Chicago Marathon Training

I'm now a few days out from the Chicago Marathon and I'm looking forward to seeing how my training prepares me.  The thing about the marathon is that you only have one shot to perform.  You can have a perfect build-up leading into the race but the "marathon microscope" can find one little hiccup and then it's game over. 

The biggest change I made for this marathon is that for the first time since college, I had someone writing workouts for me.  As you can probably tell from most of my weekly recaps, I can get pretty whiny, especially this past summer. 

In August, I had a failed attempt at a track workout but I still partook in my post track workout beverage of a McDonalds Coke (it tastes the best there and the liquid simple carbs are quickly absorbed by your body, helping recovery...at least, that's what I tell myself).  But while sitting in the drive-through line, I decided I had to quit messing around and hire some help.

For the past few years, I've just done my own stuff, which is heavily based off my spin of Renato Canova's training.  A very basic rundown of it is that you try and become 5k-HM fit from about four months until two months out from your marathon and then you spend the final two months trying to become efficient at marathon pace and building the proper metabolism for the event.

When you train alone, you really get a feel for things.  You're not out there talking and listening to others, you're listening to your body.  And since I not only trained mostly by myself, I coached myself, I felt like I had both ends covered and could usually tell what I needed/lacked at almost any time.

But being married with two young kids, coaching 14 other runners (at the time), as well as coaching an elementary cross country team, my mind was constantly fried. Trying to dissect and write my own workouts was too tiring and since I was developing a habit of dropping out of them, I needed some accountability and a new perspective.  

Realizing, I probably have 2-3 more shots at a lifetime marathon PR (I'm getting old, physically and mentally), I didn't just want to get just anyone.  Learning about a runner takes trial-and-error and I didn't want to take a big chance on someone for my last few shots. So I talked to a buddy who's being advised by Brad Hudson and after contacting Brad, he agreed to help me out.

Brad is also heavily influenced by Canova and a lot of his workout staples are some of my own (long steady runs, big focus on specificity, short hill sprints, short fartleks, etc). I was excited  at the fresh new look of my training and I felt like I would quickly be on my way to a fast time at Chicago.  Not to mention, he has worked with A LOT of fast men and women marathoners and is not only an accomplished coach but a student of the sport, so I had no doubt he would be great to work with.

After nearly two months of working with him, what are the differences in my individual training? The major difference is that every single weekend is TOUGH. Since I started working with him in early August, my only "easy" paced long run was about 23 miles.  I was allowed to run whatever pace I wanted, which doesn't sound too bad, but it was the day after a 4x2 mile interval workout and part of a 42 mile weekend.  And I believe it was my first run over 20 miles in over three months.

Other than that, every long run has been at a moderate to fast pace and I routinely cover 22+ miles with frequent doubles in the evening afterwards.  To be honest, I really miss my cliche 20 mile long runs at 6:10ish pace but I've always felt that once you are pretty fit, they aren't a very good training stimulus anymore.

Besides the tough weekends, an average week is typically some sort of interval work between 10k-HM pace in the middle of the week with a day of short hill sprints and some relaxed 100m strides. I used to run the hill sprints a few years ago and to be honest, cut them out because I was lazy and I hated them.  But I feel they are beneficial and I've been diligent at doing them this time. The training seems a little simple but I feel it has prepared me well for the marathon distance.

After reflecting on my 2014 Houston race, I felt like I was too fast and while I got in some decent workouts at 105-110% of marathon pace, I needed more work at speeds just below marathon pace, which is where your body starts to burn fat and carbs are nearly a 50% rate.

This time, all of the extended steady running, combined with frequently doubling back in the evening on long runs days, has hopefully resulted in a more fuel-efficient marathon engine.  While I feel like I was much more HM fast before the Houston Marathon, this time, I feel like I could kick the crap out of my old self in anything longer than a marathon.

And something else I've done totally differently is that I do my main workout in the early morning before work, rather than trying to knock it out in the evening.  It's hard to wake up as early as 4am some days and do a large portion of my runs in the dark but by doing it first thing in the morning, I don't have to attempt it after a long day of work when I'm mentally and physically tired and also take away additional time from my family.

And an additional added bonus that I feel is going to help me in Chicago is that other than my weekend long runs (where I'll eat a small bowl of cereal beforehand and a gel or two during the run), is that all of my morning running has been on an empty stomach, after a 10+ hour fast.  Especially on the faster intervals, where I'm burning nearly 100% carbs for my energy demands, my body is hopefully getting in a lower carb state, which helps change my body into a better marathon fueling engine.  I've never understood why a lot marathoners in training constantly guzzle fuel on their workouts.  You can't properly train for a low-carb race if you are constantly feeding yourself carbohydrates!

But to make a long story short, I'm excited to see how the revamped training will help my performance this weekend.  While the intensity and even some of the weekly volume has been down, I feel much better prepared for the marathon distance than I did almost two years ago.

Here's an abbreviated version of my 10 week marathon build-up, which is when I started working with Brad.  It includes the mileage for the week, along with key workouts, minus strides and hill sprints. Rather than put down time averages and trying to justify weather adjustments and all of that other crap, I just put down efforts to make it more understandable and relatable. There were a few workouts that I had to shorten or had to completely change but this is how everything looked when it's all said and done.

