Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Afternoon: Golf

Evening:  5 miles on Glacial River Trail (7:25 pace)

AM: 5 miles around Fort.  I had a hard time getting started this morning 10:01 pace for the 1st mile.  Avg. 8:22  I was quite tired and hungry too.  Nonetheless, just rolled with what the legs and body gave me for the morning.  My wife and son are sick so I hope I'm not coming down with something.  I've successfully avoided getting sick the last two times they did by constantly washing my hands and using a long stick to keep them away :-)

Afternoon:  Lifts and Core

Evening:  8 miles to River Park (7:42 pace) 1st mile was only a little faster today @ 9:00 pace.  I just generally felt tired today.  Hopefully, some good sleep tonight will make a difference.   

Afternoon:  4 miles around observatory and industrial park - no watch. 

Evening:  9 mile light progression run on Glacial River Trail, worked my way down from an 8 min mile to 6:20 (Avg. run pace 7:01)

I'm really pulling the juggling act now that Track started.  School got out at 3 pm so I booked it home changed into my running and gear and was out the door by 3:20 (helps to only live a 1/2 mile from work).  Finished my run around 4:20, ate dinner then booked it over to pick up Jameson from daycare.  Then off to our 1st track practice of the year.  I'm head coaching 4th-8th grade track again this year.  I started the team 3 years ago and we've grown to 50 athletes, so I'm really excited about our chances at doing well as a team this year.  

Made it home by 7:30, ate some dinner and finished with a collaborate graduate class meeting Now I'm finishing some grades and I'll hopefully get my 8 hrs a sleep tonight!

Afternoon:  Lifts & Core

Night:  Had to get this one in after 7pm with all the meetings today.  Usually, I'm starting to wind down so my motivation was lacking.  Started with an 8:37 mile and worked down 7 min pace and ran the last 4.5 under 7 min pace with ease.  Avg run pace 7:17

Afternoon:  3.58 miles recovery run, not feeling very good (7:48 pace)

Evening:  7 miles recovery run (7:28 pace)  Took a fell miles to feel right.  Just felt off today.  I increased my food intake this evening to see if that balances things out.  The extra time coaching is an adjustment and I think it's ramped my calorie burn up.  I'm looking to a few days off work! 

AM:  quick 7 holes of golf before off to MN.  I woke up feeling under the weather.  I just generally felt worn down and tired.

PM:  long trip to MN to see the in-laws.  Still not feeling good, can't quite put my finger on why though.  Ran an easy 3 miles because I wanted to try out my new Nike Free 2.

Woke up this morning with a headache, so I think my wife and son's sickness finally caught up with me. I had been feeling off the past couple of days and I could tell today's race was not going to be my best. Nonetheless, I decided to drive over to St. Paul to around Lake Phalen.

The winds at the lake were around the 20-25 mph mark and unfortunately the course runs into the wind for the 1st and last miles. The 2nd mile features a very steep hill with a snake to the trail in the middle. My goal time of sub 16 quickly was changed to sub 17 figuring there wouldn't be much competition for a race of 600 people. Before the race I became nauseous and thought I was going to throw up. At this point I was thinking maybe this isn't such a good idea under these conditions. I reasoned that it's only a 5K and I'll probably be in control of the race.

At the start I noticed most of the top runners that I knew were running the 10K, which in my mind left me thinking I'll probably be running this on my own.

The 1st mile took us on a roller coaster path into the wind. I came through the mile in 5:18 with another runner drafting on me.

The 2nd mile turns with the wind. I reached the last 10K runners about 1.25 miles in and so I was dodging runners on a narrow path the rest of the way. I made a conscious effort to pick up the pace and I eventually couldn't hear any footsteps from the runner drafting on me. When I reached the steep hill I was sucking air pretty hard. When I got to the top all I could see was wall to wall people running on the trail down below. I found a crease between the bushes and the cliff just off the trail I was able to somehow navigate past the narrow parts of the path. My 2nd mile split at the bottom of the hill came out to a 5:22.

