Race Day Rehearsal

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. This week's FFLR called for 16 to 20 miles total, with 6 to 8 at PMP. I had a little trouble deciding how far to run for the warm up portion. I was locked in on running 8 miles at PMP. I had been thinking I would run a twelve mile warmup giving me a total of 20 miles for the workout, but there was this note in my training plan for this week:

This is a good week for recovery. You may want to run on the low end of the mileage range and take an extra day off.

Since I believe the main goal of my training plan is to enable me to stay on my feet for 26.2 miles, I have been wanting to build my long runs up to the maximum the plan allows. But there was this 'week for recovery' comment. And looking ahead to next week, the total miles will be 49. For a guy who three months ago had never run more than 30 miles in one week, 49 sounds like a lot. In the end, I decided on 10 miles at PMP + 45 to 60 seconds, followed by 8 miles at PMP.

Since this is a predictor workout, it's important for me (at least mentally) to hit the goal pace. That made me concerned about all the hills that surround where I live. It's not that I'm afraid of hills, but I don't know how to adjust the pace to account for the hills. There are enough of them that I don't think I could hit PMP for 8 miles after the warmup of 10 miles. So, I wanted to remove the uncertainty of the hills by running somewhere flat. Around here that comes down to two choices, really:

1. Track, or
2. Treadmill.

As much as I hate the treadmill, I can't imagine running in circles for 8 miles. At least that made the decision an easy one. This was also supposed to be a practice day for race day in terms of nutrition and hydration. A rehearsal of sorts. And once again, I found myself thinking it through on Saturday morning, only to realize I didn't have everything I was planning to eat on race day. I ate my oatmeal at 1:45 before run time. But I didn't have the Clif Shot Bloks that I was planning to eat 2 of on race day. I substituted about 2/3 of a Clif Shot Gel which had the same calories as the 2 Shot Bloks. But different amounts of sodium and potassium. I made a note to get some Shot Bloks (well, if the truth be known, I asked Diane to put them on the shopping list). I had looked up the spacing on the water stops on the Napa Valley course map and planned to adjust my water intake to match.

It was a beautiful morning for a run - the sun was shining and even though the temperatures were in the mid 20's it was a gorgeous morning in the Rockies. I decided to not run based on HR - since I was given a goal pace of PMP + 45 seconds to 60 seconds. I figured since there was a pace range, that would accommodate the hills. But I felt so good, I found myself going perhaps a little faster than necessary.

I arrived back at the house and quickly headed down to the basement. A quick change of clothes, some BodyGlide™, and on to the treadmill for 8 miles. I was watching Villanova vs Georgetown and marveling at the 30 inches of snow on the ground in DC. I'm not really a college basketball fan, but I wanted some kind of background noise. The first 6 miles just flew by. I really felt good. But around 6.25 miles I felt like I was starting to labor a bit. I was now questioning if it had been wise to run a little fast during the first 10 miles. And of course my mind was beginning to doubt that I was going to finish. And to add insult to injury, I was having trouble shaking the thought that even if I did finish, I would have failed the workout. Somewhere I was sure I had read that you needed to easily finish these workouts.

At 7.4 miles I was convinced there was no point in continuing to 8 miles. After all, this was supposed to be a recovery week and what's the difference between running 18 miles and running 17.4 miles? But I shook that off, and told myself that there was no reason I could not keep going. And so I did. But it was tough. I don't know how to explain it other than your body keeps begging you to stop and you have to keep replying that it's okay, you can do it.

Interestingly enough, I can't find the reference anywhere that says you should be able to finish the FFLR easily. In fact, quite the contrary, I found this in Greg's article on predictor workouts:

Fast finish long runs are very tough workouts so you shouldn't do them very often or run too many of them in any one marathon training cycle.

That just reinforces the mental games that go on (at least in my head) when preparing for the marathon. Since I don't really know anybody who has trained to run a marathon for time, I don't know if this is typical. But I know it has been a regular battle in my training. I expect come race day there will be more of the same. Like I have said before, that's why it is important to win these mental battles. You want to be able to respond during race day with - "oh, I've felt worse than this and still kept going."

So Napa is now 4 weeks away. In some ways, it is really only 2 training weeks away. Two more solid weeks of training then the taper starts. At least when I think about it now I don't get sweaty palms and a rapid heart beat anymore. I think I'm beginning to feel prepared.