Week 10: 4x200m at mile to 3k pace with 200m jog, 4 miles working from MP to HMP; Chicago Marathon

Week 9: 92 miles with 5x1 mile at 10k with 2:30 jog; 14 miles with 2x3 mile at MP with 60s jog

Week 8: 104 miles with 4 miles of 30s at mile-3k pace with 2:30 at 90% of MP; 10.2 miles progression, working from a little slower than MP to a little faster than MP

Week 7: 120 miles with 4x2k (a little slower than 10k pace) with 2:00 jog and 1k (a little slower than 5k pace) with 3:00 jog; 22.7 miles with 5x5k at a little faster than MP with 1k jog at about 90% of MP and a 5 mile evening run

Week 6: 108 miles with 20k race;23.6 miles with a 21.5 mile slight progression run averaging about 95% of MP

Week 5: 89 miles with 2x200m at 3k with 200m jog, mile at 5k pace, 1/2 mile jog, 3k a little faster than HMP, 1/2 mile jog, 4x400m at 3k pace with 1:00 jog; 8x30s at mile pace, 2:30 easy

Week 4: 121 miles with 6x2k working from HM to 10k pace with 2:00 jog; 24 miles with nine mile warm-up, 4 miles of 1 minute at faster than 5k pace, 1:00 jog (averaging marathon pace for the four miles), right into 6 miles at MP, 1 mile easy, 3 miles a little faster than MP, 1 mile easy

Week 3: 115 miles with 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 with equal jog recovery with the fast minutes being between 10k-HMP and the slow minutes being a little slower than 90% of MP; 5k regression run, working from 10k pace to marathon pace (ran a 5k for some $); 21.5 miles with 16.5 mile progression starting a little slower than 95% of MP and working down to a little slower than MP and a 5 mile evening run

Week 2: 115 miles with 12x1k working from HM to 10k pace with 90s jog; 20 miles with 5x3k at MP with 1k at 90% of MP and a 5 mile evening run

Week 1: 115 miles with 4 miles a little faster than HM pace, half mile jog, 6x3:00 gradual uphill at 10k effort; 4x2 miles starting a little slower than working to a little faster than HM pace; 22.5 miles easy

.  

Spring 2015 Training and Racing Plans

A common mistake people make when designing a training program is focusing completely on their peak race without regards to where they currently are in their training/fitness.  If someone asks you directions to a destination, you can't just start spewing out where to go.  Before you give any help, you have to know where they are.  When you start your training, you need to focus more on where your current strengths and weaknesses are and work from there.  Then when things become more balanced and predictable, you can work your training backwards from your peak race.

My original spring plan was to run the Rotterdam Marathon in April and make a run at sub 2:13 with hopes of making the US Pan-Am team.  But I found out the Pan-Ams qualifying window closes at the end of March, so there went that plan. It would still be cool to run a fast time over there, but I didn't have a lot of training time, I would have to deal with jet-lag and spend almost two g's on expenses.

My next plan was to run the Boston Marathon.  I was going to start speed work in the middle of December and work from there. But I was dragging butt and found out my iron was low.  Boston is a very tricky course and you not only have to train for the marathon distance but place a lot of training focus on the actual course.  With faster marathons, I'd run my marathon workouts on a flat road by my house and do a lot of track workouts as well.  With Boston, you can't do that. You have to focus heavily on downhill running while also being prepared for the uphills.  I'm a rhythm guy, so it would take a lot of time to develop those qualities in my body.  I knew I couldn't jump into that stuff with low iron anyway, so there went that plan.

So what would be the best option? Grandmas Marathon at the end of June.  I've run the half there twice and ran okay the first time and awesome the other.  And the last half of the marathon is the half-marathon course, so I know it well.  It also gives me a ton of time to work on some qualities I lost and have enough time to get to the starting line very fit.  I also figure there will be a lot of fast guys trying to knock out the "A" standard there, which is an added bonus.  And almost the best reason of all is that I get nearly a month to train like a "pro" runner since school is out for the year on Memorial Day weekend. So all you runners still living at your mama's house or in some clown car apartment with a bunch of other runners and eating ramen noodles to survive, I'll be coming at you in June with my cushy teacher's salary, extra sleep and grass-fed beef.

When I'm coming off a racing season, I'm fit and have a lot of training bases covered.  The base phase I then enter is more of a time of rest and detraining rather than a fitness builder.  A few weeks into it, I'm probably in the worst shape I'll be for that entire season because I go from high volume and a lot of specificity to moderate volume with no specificity.  I lost a lot of my base this past year, so I need to return to that and by doing so, will increase my fitness throughout the period.

During my super-busy racing season this past September-November, I actually got pretty fit even though I did nothing but race and jog in between.  I think that shows that in the past, I've run too much intensity and need to lay off that a little bit more and focus more on endurance-based work.

And after every peak race, it's good to go through your log and try to figure out what worked well and what didn't.  At first, I thought my Houston build-up was perfect, minus missing several key workouts a few weeks before the race because I was half-dead in bed for a few days.  But after a year of reflection, I saw that I was too "fast" for the marathon.  I got in my normal marathon workouts but I was flying in my faster workouts.  I wouldn't run the faster stuff very often but when I did, I was running faster than before I ran 63:12 for the half.  Even in some marathon workouts, I'd catch myself running 5:00 pace instead of 5:05ish.  I thought for sure that would correlate to sub 2:13 marathon fitness.  But on the other side of the coin, I was neglecting the stuff slightly slower than marathon pace (95%ish of MP). That's the speed/effort that really teaches your body to be able to burn fat faster and slow the rate your burn carbs. Granted, I missed some big workouts at that intensity five weeks out from Houston because of being sick.  But my last long, fast run was almost two months out from Houston.  I should have done 1-2 more of those.  As an endurance-oriented guy, I respond better to that longer, steadier stuff rather than higher intensity work.  But going into Grandma's here's what my training framework is.