The 3rd mile was straight back into the wind. I was still weaving runners from the 10K, but it wasn't nearly as narrow, so I was able to find enough room off the path to get around. I was really having hard time breathing and felt like the wheels were starting to come off. My form was starting to suffer and I really was just trying to keep it together. The 3rd mile was a very curvy trail with poor footing and several wooden bridges that were slippery from the rain. I split a slow 5:34 mile for that last mile. The last .14 turned out to be: 42.2 for a 16:57. Not a fast close for me, but I was really just kind of on auto pilot with the race wrapped up knowing I was going to break 17.

All in all a great workout and probably a better effort than I could have done on my own. I just hope I start to feel better. I checked the weather and learned humidity was in the 90% range, so that explains the heavy breathing. I had a pounding headache and felt really dizzy for a good 10 minutes after the race. Feeling better now that I ate and drank a whole bunch of water. Time for a much needed nap!

AM:  6 miles easy pace around Fort.  (Avg 7:47 pace) Feeling better after my day off and 19.5 hours of sleep over the past few days.  I feel like I'm past the sickness.  Plus only running 13 miles over 3 days probably helped.  I think it's going to be a great taper week.

Afternoon:  Core Exercises

Evening: 7.54 miles on random route in Fort.  (Avg 7:05 pace) + 3 Hard hill reps.  Very windy today, but nice temps 55 degrees.

Morning:  3 miles easy on the treadmill

Evening:  7.06 miles around Fort - very windy today (7:47 Avg. pace)

Morning:  27 degrees this morning - felt good!  Ran with my friend Todd whom I helped qualify for Boston at the St. Charles IL marathon in October.  We'll be on the same flight out.  Looking forward to having a friend along for the journey. 

Afternoon:  Core and light lifts

This a good article about easy running and recovery.

 http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18093&PageNum=1

Evening:  2 mile warm-up, 4x200 on 200 off going 37, 35, 33, 30, then 1 lap easy into a mile @ mp, w/ 1 mile cooldown.

 That's pretty much it for me, nothing very big this week.

Evening:  6 miles - no watch Glacial River Trail

 After overlooking my marathon progression since I started running:

3:07:40 Las Vegas = Avg miles of 49 per week for 10 week build up  

2:50:49 Grandmas = Avg miles of 59 per week for 20 week build up  

2:41:12 Indianapolis = Avg miles of 88.8 per week for 16 week build up (had to take 45 days of easy running due to injuries from this training cycle)

Ultimate goal is to break 2:35 @ Boston = Avg miles of 72.4 per week for 16 weeks

We'll see if the race more train less volume worked for this cycle. 

Evening:  Nice short run around Bunker Hill and US Constitution Ship.  Nice cool temps, too bad the race wasn't today, it would have almost been perfect.

Nice easy 4 miles with fellow bloggers Jake, Andrea, John (JG), Dan, & Rachelle around the Commons.  It was really neat to meet everyone.  The support from everyone on the blog is just like a team.  It's so nice to share some time with everyone.  

The legs felt great today, I'm hoping for the same tomorrow!  Looking forward to a cruise and a lunch at Quincy Market.  

The past few days have been a blast.  We did a trolley tour to check everything out yesterday.  That gave us the lay of the land.  We visited Fenway Park, MIT, and the Constitution.  I also got to meet Meb at the Expo.  It was a lot of walking, more than I wanted for the past 2 days.   Today the goal is to stay in the shade and stay OFF the feet as much as possible!  I think we're going to do a cruise and maybe call it a day.  I've got to conserve every bit of energy as possible for the terrible heat tomorrow.  Good news is maybe a fast tail wind.  

