I needed the not water for my instant oatmeal and I had some of that new instant Starbucks coffee. I had the coffee first, then at about 4:55am I made the oatmeal.
I did some light stretching then decided I had plenty of time for a shower. It would both relax me and finish waking me up. It did both nicely. At 6:00am I started to dress. On with the shorts, shirt, socks and shoes. I had put the timing chip on my shoe Saturday night, so I didn't have to deal with it race morning. I used to not put my shoes on until right before the start of a race because my feet sweat a lot, but I also have issues with my laces. I have very high arches and the laces have to be quite loose or I end up with numbness or pain across the top of my foot. I wanted to have them on for a while to make sure there were no issues.
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Race Day - Napa Valley Marathon March 7th, 2010
As the marathon approached, I got caught up in work and other things and did not posted my progress. I intended to go back and cover my real long run of 24 miles and my last Fast Finish Long run, but now they are both a distance memory. But today's post belongs to the story of the marathon - thank goodness I drafted this back in March.
We arrived in Napa, California on Friday the 5th. We stopped by the marathon expo so I could pick up my bib and get my goodie bag. Napa did a very nice duffle this year. Rumor had it there was also a backpack, but there were none to found on Friday - apparently they had not yet arrived. Diane, Hannah (daughter - 12), Sarah (daughter - 10) and I walked through the expo and talked about how to dress for the cold weather. The projection was for 40 degF at the start with temps in the low 50's around my projected finish time. 50 and above is good. In fact, it's great. But 40 is a bit on cool side.
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Preparation: Napa Valley Marathon - March 7th, 2010
Progress is sometimes hard to see from day to day. The change from any one running day to the next is always negligible, and in fact, might be in the wrong direction. But with the perspective of time, it becomes easier to see how far we have come. I suppose you could also say, with a sufficiently long perspective, I would also see how much I've lost from my youthful peak in my 30's. And while that's true, it doesn't seem important.
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Making Progress
It seems February has gotten away from me just a bit. Haven't missed a workout, but haven't put down any thoughts. I'd like to believe that it's not because I haven't had any thoughts, but you can be the judge of that. Saturday's run was my 2nd of 4 Fast Finish Long Runs (FFLR). This run is one of three marathon predictor runs that Greg McMillan recommends. You can think of it as doing an extended warm up, then putting some miles in at Planned Marathon Pace (PMP).
At least, that's how I think about it.
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Race Day Rehearsal
This week, I spent Friday night and Saturday with my family down at my sister's farm in Boone, CO, east of Pueblo. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out, because my training plan called for 22 miles on Saturday. And generally after a long run, I'm not very interactive - I stretch, shower, do my nutritional recovery routine, take a brief nap, then I start to come back around.
I think it is hard to understand what it is like to recover from a 20 mile run unless you've done it. I know I certainly didn't understand.
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When 2 miles Seem Like 20
Looking back on my 11 weeks of marathon training, one thing that has become clear to me is just how little I knew when I started. I knew how to do an interval workout, a tempo run, and I was doing long runs of 11 miles or so on a regular basis. But I didn't know how to put all of that together in to a plan designed to achieve a specific goal. I didn't really understand how significant an impact hills and snow could have on effort. And even though I carried water and gels on my long runs, I didn't have a good handle on how to stay hydrated and fueled. For the last few weeks, one thing I knew I didn't understand was how to recover from a long run of more than 15 miles.
I'm not even sure how I knew I didn't know. Maybe I'm giving myself too much credit.
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Follow the Directions
When I first got my custom training program from Greg McMillan, I couldn't wait to read through the whole plan. I wanted to know what I was going to be doing to get ready for Napa - using the training principles I had read about on www.mcmillanrunning.com. Principles that were consistent with my reading over the years and with some of my training experience. Not that any of my training experience didn't fit with the principles, it was more that my training experience was a little lacking in some areas.
One of the things that caught my attention was the Choose Your Workout days that appeared at two different points in the plan. "Brilliant!" I thought.
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What am I Supposed to Do?
Saturday's run was my first Fast Finish Long Run. The idea behind the FFLR is to get your body and mind used to running at planned marathon pace (PMP) when you are tired. I have 4 of these in my training plan. The FFLR's combined with the 2 Yasso 800 work outs represent the marathon predictor component of my training plan. The theory being that if I can complete these workouts according to the plan, then I am ready to run my marathon at PMP.