January

• Higher mileage: I haven't had consistent volume in a long time, so I need to reestablish that with some higher mileage.  Numbers are just numbers and I really don't know how high I'll go until I see how I respond, but I'd like to have a couple weeks in the 130 range, or maybe a little higher.
• Faster Easier Runs: I hate putting this because the number one mistake I see people make is running too hard on their non-workout days.  I see it the most in beginning runners who run faster than their marathon pace almost every day of the week, which is a huge no-no. Normally, I run about 6:40ish on my easy days and as slow as 8:00 pace on my 2nd runs.  The only "normal" run during the week where I run faster is my long run, which is usually at 80-85% of marathon pace.  But since I've missed so much "real" training time, I'm going to speed up some of my daily runs to my long run pace, which is around 6:15-6:30 or so right now and progresses down to 6:00ish when I'm fit.  I'm hoping it will reestablish my lost fitness better and I will most likely go back to my easier jogging in February. 
• Moderate Workouts: Work up to 10-12 mile progression runs where I go from an easy effort to current estimated marathon pace and continuous runs where I run around 90-95% of current estimated marathon pace.
• Faster Running: My legs have forgot what it feels like to run 10k pace and faster.  I haven't really run that fast since last March and haven't put several weeks of that stuff together since October of 2013 or so.  I need to get in touch with those speeds again without doing a "real" workout.  So stuff like 400s at 5k pace with a liberal recovery jog, 200s at mile pace, etc. Normally I don't mess with those speeds in my base phase but again, I'm at a much different spot than I normally am during this training cycle. 
• Hill Sprints: I need to get back to my 10x10s all-out hill sprints with 2:00 jog recovery.  I haven't done those consistently in a long, long time.  I will continue these until Grandma's.
• Long Runs: Get in 2-3, 20 mile runs
• Strength Work: My best racing season ever was the spring of 2013, which is the only time I've done consistent strength work.  Granted I was just doing deep squats, but I felt they helped my speed and power quite a bit.  I would usually do 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps with heavy weight. At first, I struggled with 135 lbs. but after a few months, I was pushing right at 200. Like the hill sprints, I will do these until Grandma's.  I recently also started doing Jay Johnson's Lunge Matrix before my runs and have sprinkled in some of Vern Gambetta's leg circuit as well.

February and March

• Moderate/Higher Mileage: Hang around the 115-120 range since I'm making up for the lack of volume with intensity
• Races: Jump into some shorter races with a half-marathon or two.  I need to get used to continuously hammering again
• Fartleks/Track work: More structured speed workouts from 3k-10k pace to develop some specific fitness in that event.  But this go around, I will not redline these or puke on the side of the track…run fast but within myself.  My body doesn't respond well to a lot of intensity and I only need to get a feel for those speeds to run well at the longer stuff
• Long, fast runs: Work up to 16 miles at 90-95% marathon pace
• Long Runs: Get in at least 20 miles every weekend, if I'm not doing a longer race, with some quality in some of them. 
• Tempos: Shorter tempo runs and mix-in tempo paces with faster work

April

• Continue what I did the past couple of months, but transition to more of a marathon focus as the month goes on by cutting out the really fast paces, increasing the length of my tempos and lightly increasing the mileage.
• Also continue to race some and hopefully chase some new PR's.

May-June

• High Mileage: Sneak up to 140ish if things go well
• Long, fast runs: Increase those up to 20 miles
• Long Runs: Get in a couple 22-24 mile runs. When I get fit, "normal" 20 milers stop being a good stimulus for me.  So I will boost those up a little bit longer and also continue to mix in some faster running into my long runs 2-3 times a month. 
• Races: Half-Marathon, and maybe a couple of shorter races to stay in touch with my speed. I will also actually race BolderBoulder this year instead of jogging like a school-girl. 
• Marathon-specific focus: Since specificity is the key for the marathon, I will do my most of my main workouts around 95-105% of marathon pace, with a greater emphasis right at marathon pace.

So there's the basic plan that I feel will work for where I currently am and where I want to be in June. Granted there's a lot of basic fundamentals in there but I tweaked it according to what I feel will work best for me and I'm really excited about another go at a fast marathon.  I'm getting old and I don't want to retire with my 2:17 PR.

Marathon Training Review

It's now one-week post Houston and I'm still a little bit bummed with how it went down. I sort of feel like the person who going into graduation, made really good grades, had a lot of fancy Latin terms read after their name was announced and when they were just about to grab their diploma, fell flat on their face.  For a while, they feel the sting of falling rather than remembering all the things they achieved leading into it.

But whether Houston went well or poorly, I think it's important to reflect on the training to figure out what worked well, what didn't and what you needed to do but didn't.  Before the race, I 100% believed I was extremely fit.  To be honest, under ideal weather, I was giving myself a 75% chance of running sub 2:15, 50% chance of running 2:13 and probably a 33% chance to break 2:13.  If the weather would have been ideal for the 2013 Houston Marathon, I felt my 2:18 was worth 2:15 or 2:16.  And this go around, I was much, much more fit. But here's the harder workouts I had in my build-up, without including my short hill sprints.

Last workout of pre-marathon training: 21.5 miles with 18 at 5:22 pace (around 95% of MP)

Week One

• 5 mile race at 23:41
• 18.8 miles with 4x5k at 5:05 with 1k jog recovery at sub 6:00 pace (MP for the fast portion and 80-85% of MP for recovery jog)
• 121 miles

Week Two

• 15.2 miles with 10 miles over 3:00 fast/3:00 medium over hills at 4:51/5:22 average (Probably was around 10k pace and MP pace)
• 20 miles with last six at 4:57 average (80% of MP and 100% of MP, even though it was faster than that
• 122 miles

Week Three

• No workouts
• 27 miles

Week Four

• 7.12 miles at 5:11 pace (around MP)
• 21.1 miles with 18.1 at 5:29 pace (95% of MP)
•  113 miles

Week Five

• 4800m at 14:45, 3200m at 9:30, 1600m at 4:30 with 3:00 jog rest (Probably around HMP, 1k pace and 5k pace)
•  3x4.2 miles at 5:05 pace with 1k jog recovery at sub 6:00 pace (MP)
• 22.1 miles (80% MP)
• 128 miles