The goal is to stay on goal pace (5:55), but adjust at 10K if the heat is beating me up too much.  Considering the 1st 10K is mostly downhill I think that should be a safe plan.  So my range is 2:35-2:40, if I'm feeling good at 2:35 pace I may try a few miles at a faster pace after the 10K (5:48).  If I'm not feeling good I'll slow to a 2:37 (6:00) pace and hopefully maintain.  I plan to loose time through the Newton Hills.  My hope is that I won't loose more than 45-50 seconds on the hills.  It's going to be really important to keep an eye on the watch through the downhills so as not to run too fast.

Went through the hardest race I’ve ever faced in my lifetime.  The last 24 hours have been absolutely miserable.  Flu like symptoms kept me in bed sick as a dog last night.  I ran my 2^nd slowest ever marathon in 3:02.05 (about 25 minutes slower than I wanted) and wound up hooked to an IV, but I’m satisfied with the result!  It was my 1^st hot weather marathon and I stayed with my plan.  In hindsight my plan should have been different, but if you make a decision good or bad you’re the one that has to live with the results and I’m not discouraged.  It’s a learning process and if you race the marathon long enough it’s a matter of time before a humbling marathon becomes part of your race history. 

I must admit I was a little worried about this race being a blow up before I even started due to my inexperience of a hilly marathon course and even more lack of experience with nutrition and the heat was just an additional factor that no one could have predicted.  Who would have predicted it to be the 2^nd hottest Boston in history?   

Every marathon I’ve run I’ve failed to stay on pace and I haven’t quite found what works for my nutrition during the race.  The plan this time was 2 cups of water every water stop and electrolyte pills with GU gels every 4-6 miles or whatever my body could handle in the heat.  Of course this was all just a guess because the longest training run I did in this kind of heat was last summer!   My nutrition plan turned out to be a catastrophe!  I hydrated and ate well leading up to the marathon and I have no doubts about it.  During the race Ishould have been drinking the Gatorade instead of water.  At my last marathon the Gatorade was not sitting well, so I abandoned it for this one.  Big mistake!  The electrolyte pills weren’t enough.  I was on goal pace for about 10 miles when I started to run out of electrolytes and my body stopped absorbing the water.  Somehow I stayed tough and maintained a 6:02 pace through the ½ marathon mark, but I knew I was in trouble because shortly after 1/2 I felt my 1^st calf cramp.  I took the cramp as a warning sign.  I made a very smart decision to back off the pace and start switching over to 2 cups of Gatorade.

The damage had already been done though.  I would eventually fall to 7:30 pace and to eventually a walking pace when I experienced a very scary cramp that went up my neck into my head.  The cramp caused me to become dizzy and almost fall over.  I thought at 1^st I might be having a stroke when it 1^st came on.  I now think it was just a neck cramp that moved up along the back of my head, but it caused me to become disoriented.  It was a very scary feeling!  I walked it off and it came back one more time later in the race, but again I immediately started walking and it went away after a minute or so. 

I would also go on to walk several more times with cramping.  I have no doubt the switch to Gatorade was the only reason I was able to finish.  From mile 14 was a long slow race to the finish.  Something I’ll never forget.  It’s such a helpless feeling to be so far away from the finish with no gas left in the tank.

There’s an old saying that says death smiles at us all we can do is smile back.  My loving wife and friend’s family all took the train to mile 17 to cheer us on.  When I ran by them at mile 17 I pointed at my legs and yelled, “My legs are shot” and smiled at them.  The rest of the way I stayed focused on getting to the finish, but that was one moment I really enjoyed in the race.  My family had a miserable time getting around the course.  It was a long day for them.  I felt much love on a very miserable day not only from my family, but all of the amazing spectators, volunteers, and medical personnel.  The medical teams had the hardest job in the city, when I made the medical tent it had just reached 50% capacity.  When I left it was at 100% and the line to get in for medical attention was 200-300 feet of people sitting in wheel chairs with no shade available!  My friend Todd finished almost 2 hours above his qualifying time.  He said he say a lady fall down with her eyes rolled back in her head.  Spectators swarmed her immediately.  He said he saw another guy fall down at mile 26 and had to be wheel chaired away.  A spectator told me 95% of everyone finishing over 4.5 hours were walking.

