Cool Weather And A Solid 22-Miler

Cool weather has arrived, making last Sunday the perfect day for a nice 22 mile run. I did the first 5 or so miles at a relaxed pace, remembering my bad experience from last weekend’s long run, and then steadily picked up the pace through the run, finishing the last 5 or so miles at close to marathon race pace. Average pace for the entire run was 8 minutes per mile.

Next up for this week, I have a hard tempo run on Wednesday where I get to try to run 6 miles at a 6:26 to 6:30 pace. After that, my next important workout for the week is my 17 mile long run this Sunday with 10-12 miles at marathon goal pace of 6:50 per mile. I am still not sure how realistic those paces are, but I am hopeful. Cool weather should help.

Unfortunately, my body may not hold up over these last two weeks of training. Just last Saturday I noticed a few painful twinges in my right knee, and today there is some stiffness and mild pain. I will ice it and pray. If I start to feel more knee pain, then I will make this week my last week of training and do a four week tapper like I did last year. After all, it is better to miss one week of training than to get injured and miss my race!

Goal Time and Tempo Runs

I have not posted here as regularly as I had hoped, but I am still working towards my goal. In fact, I am approaching the end of my training with only three more weeks to go before my tapper.

The question still remains: will I be able to break three hours.

I am still not sure what the answer will be. I would like to say that I will easily reach my goal and run something fantastic like 2 hours 52 minutes or something like that. Rather, it is more likely that if I do break three hours, it will only be by a few seconds at most. Weather will have a large part to play. If it is hot, then I will not be able to do it. If the temperature is in the 50s or low 60s, then I have a shot.

In these last few weeks, I have been getting in my tempo runs and the times have been improving a bit, but the hot weather we’ve had this summer here in Chicago has really slowed me down. For instance, I did a tempo run back in March/May and was able to run about 6:36 per mile pace. Just a few weeks ago, I ran 6 miles at about the same per mile pace. I feel that I am much stronger now, though, because I found that pace much easier to maintain and temperature was in the 70s to low 80s with fairly high humidity, whereas the conditions this spring were in the 40s/50s with very little humidity. Also, I ran an additional two miles at that pace, and I suspect that I was going closer to 10K race pace while running my first few tempo runs this spring.

As the weather cools, I hope to bring my tempo times down even more. Ideally, I would like to be able to run just under 6:30 pace for at least my last two tempo runs. I feel that would indicate that I have the fitness to just break three hours.

The bigger test, though, will be hitting my goal race pace on some longer marathon race pace training runs I have planned. I ran 14 miles last week with about 8 of them at around a 7:00 to 7:05 pace. That is a lot faster than what I was running last year, but not at the 6:51 pace I need to just break three hours. I hope that as the weather cools, I can push the pace a bit and run a little farther at that goal pace.

If I do not break three hours, I may still be able to beat my PR of 3:02:xx. I suppose that would be good enough to keep me motivated for next year’s training.

Long Overdue Update

I haven’t written for a few weeks. Here are just some quick updates on my training:

First, I started my 18 week training program last week with a 65 mile week. I decided to go with Pete Pfizinger’s 70 to 85 mile training program. The program starts at 65 miles and peaks at just short of 90 miles a week.

The first week went fine – though I was a bit tired after doing a 9 mile tempo run followed by a twelve mile run the next day. I was also perhaps a little aggressive on my 17 mile long run over the weekend, paying for it this week… It happened yesterday on what was supposed to be a moderate-paced eight mile run. It wasn’t the eight miles that did it, though, but running those ten 100M strides towards the end. I followed the run with a 12 mile run (was supposed to be 13) this morning during which I experienced some extreme tightness in my hips and throbbing pain in my right hip and groin area that spread into my lower abdominals.

Which leads me to my second point: I’ve come to realize that doing any sort of fast speed work or intense hill running is probably not in the cards for me. I suspect this is because my hip flexor muscles and muscles in the groin are way too tight and I probably have some unhealed muscle strains from this winter and my crazy snowy trail running adventures.

Fortunately, I seem to do fine on tempo runs and aerobic pace runs – which leads me to my third point: namely, that I now realize just how much I hate following canned training plans like the Pfizinger plan that I **was** following. Come to think of it, I was injured last year after starting a Higdon 5K training program… could there be a pattern here?

My new plan is to train similar to what I did last year, only add an extra intermediate long run (12 to 15 miles) mid-week, some longer tempo runs, and maybe the occasional long marathon pace run (all ideas I am taking from Pfizinger).

Here is hoping I feel better tomorrow.

Fast 16 Miles

I surprised myself on Sunday by running 16 miles in around 2 hours, or about a 7:30 per mile pace. The day started out muggy, with temperatures in the low 80s by the time I finished. In other words, it was a lot hotter than I am used to. But I felt surprisingly strong and had plenty of water with me.

After I finished, my legs actually felt fairly good and I was not as exhausted as I thought I would be. I drank a water bottle full of chocolate milk immediately after finishing and then walked about a mile to cool down. Later in the afternoon I felt a little stiff but still surprisingly good.

I am not sure why it felt so easy, but I feel that part of the reason was the difference in running course. I have been doing my 14 to 15 mile runs on rolling paths and trails; I ran my 16-miler on a flat biking trail.

After a day of rest on Monday, I feel ready for another week of running. I am also starting to feel more confident that my time goal for Chicago later this year is not totally unrealistic. Who knows, maybe I might even surprise myself.

Training Summary for Week of May 17th, 2010

I hit 60 miles this week without too much difficulty. The following is my training summary for the week:

• Monday: cross-training day with strength training.
• Tuesday: 10 miles at a brisk pace
• Wednesday: 8.4 easy miles
• Thursday: 12 miles at a brisk pace
• Friday: 6 easy miles and some strength training in the evening.
• Saturday: 8.4 miles at a moderate pace
• Sunday: 16 miles run at a faster than expected pace

Total weekly mileage: 60.8