Week Six

• 9 mile continuous progression with 3 mile sections at 5:18, 5:03 and 4:51 pace (95%, 100%, 105% of MP)
• 12x1:00 on/off at 4:31 for the fast part (5k pace or faster)
• 20.4 miles with 4x5k at 5:02 average with 1k jog recovery at sub 6:00 pace and then 1k at the end in 2:50 (MP for the 5ks, 80-85% of MP for the recoveries, last 1k pretty freaking hard)
• 123 miles

Week Seven

• 6400m progression in 19:25 with 4x400m in 63 (a little slower than HMP/105% of MP to a little faster than that pace) with the 400s around mile pace.
• 16 miles with last five miles at 5:02 (80% of MP, finishing at 100% of MP) 
• 105 miles

Week Eight

• 6 mile progression with 2 mile splits at 5:18, 5:02, and 4:45 pace (95%, 100%, 105% of MP)
• 26.2 miles in 2:17:17
• 89 miles

Now in Houston, I died.  With the weather being a little more warm/humid than ideal, I should have died after going out at that pace.  But it should have been dying to a 2:15, not a 2:17.  I always say that everything is under the microscope in the marathon.  It's a long, committed race.  If you're lacking somewhere, it's going to show.  It's kind of like going from a relationship to a marriage, if you will.  Things that bother you a little bit in a dating relationship can and probably will turn into a huge deal in a marriage.

After laying out my training and reflecting upon it, I feel there are several things that could have resulted in my ugly seven mile death.  Some of them I wonder about while some of them, I'm nearly certain about.  Here are my thoughts on the matter:

• I needed more work at marathon pace.  For runners with a large base behind them, work at the specific pace you're planning on running the race is very important.  I only had a few of those workouts.
• The sickness screwed me up more than I expected.  Yeah, I was fully recovered a few weeks later, but I missed a few important, extensive sessions because of it.  I was going to run the Rocket City Marathon at around 2:25 five weeks out. In the past, marathons at 90-95% of MP, while fueling like a real race have worked really well for me.  I also missed a couple speed workouts because of it, as well as a long marathon-pace workout.  Those sessions could have been a lot of the glue that held my marathon race together last week. And before the sickness, I was really disciplined.  I was lean and mean, doing my stretching almost everyday and was doing a pretty good job of my squats, core routine and short hill sprints. After the sickness, I became very lazy with that stuff since I missed two weeks without much of it and didn't want to add it again so close to the race.
• I didn't have very many "normal" long runs.  Now don't get me wrong, I feel the more miles you have behind you, the more overrated the easy long run becomes.  But going into the race, I felt like I needed a few more 20-24 milers.
• I needed long "fast" sessions instead of these cute little short tempos.  In the past, I've done stuff like six mile tempos, long fartlek workouts, even stuff like 10x1 mile on the track.  At the time, I ran these shorter so I would be fresher for my MP workouts, but looking back, I should have run a little longer.
• In the past, I've done a lot more work at 90-95% of MP than I did this time.  Runs at that effort are great for teaching your body to burn fat more quickly.
• Normally, I like three hard sessions nearly every week.  Nearly all of these just had two.
• Going into this race, I felt "fast".  I even felt like I was in faster half-marathon shape than I was this past June when I ran 63:12.  That's not a terrible thing for a flat and fast marathon course if you run smart but going out over your head will really kill someone who has the speed but not the gas tank.

Maybe all of this is making me appear too analytical or makes it look like I'm searching for an excuse on why I tanked.  But as a self-coached runner, it's what I have to do.  While I realize everything I should have done, at the time, I did what I thought was best with what time I had.  Maybe if I didn't get sick, my bases would have been more covered.  Who knows really? It's frustrating to end the marathon on a poor note but I was fit and I take satisfaction out of that.

I'll have to make my spring plans but right now, they are up in the air.  I highly doubt I'll do another marathon because I may attack three of them next October, January and April/May.  So right now, I'm planning on peaking for the USA 25k Champs.  Maybe I'll have a little redemption this go-around since that race was the low-light of 2013.

Houston Marathon Training

With the my last short race out of the way, it's time to transition over to more marathon-specific training. For a training cycle that peaks with a marathon, I like to spend the last 6-8 weeks zoning-in on marathon pace. I occasionally throw in some stuff faster than half-marathon pace, but most of my focus is spent on extending the distance I can run at my planned marathon pace.  A lot of people use this "reverse taper" method but I base a lot of it off Renato Canova's principles along with my own strengths and weaknesses.

After I axed CIM, I debated just scratching a winter marathon all-together and focusing on trying to break 63 at the US Half-Marathon Championships in Houston and then get ready for Boston.  But I was content with my 63:12 this past June and have yet to have a chance to run a fast marathon when I'm in shape.  And with old age kicking in and the fact you only have a shot at 1-2 good marathons a year, the clock is ticking.

With Houston also hosting the half-marathon championships, as well as offering very appealing time bonuses, I wasn't expecting the marathon field in Houston to be very deep. I'm sure they will have their usual handful of world class Ethiopians but wasn't expecting too many guys around the "A" standard. I usually race well in fields where I have a lot of people constantly around me but I also train pretty much completely alone, so I've gotten used to pushing solo. And I would much rather race a marathon without much company, opposed to a half.  If you go out too hard in the half, you can regroup a bit and save your race some but running a few seconds a mile too fast in the marathon can kill you.

But I recently had some good news when I found out that Luke Humphrey from the Hansons (the racing team, not the 90s band) was heading down and shooting to run under 2:14.  I also heard from somewhere that Patrick Rizzo is racing it, who is also a very tough dude. So with those two guys and hopefully a couple others at that level in the marathon field, I will have some people to follow/pull-along.  I don't know those guys at all but maybe we can form a group for at least 10-15 miles.