My 2^nd marathon was the journey to our condo.  I barely made it back without the assistance of an ambulance.  I was in the tent for an hour and a half while I received an IV of fluids.  I felt a strong desire to get up and out of there because I could see the strain on the medical teams and I knew there had to be more people outside waiting to get in. 

After about an hour I struggled to get to my feet, but once I was up standing I was steady and feeling okay to walk.  I walked to the family area and found my wife and son.  I started feeling sick again, so I found a shady spot to lie down.   I would stay in that spot until about 5 pm.  I couldn’t get up; every time I did I would throw up or get dizzy. 

I was holding down the water and started taking down chips, so I knew I was on the upswing, but it took a LONG time to get back on my feet.  Once I eventually made it to the train and back home I was confined to a toilet and a bed the rest of the night with what I would call terrible flue like symptoms.  Jen thinks it was heat exhaustion to mild heat stroke due to the temperature swings I was experiencing last night.

From a competition standpoint I stayed on my goal pace through 10K  (5:57 pace) going 6:18, 5:52, 6:00, 5:48, 6:05, 5:48 for a 37:02 10K (All of these felt good, I was just rolling with the hills.  I had faster splits on the down hills and slower splits on the up hills, but everything was in check).  I did exactly what I wanted to do. 

The next 7 miles to the ½ went 5:54, 6:02, 5:56, 6:09, 6:12 (struggled with a side stitch), 5:58, 6:13 (legs were starting to fall apart here) for a 1:19:02 ½ marathon (6:02 pace).  I was still on pace to be in that 2:35-2:40 time range.

After the amazing high of the Wellesley college girls at around mile 14 I was seriously worried about hitting my goal, little did I know I’d soon be worried about finishing!  I went 6:20, 6:38, and 6:26 desperately trying to hang on for miles 14, 15, and 16. 

Mile 17 is when everything came crashing down on me for good.  I split a 7:16 and saw the family, which gave me a little boost going into the hills, but my legs couldn’t muster much.  Miles 18, 19, and 20 were 7:33, 7:32, and 7:44.

I was so out of it I didn’t even realize I ran heart break hill.  The next miles were 8:16, and 8:06.  I had to walk mile 23 and 24 because of the painful feeling up my neck into my head that made me dizzy enough to almost fall over.  These miles were 9:56 and 9:25.  My competitive edge got me going again when I saw a few Kenyans struggling to finish.  Mile 25 I managed 8:08 and my final mile came out to be a 7:16 as I found a stride that seemed to be holding of the cramping.  I crossed the finish line running 6:21 pace with leg cramps and walked to about where they handed out medals.  I started to feel like I was going to faint so I sat down in a wheel chair and I was off to the med tent. 

A character building marathon to say the least!    

Update on the race issues.  Two nights after the race I woke up at 3 am ran into the kitchen and compared the electrolyte pills with my vitamins.   I thought I was taking electrolytes during the race, but they were actually my calcium/magnesium/d3 vitamins.  I had mixed up my vitamins with the electrolytes!  That explains the nausea after the race and the reason I got heat stroke during the race.  I can't believe I could make that kind of mistake.  Unbelievable!   

3 miles around hilly charlestown.  84 degrees Hot!  (8:18) pace.  I guess the goodnews is I don't think I'll need a long downtime for this marathon.  The legs felt suprisingly strong, but the body wasn't digg'in the heat.  I'm leaving for home tonight with the family. 

Well I ran 6 miles around fort feeling good.  Another day or so and I'll be fully recovered.  I could have run a lot more today, but I'm getting more benefit keeping the volume reasonable.  Anything longer would be too much strain and anything shorter wouldn't help as much with flushing everything out. 