The way the FFLR works is to run the first part of your long run at your normal long run pace. Then finish the run with several miles at PMP. Here's what my FFLR plan looks like:
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Staying the Course
Since I left behind my FIRST training plan for a custom training plan purchased from Greg McMillan I have had many miles to reflection on why I felt the need to make the change. One of the things I keep thinking about is a well known principle of training, the principle of specificity. Generally, the principle says that if you want to be a runner, the most effective training is to run. You train for what you want to be good at. In FIRST they take the principle a little farther. The principle is applied to training paces, temperature and humidity during training vs projected temperature and humidity during the key race, hills etc. It may be why there is no flexibility on the pace of a work out.
For me, the principle is not a lot of help beyond keeping me focused on running.
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Assessing FIRST - Part 3 Specificity
A little over a week ago I decided it was time to get a new pair of shoes. I had passed 300 miles on my current New Balance 1063's and knew it was just a matter of a couple of weeks before I would need to retire them. Seems like now that I'm a little on the older side, 400 miles is about all I get out of a pair of shoes. Not only were my 1063's getting on in miles, but I was starting to have a pain on the top of my left foot. It came out of nowhere on a cool down run from the track back to my house.
I say 'out of nowhere' because I had put close to 300 miles on these shoes and were convinced they were the best running shoes I had ever owned.
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Improved Fit
Saturday was one of those days when I couldn't seem to get anything right. I got up and as I usually do, had my morning cup of coffee. I drank almost the entire cup while doing some reading, then realized it had been about an hour since I had gotten out of bed. And I hadn't had my oatmeal yet. Since I need to wait at least an hour after having my oatmeal before going on my long run, this oversight was pushing back my start time a bit. Oh, and not to mention that the only oatmeal in the house takes 15 minutes to cook. So I got my breakfast together, then started to get ready for my run.
The weather showed it was going to be a nice day, it was already in the 30's (F) and should be near 50 by the time I was done.
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All's Well that Ends Well
Today's workout called for 8 to 10 Yasso 800s. If you have done any reading or research on the Yasso 800s, you'll know that there is a reasonable amount of controversy concerning the workout. The Yasso 800 workout was named after a favorite workout of Bart Yasso, by Amby Burfoot of RunnersWorld. You can read about the origin of the work out here. The controversy seems to come from what might be a misunderstanding of how the workout should be used.
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Yeah, so?
I asked my nephew to inquire of a personal friend of his, the head track coach at a local high school, about use of public school tracks by the public. The coach would have let me use the track at his school, but unfortunately their track is covered with ice at one end. He suggested I contact the head track coach at the high school near me and seemed to think that if I got to the right person, there would be no issues. I figured the best time to call was after 2:30 pm, assuming that classes might be done for the day and the staff would still be at the school. The only problem I was having was that between 2:30 and 5:00 I've been tied up the last couple of days.
And my next track workout is tomorrow.
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Out of Place - Part 2
It seems almost every time I lace up my shoes, I learn something. Sometimes it's hard to say that it is something new - I may be simply experiencing a truth I have read about and now having experienced it, I am able to internalize it. Said differently, some people only learn from their own mistakes and that is pretty much me. The horror stories of other people's mistakes, or the success stories of other people's wise choices are easy for me to take in, but it seems that I generally end up thinking that somehow I'm different.
Probably just arrogance on my part. At best, it's ignorance. This week I decided to do my long run from home.
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Still Learning
The last couple of weeks weather has allowed me to actually do my interval workouts on a local track. Last week's workout was 7 x 1000 meters with 3 x 220 for good measure at the end. This week's workout was 4 x 2000 meters with those pesky 3 x 220 as a wrap up. Both workouts went very well. I have to say those type of workouts are my favorite. I like them better than shorter and faster intervals. I also like them better than a long slow run. After both workouts I have felt built up. Even though I was quite tired (from duration more than speed), I felt strong. If that makes sense.
Both of these workouts were much better than they ever could have been on a treadmill. But I am having one issue.
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Out of Place
I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions. Come New Year's eve, I generally have other things on my mind besides what I should change for the coming year. My mind doesn't really work on a annual cycle - I think it is more real time. Once I recognize an issue or opportunity, I make changes. No time like the present. But I know for some folks, it just works better to pick a time in the future to make a change. For me, if I put it off until some day in the future, that day is likely to never come.
On Saturday I decided to head back out to the trail for my long run.
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Resolution
I am most of the way through this week's training, leaving a little less than 10 weeks until race day. I'm starting to get nervous. Or maybe concerned is a better word. I'm still looking for a good experience on a 18 or longer mile run. And I'm not confident I can actually stay on my feet for 26.2 miles. I suppose that is one of differences between my marathon training and my half marathon training. For the half marathon, I actually had run 13 miles twice before the race. There was never any question in my mind that I could finish, I just wasn't sure what kind of pace I would be able to run.
I'm not in a total panic however, but my heart rate kicks up a notch when I think of race day.
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