When training for the marathon, it's important to not only train for the 26.2 mile distance but the conditions of the course.  You don't want to totally focus on running your race pace, but to replicate what your body goes through on the day of the race. When I was training for CIM, I was going to do my marathon stuff on a course that simulates the rolling nature of the course.  Instead of doing my speedwork on the track, I was going to do a lot of fartleks over hills. I needed to have my body (and mind) used to running over some gentle hills after it's been through a lot of muscle damage. You have to prepare your body for the specific demands of race day and if you don't respect the nature of the course, you're not going to be adequately prepared.

So what problems does Houston pose? None, really. It's a flat and fast, time trial course.  So that means I don't have to stress about hills, I just need to be a rhythmic marathoning machine, which greatly caters to my style and strengths.  Well, I have heard from a few people that Houston has a lot of concrete, but I do a lot of running on sidewalks, and most of my mileage on the roads, except for track workouts. And there's no dirt or trails near my house and I hate running on the grass. So hard surfaces don't bug me at all.

So after a lot of rambling, what's training going to be like and what's my goal? I will probably do a lot of my Canova-style long repeats (stuff like 4x5k with 1k steady jog rest, 3x4.2 mile with 1k steady rest, etc.)  Last year, I did stuff like 10 miles at marathon pace, 10 miles at 1/2 mile at 10s per mile slower than MP and 10s per mile faster than MP.  This time around, I will increase it to 12 miles. While my all-time record for miles in a week is 125, this December, I plan to have a week or two at 130 or maybe even a little higher, depending on how I respond. And right now, I'm debating between running a marathon five weeks out from Houston in the 2:22-2:25 range or throwing in a Canova Specific Block.  Other than that, I'll stay in touch with half-marathon pace from time-to-time, occasionally sprinkle in some shorter, faster repeats and get in some moderate paced running.

Time wise, if the weather is good, 2:15:00 is my minimum goal.  Yeah, my pr is 2:18:52 from Houston last year, which would be quite a jump. But I spent about six weeks with a bum achilles last fall, lost some training time with a sickness in late December and during the race, the it was 40 degrees with a lot of rain and strong wind.  Based off the former race results of others, I felt like my time there was at least worth a 2:15ish under ideal conditions.  And since then, I've improved my half-marathon time by almost 90 seconds, am running more volume and intensity and am running my workouts at much faster paces than at this point last year.  And this time around, I'm doing squats and a little core work, which I didn't do last year.

But on race day, I'll have to adjust my pace based on the conditions. If it it's under 50 degrees and calm, I plan on going out between 66:30-67:00 for the first half. Sometimes I am a little bit too conservative with my racing, so this time around, I'm going to run with a little more confidence. That being said, I greatly respect and healthily fear the distance, so I'm not going to take off like a Kamikaze mania. I'm just going to toe the line confident from my training and not be intimidated by guys with better marathon resumes than me, especially because I consider the marathon my best distance.

With under seven weeks to go, training couldn't be going any better and I'm excited to see how it all unfolds. Hopefully mother nature will be a little bit nicer this time.

Marathon Base Training

With my peak race of the season over, I'm taking some time for recovery and relaxation (well, starting about four weeks ago).  Different people practice different methods when it comes to taking time off. I saw the other day on the Hanson's Twitter that they stick somewhat to the "take one day off for every mile of the race" rule.  So for a half-marathon, that would be 13 days and  a little over 3.5 weeks for a marathon.  Some coaches like to keep their athletes pretty busy and not far away from workouts.  Rather than getting out of shape and building back up, they feel you should recover a little bit and then start stressing the body again.

In college, I would usually take about a week completely off, then run every other day for a week before gradually getting back into the mileage.  It seemed like the perfect amount of time and by the end of summer, I would be somewhat fresh and in-shape enough to be ready for some hard workouts.  Some of my Polish teammates would take six weeks completely off.  One of them would stay in shape by running very little but playing three-on-three basketball, but full-court and playing to 100 by ones. It sounds stupid but they were always ready to roll by Nationals. Enough rambling.

Before planning my base training schedule, I had to choose my "peak" marathon.  My goal is to get in shape to run under 2:15 so I can knock out the "A" standard for the Olympic Trials.  My 63:12 was a huge confidence booster because I've always considered myself a better marathoner than half-marathoner.  I love the stubborn patience and rhythm the marathon requires.  I've always had trouble making moves in shorter races but with the longer stuff, I beat people by outlasting them. I don't really make moves or try to shake people off, I just run hard and hope they eventually fall behind. There's more rambling.

But in choosing my marathon, I was looking at two different races.  The Twin Cities Marathon is on October 6th and they are hosting the U.S. Championships as well.  I've heard that a lot of good guys plan on racing it, so the competition would be very good.  The U.S. only prize money is very generous and with a lot of the elite marathoners running in the World Championships, Chicago and New York, a guy like me would have a shot at going home with a fatter wallet.  But with the race being only 3.5 months after the Half-Marathon Championships, I wouldn't be able to take much time off and would have to jump back into hard and structured training by early July. It would also mean that I would have to do all of that hard training in the heat of summer. No thanks.

The other marathon I was looking at was the California International Marathon on December 8th.  The course is point-to-point, has a net downhill and if you don't have a headwind, it can be very fast. It's advertised as one of the fastest marathon courses in the United States, but I've heard it's somewhat deceiving and has some tough little climbs.  A December 8th race date means that I can take some generous time off and start my marathon-specific training in mid-October, when the weather is nice and cool.  Prize money isn't too deep but I'm more worried about time for now.

After thinking about it, I felt like CIM would be the best pick.  It may not be as deep as Twin Cities, but I don't mind that in the marathon.  With a less deep field, you are less likely to be sucked into too fast of a pace, which hurts you in the shorter races but buries you in the marathon.  And since I plan on racing Boston next year, it works out perfectly.  I have a little over four months in between them, which is a little closer than I like, but manageable.  And since CIM has so much downhill running, I have to train to be ready for that.  And what destroys people in Boston?  The downhill running.  My CIM prep will help lay a strong foundation for my Boston training and should help much race much better there.  Daniel Tapia had a heck of a race at Boston this year and he also won CIM a few months before that.  So hopefully, I will be able to carryover that good training as well. So CIM it is and I'll have the Houston Marathon as my back-up.