Long day with the teams' 1st track meet today right after school.  I noticed my concentration and mental focus was really out of wack today.  I'm probably still suffering from the nervous system shock I went through.  I'm still in pretty good spirits though.  Maybe it has to do with being balanced.  Today, I was reminded of why running is so important to me.  Everyone piled into the gym at the begining of school to applaud me for finishing the Boston Marathon.  Most everyone knew I went through a very difficult race out there.  I thanked them for the support.  I let them know that they gave me the strength to finish a very tough race on a very difficult day.  I also made sure to let them know how much they inspire me to be a runner.  It was very rewarding, more rewarding than any trophy or title I've ever won.  Perfect day for a game of track too!   60's and sunny w/no wind. 

7.95 miles on random route around Fort.  Rainy and 40 degrees tonight.  Had to get this one in late because I spent my earlier run time trying to find my lost wallet - errr  Hopefully, it will show up tomorrow.  Avg run pace 7:43  The run felt really good, so if the next few days go well I'd say I'm in the clear to resume regular training again.  I'll probably run Crazy Legs 8K in Madison since it's a big local event. 

9.69 miles (7:47 pace) to Hoard Road and around Rock River Park + 3 hard striders + core work

14 miles easy with Voss and Reedo on the S. shore of Lake Geneva.  Voss went around the whole lake ~ 21 miles while Reedo and I turned at 7.  Neat run, most of it goes through a bunch of rich people's back yards.  Cold to start, only 32 degrees, but warmed up to 45 by the time we finished.  Had a nice breakfast at Voss's brother-in-law's diner.  With the hills and stairs we averaged just under 9 min pace, which I feel is about the same as 8 min pace on the road.    

AM:  8 miles going Star School w/random add-on + 6 hard hill sprints (7:45 pace)

PM:  2 mile w-up

5 x (2x200m - Goal 35 sec w/200m recovery jog + 1x400m - Goal 70 sec w/400m recovery jog)

2 mile cooldown 

Did these on the middle school track with a strong  N. wind of 12 mph.  Nice and cool, but more windy than I expected.  I tried to keep the effort on these at 90% regardless of the times.

1st set [35.84, 36.25, 1:13.6]

2nd [ 35.31, 35.42, 1:14.47]

3rd [35.37, 34.75, 1:11.32]

4th [35.60, 34.57, 1:11.35]

5th [34.18, 34.98, 1:10.95]

8.27 miles 

(8:00 min pace)  on random route around fort + 5  hill sprints 

8.61 miles w/6 hard hill sprints on the bigger hills during the run.  I'm so ready to just start pounding out the doubles, but I'm going to try and hold off while incorporate quality speed training 1st.

No AM due to meeting

Evening:  2 mile w-up, 6x1 mile - goal 5:35 pace w/ 1 min recovery, temp nice cool 55, but a NE cross wind of 12-15 mph made these mile repeats a little tougher.  Just tried to keep the effort in the 90% range on these tempo intervals.  All felt good running with flat legs today in 5:27, 5:31, 5:31, 5:31, 5:31, 5:25., quick 1 mile cooldown before I jetted off to pick up Jameson.  

I think my legs are a little flat from not sleeping well last night.  I keep thinking my 1st attempt at managing a large track invitational for my track team this May.  So many things to plan!  The end of the school year is always jam packed with stuff.  Jumps and Hopes for Heart, track galore, oh and a end of year field day, 8th grade graduation planning, etc....  Ahhh

Here's a link to the county paper that put me on the front page and did a nice little write up of the Boston participants from the area.  

 http://dailyunion.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=110&ArticleID=11371

7.63 recovery miles + 4 light hill sprints.  The legs were dead today.  My nutrition intake and sleep have been poor lately.  I've been slacking due to a very busy sched.

I decided to carb up with some pizza tonight.  Hopefully, some good sleep and pizza will help me bounce back strong for Crazy Legs.