But back to my planned base training.  I'm didn't take a lot of time off, just took two weeks of really low volume with mainly easy jogging.  My goal is to lose some fitness, recover a bit and be prepared to start hard, fast workouts in the middle of August.  It's not fun trying to constantly hold your head above water all of the time.  I like getting out of shape because it's motivating to see my times improve once I get back on the upswing.  I'll probably jump into a few local road races, run some moderate progressions and some shorter, steady runs.  I'll also work on my strength through short hill sprints and plan on hitting the weights some as well.  A basic week may look something like this:

Monday: Couple easy runs
Tuesday: Couple easy runs with hill sprints
Wednesday: Easy run; 9-10 mile progression run, broken into 1/3 a little faster than easy, moderate, fastish; weights
Thursday: Couple easy runs
Friday: 8-10 mile moderate run; Easy run; weights
Saturday: Couple easy runs
Sunday: Long run; weights

I'd like to work up to around 120 miles a week by the end of the cycle and hopefully will be somewhat fit by the end of it.  I expect to lose a good bit of fitness the first few weeks, before slowly clawing back.  When it comes to my own individual training I don't look at this phase in the traditional sense (it's different with the runners I coach and probably for most runners in general), which is a time to increase your aerobic system and lay a strong foundation for the season. I look at it as a time to physically and more importantly, mentally recover from all of the hard work from the prior season. I'll do much faster workouts later, more mileage later and dial in mentally later.  There's plenty of time until December.

Mississippi Blues

Well, the curse has struck again. After the Rocket City debacle, I took it easy for a few of days and then went back to hard training. Even though I was still pretty congested a little over a week later, my workouts were on fire. Since I peaked for Rocket City and had some pretty fresh legs, I decided to try my which was 6 miles at 85% of marathon pace, a 1-2 minute break and then 6 miles at 100% of marathon pace. That really isn't that hard by itself, but when you repeat the same workout in the afternoon and don't eat any carbohydrates from the time you wake up until the time you finish the second workout, it can get pretty tough.

I ran this same workout three weeks before the Country Music Marathon and ran 39:30/34:04 and 39:26, 33:32. Those splits were actually 10k (which adds just over a minute) and one week post Rocket City, I was able to run 36:05/31:45 and 35:36/31:49. Other than feeling insanely hungry, I felt really strong. I woke up feeling like a million bucks the next day but a couple of days later, the inside of my knee was really hurting. This same thing happened to me a few weeks prior and was gone in a couple of days, so I was hoping it would be a repeat performance.

As time went on, the knee became worse. I wasn't sure if I would be able to run anything hard but headed to the HHS track to give it a go. My plan was to run 6x1600m at around 110% of marathon race pace, which put me at 4:46-4:47, with a 400m jog rest in-between. With the bum knee, a belly full of Demos' steak, soup, bread and spaghetti, and the fact my legs haven't done anything near that fast in a long while, I would have be fine with starting out just under 5:00 and working my way down to 4:50. I ended up feeling rusty on my first one in 4:47. but somehow managed 4:44, 4:43 and 4:42 for my next three. When I would run this workout in college, I would begin to die terribly after four but surprisingly, I was barely tired at all. I decided to drop down the pace a little more and ran my next two in 4:38 and 4:39. I briefly debated two more at sub 4:40 but with the bum knee and the fact that it was approaching 10:30pm, I decided to call it a workout. I was pumped because the pace felt so controlled, despite not running anything near that fast for a long time. With those two workouts in the bank, I was confident that I was in at least 2:17:-2:18 marathon shape. Granted being in shape and going out and performing, especially in the marathon, are two different things.

But as time went on, the knee just became worse. At first I couldn't get in any fast running but then it got to the point where I couldn't run at all. I decided to wave the white flag and keep things low key and then start a new build-up again once my knee is fine. It's frustrating because I never got to race all-out when I was in good shape but at least I didn't beat my body up with a marathon. The Country Music Marathon put a complete thrashing on my body and I didn't feel right until months afterward. When I start my next cycle, I should be able to start on fresher legs. And with the fitness gains I made over the past year, I'll be strong enough to try some new things in training that will hopefully give me some big breakthroughs. 2011 turned into the year of "what-ifs" but I think 2012 has a lot of good things in store.

Rocket City Fail

Since the Country Music Marathon, I have been focused completely on running under the Olympic Marathon Trials standard of 2:19. Originally, my plan was to attack the standard at the Chicago Marathon. The Chicago Marathon is one of the most competitive marathons in the world and word on the street was that there were a tons of guys going for the time there. My summer training didn't go completely according to plan and once school and cross country practice started, I was too mentally exhausted and pushed for time to get in the necessary training. I had a really positive experience at the Rocket City Marathon in 2010, so I figured that I would make my assault on sub 2:19 there.

Since the Rocket City Marathon was about two months after Chicago, I had to adjust my training a good bit so I could time my peak perfectly and not arrive on the starting line too stale. I backed off training for a bit and then did a short speed phase to get my motor to where it needed to be before starting my eight week marathon cycle to build the necessary fitness to make my assault.

My first marathon workout went very well. A little over a week later, I ran 66:54 in the half marathon, which was only a few seconds away from the Tennessee State Record. That time pointed towards being in around 2:21 marathon shape, which was really motivating because I felt I was far from peak shape. I then got in several 110+ mile weeks and three weeks after the half marathon, broke the 10 mile state record by a very large margin, running 50:09. I used that race as a training run being it was the 7th day of a 120+ mile week and ran with a controlled steadiness. I had a ton left in the tank and felt like I could have run under 49:00 if I really went after it. With exactly four weeks to go, I knew I was very close to, if not under 2:19 shape. The race was rapidly approaching and I was really looking forward to it. Before Huntsville last year, I was terrified of the marathon distance. At the Country Music Marathon, I didn't really have a strategy until the gun went off and wasn't sure if I would even race that hard. However for this marathon, I was very hungry and ready to attack.

With two weeks to go, I began my taper. My normal taper is about a 20% reduction in volume two weeks out and then I reduce the volume about 40% for the last week. It's a very generic taper but it has worked very well for me in my prior marathons. With exactly a week to go, I ran my last "quality" workout, which was a few seconds per mile faster than my other marathon workouts, despite running much more relaxed. I knew my body was rested and ready to go.

Before a major race, I'm always paranoid about becoming sick. Deep down inside, I thought I had nothing to worry about because I'll catch something about once a year and because I came down with something a couple of months ago, I figured I had paid my dues. Despite that, I was doing my best to play it safe. At church that Sunday, there was an overly coughy guy behind me, so I got up, went to the bathroom, and washed my hands.

At school, I never use hand sanitizer but the week of the race, I would use it every few minutes. I also usually get a kid to fill up my water bottle for me a couple of times a day. Traditionally, I will pick a girl because I figure they pick their nose less and are less "germy." Since I was not taking any chances this week, I even made them wash their hands before touching my bottle. On one occasion, one of my "water girls" coughed while carrying my bottle towards the cafeteria, so I called her back, washed the bottle and then chose someone else. With all of these precautions, I felt I would be perfectly safe.

Wednesday night, I started to feel a trickle in my nose. A couple of hours later, that turned into a constant drip and I knew things were about to get much worse. Mary tried to reassure me but I knew that a sickness was beginning and it would probably reach it's peak on Saturday...the day of my race. As time wore on Thursday, I felt progressively worse. Later that night, I had a fever and stayed up pretty late because I figured I wouldn't be able to race. However, I planned to still see what happened and on Friday morning, I was Huntsville bound with Mary, Chris Herren and my own personal fuel man, Vance Pounders.

When we got finally arrived, I tried to lay down for a bit. I wasn't really sleepy or anything, I just wanted a temporary escape from reality. Later on, I went on a short shakeout run with Chris and Vance, in which I felt really weak. I still planned to toe the line but was debating between still attacking 2:19 or running a controlled 2:25 or so, to get the third place prize money and then try another marathon a couple of months later. Deep down inside, I didn't think I'd have a shot at 2:19, or even be able finish in third place, but I figured I'd attempt it anyway.

After hearing about my friend and running partner, Doug Boomer's pasta primavera gone wrong experience, I decided to shy away from the pre-race pasta party and made my own dinner. I attempted to eat some pasta but had no appetite at all. I forced down a few bites and ate some Bojangles fries, which are never too difficult to force down. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, I was able to finally fall asleep.

When I woke up that morning, I had a terrible migraine headache. I don't get bad ones very often but when I do, life is not very fun at all. A side effect of them is that I have a lot of nausea and can't eat anything. Because the marathon requires every ounce of energy you have and more, I knew I had to force down some food. I was able to eat half of a Clif Bar but couldn't eat anything more. A few minutes after eating, my nausea became much worse and shortly after that, I went to the bathroom and lost my Clif Bar and much more. Because I lost all of my morning calories, as well as my fluids, I knew I was in no condition to race, or even finish a marathon. I was really depressed but that's how life treats you sometimes.

Because Chris wanted us to help him out with some fuel support, we went out to watch the start of the race. At this point, I was mad and not in very good spirits but when the race started and I saw everyone run by, I lost it and had to walk away for a few minutes. Being on that starting line and taking my shot at the standard was my journey that I worked for and deserved. Knowing that the opportunity was literally running away from me without even be allowed a shot felt completely unfair. I don't mind falling on my face and failing but not even getting a shot to chase the time after putting in so much work and being very fit was gut wrenching and unfair.

That ended my bid for the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials. In both of my marathons, I felt like I overachieved based off what my training told me I was capable of. For this race, I KNEW I was in at least 2:19 shape, which made things very hard for me. But for now, I won't get a chance to qualify for the Trials until the window opens up again in a couple of years. I expect to take a shot at it again but a lot can happen in two years and age is not on my side.

However, I did not want all of my hard work to go to waste, so I had to find a new marathon. I knew the Jacksonville Marathon was the next weekend and like Rocket City, it was flat and fast. I also felt like I would be able to some decent money and Tom Dolan and Boomer even volunteered to come down with me. But I wasn't sure how recovered I'd be and knew I would have a hard time getting amped up for a race a week later when I was in such a mental low.

I also thought about the Mercedes Marathon in February but I didn't want to continue to train hard for that much longer and because the Chicago Marathon was my original plan, felt like I could become stale by then. After looking around online, the Mississippi Blues Marathon struck my interest. It was exactly four weeks away, which gave me time to recover and get in a couple hard weeks of training. I emailed them and was able to get into the race, as well as a hotel for a couple of nights. The race also is pretty competitive, which makes things more tactical and fun. With Rocket City, I was focused on racing the stopwatch and looked at it as a time trial. Those type of races aren't particular fun, so I welcomed the idea of some good old fashioned head-to-head racing.

Unfortunately, the race is very, very hilly and much more hilly than the Country Music Marathon. To make matters worse, I'm a pretty bad hill runner. However, I have enough time to sprinkle in some small changes into my training to become a little more efficient over the hills. Running well there won't give me a chance to run in the Olympic Trials but hopefully with a good race, I can end this never-ending training cycle on a positive note.

Man vs. Wild

With a little over a week until the Rocket City Marathon, I headed to Moss Wright Park to do my last hardish workout. I was going to run the first two miles of the Team Nashville 10 Mile course as a warm-up and then run the last eight miles at marathon pace and then add in a mile cool-down at the end. I anticipated the workout to be tough but didn't expect to struggle very much.