Added some strength exercises and core work during lunch. 

3.5 easy miles on main street route

 Morning:  3 mile warm-up around Camp Randal, then hopped a bus to the start.  

This was my 2nd attempt at the race and I did much better this time around.  Last year I ran 29:21 on what I would call a perfect weather day.  Today I ran 26:56 on a terrible weather day!  Winds were 15-20 mph with gusts of 30 and light to hard rain at times.  This is a neat race because it has a lot of down hill, but also has some really steep climbs.  The coolest part is the finish into Camp Randal Stadium where the Big 10 Badgers play football.  The small down hill finish really helped me finish hard today.

I signed up for the race on Sunday and submitted my time from Bank of America, but apparently they weren't able to verify or didn't have the time?  I wound up with a terrible corral assignment.  So right before the start I sneaked into the elite corral to ensure I wouldn't be walking with the walkers.  At the start all the UW-Badger football players, hockey players, and cheer leaders were there to greet and send us off.  Wow, those football players are huge!

The race got off to a fast start, but not as fast the Bank of America 8K I ran in March, so I settled into about 10th place and sucked off everyone else.  I split a 5:04 for the 1st mile, which was way too fast.  Most of the 1st mile is down hill with some small uphill sections so maybe it was a 5:10-5:15 effort?  I was hoping to average 5:20's today, which I thought was a reasonable goal for the conditions.  Probably not an ideal start though.  

I was able to recover fairly well from the early fast pace, running a 5:21 for the 2nd mile, which has a really long steep hill that contains a few 90 degree turns in it.  

Miles 3-5 I was bucking the wind off the lake.  It wasn't terrible, but hit us at a tough point in the race.  I managed to split another 5:20 because I recognized another runner from Fort I've never raced against because he had a singlet that said Vos Sentury out of Fort.  I had learned he was a pretty good college runner and I think he's around 22-25 years of age.  

I pulled up along side Voss and ran shoulder to shoulder with him for a short time before he would eventually surge and begin to pull away.  This mentally hurt me and I dropped a 5:35 mile.  I'm still mad at myself for this mile because I think I would have had a chance to beat Voss if I had upped my effort to 95% for a short while.

Mile 5 I would rebound to a comfortable 5:29 pace if there is such a thing in an 8K race.  I should have pushed this mile a little harder, but I didn't really mentally have it in me.  I came to life in the last 600 meter or so though!  I blew past 3 runners with an excellent kick, probably my best to date.  My pace for the final part of the race shows a 3:50 mile pace.

This was a solid race for me coming off a major marathon blow-up!  So I'm really happy about running this race because I feel like I can move forward now with some confidence in my training plans.  I'm excited about the next 7 weeks of training now that I'm healthy and in good spirits.  

A few of my local running friends came to watch my race.  They stood in the rain just to see me run, that was cool.  I also talked with Voss and exchanged emails, so maybe now I have someone around my abilities to actually train with?  It sure would be nice to have a training partner for some of the hard intervals and long runs.   

I finished with an 8.38 mile cooldown in 7:39 pace feeling pretty good, so I'll probably put some more miles in later today. 

Evening:  4.25 miles 

Afternoon:  7.66 very very easy miles helping Karen with some 200 and 400 repeats.  Total of 12x200 and 3x400

Avg. the 200's in high 40's and 400's in the upper 1:40's

I probably would have run another run, but I ran out of time with all the graduate course work I had to work on today.

AM:  5 miles easy running on Glacial River Trail out and back.  7:49 avg.

PM:  16 miles going Pepple to County Line Rd. at the max end of easy pace for me.  No shortage of hills on this rolling country side route.  Finished a couple miles at the end around 1/2 mp effort.  Went 7:25, 6:47, 6:52, 6:49, 6:37, 6:39, 6:29, 6:33, 6:35, 6:41, 6:34, 6:33, 6:32, 6:46, 5:41, 5:41 Avg run pace 6:35