By the time I got Kate and dropped her off with Mary, I would have just enough time to finish before darkness fully settled in. I hid my keys at the top of my wheel and headed out for the first mile of the course, which was a loop around the park. After the first mile, you head out into Indian Hills, so i stopped by my car to drop off my long sleeve shirt. Normally, I forget which tire I place my keys on, so it's a guessing game until I find them. However, after checking all of my tires, my keys were nowhere to be found. I then looked under the car and under each wheel because sometimes I place them there but still, they were nowhere to be found.

At this point, I started to become a little frustrated and then noticed my car was unlocked. I was pretty certain I locked the car but thought there was an off-chance that I forgot to lock-up and left the keys inside the ignition. Again, the keys were nowhere to be found. I then looked in every nook-and-cranny and moved around everything in the car. I still couldn't find them and after losing about ten minutes of daylight, I decided that I needed to hurry up and start my workout.

After shutting the car door, I thought I heard a jingle in the distance. I looked over my shoulder and saw a squirrel about 50 feet away with my keys in his mouth. I couldn't believe what I saw and then charged after him. He must had been toying with my because I chased him around a tree several times and when he made a move to climb up the tree, the keys fell out of his mouth. For a second, we stared each other down, sizing each other up.

When it comes down to dogs, normally I'm not scared of them and if one chases me, I will charge it or throw stuff at it and nine times out of ten, it will run away. But squirrels are crazy and you never know what is running through their mind and in that brief moment where I debated what to do, he charged towards the keys, grabbed them with his mouth and he was up the tree. To make his ownage of me even more complete, he somehow set off the car alarm.

I spent the next few minutes throwing sticks at him in the tree while he alternated running around the tree and chowing down on my key chain. After a few minutes, he jumped to another tree beside it and the chunking of sticks continued for the next few minutes. He set off the car alarm again before jumping onto the roof of a building beside the tree.

At this point, I wasn't sure if I would ever get my keys back (well, technically Mary's). I picked up the frequency of my stick throwing and then he ran over to the side side of the roof. I sprinted around and must have had a moneyshot throw because the keys fell out of his mouth, slid down the roof, and onto the ground. I froze for a second, not knowing what to do. Just like earlier, we stared each other down for a second or two and then I made a mad dash for the keys, while fearing he would jump on the back of my head and start biting me in the neck. Luckily, I got the keys unscathed and was on my way. Unfortunately, he had the last laugh because all of the buttons on the keyless entry were chewed off and to make matters worse, I had to bail on the workout because my first two marathon pace miles were several seconds too slow. If only I got this on video, I would be telling this on the Ellen show and not typing it a couple weeks late in here.

Marathon Cycle

It's now time to get serious. With eight weeks to go, it's time to transition to my marathon-specific cycle. The key during this phase is to get as efficient as possible at marathon pace, as well as teach my body to burn fats quicker and be able to respond in a low-glycogen state. The more efficient you are at burning fats, the longer you delay the dreaded wall. To run an event well, you have to replicate the stress your body goes through in the event during your training. For the marathon, that means that both my long runs and my weekend marathon paced workouts will be on an empty stomach, without taking anything in during the run, in order to get in a low carbohydrate state.

With my last cycle, I ran a variety of paces and intensities. Some days, I would run insanely fast and other days would be longer, steadier workouts The goal was to be more of a "complete" distance runner and be fit from the 5k through the half-marathon. One of the main goals of the marathon-specific cycle, is to extend the distance you are able to run at marathon pace. For example, for my first hard workout, I may run 6x3k, then move on to 4x5k, then something like 3x7k. Other than a sporadic race, I won't run anything much faster than marathon pace at all. I have already built up my motor in the last phase, so I need to now make it as efficient as possible.

I'm a little nervous going into this cycle because I don't feel very fit. I haven't had any great races or workouts, and have barely had any long runs. My plan was to get in around 2:22 marathon shape when I started this cycle, so I could slowly make my assault at 2:19. In order to get in 2:22 shape, I knew I would need to have a very good speed cycle, and that just didn't happen. My earlier plan was to run Chicago and after about 5-6 weeks of my speed cycle, I knew I wouldn't have a chance at sub 2:19, so I bagged my training, took a few easier weeks and started a shortened speed cycle. That went ok for a couple weeks, before I got sick and lost 1-1.5 weeks of solid training. You hear everyone say that two wrongs don't make a right but I'm hoping my two shortened cycles will somehow get me where I need to be on December 10th.

Based on my life schedule and what I need to work on, my training will be a hybrid of how I trained for the past two marathons (Country Music was more speed-focused, while Rocket City was a pure marathon focus.) Because I don't have the time to get in my longer, marathon paced workouts until cross country season is over, I'll work a little more on my half-marathon speed with things such as progression runs, tempos, etc. Once cross country is over, I'll have five weeks to train exactly how I need to, which should give me a good fitness boost. During that time, I'm hoping to get in at least a couple of weeks in the 120-125 mile range.

After the Country Music Marathon, I thought I would have a 60-70% chance of getting in 2:19 shape (getting in shape and then executing it on marathon day is an entirely different thing) but right now, I think the odds are just under 50%. But to be honest, I'm not huge on goals. All you can do is train to your maximum ability and see where that takes you. Hopefully my training will look something like this:

Monday: Two recovery runs
Tuesday: Recovery run; Easy run with 10x10-12s all-out hill sprints
Wednesday: Easy recovery run; Marathon-specific workout
Thursday: Two easy recovery runs
Friday: Medium run or medium progression run; Recovery run
Saturday: Easy run; Recovery run
Sunday: Marathon-specific workout or long run


It's pretty simple training but with running, there are no complicated formulas or secret workouts. The only "secret" is getting out on the roads and wearing out your running shoes as much as you can.