Maniac

Well, I never got around to writing that race report. Life has been very busy lately. More on that in a bit.

Vernonia was a fueling problem that I am still working out. I was not getting enough salt during the early stages of the race, leading to slight dehydration/cramps late in the race. Of course, I didn't figure this out until this past weekend when the same thing happened at another marathon.

Three weeks after Vernonia, I paced a friend in the Tacoma City Marathon. I use the term "paced" loosely here because she absolutely killed it the entire race! Her PR was 3:41 and we finished in 3:28:00, including a last mile of 7:01! Granted I was running her race, but I have never felt better after a marathon. I noted how I fueled (hammer gel mixed into my water bottle and powerbar gel's which have more sodium than gu) and used that as a plan for my next marathon.

This past Saturday I ran the Green River Marathon. For those keeping score, thats 3 marathons in less than 3 months. I am now marathon maniac #5511 :) Anyway, back to Green River. It is a very small, local race. There were 198 registered marathoners and 14 registered relay teams. I'm not sure how many showed up though. After Vernonia, this became another goal race. The previous years' winner was back and he ran 3:00 last year. I figured if he was running the same pace, I'd have someone to run with an maybe crack 3 hours. He did show up but was running a slower pace this year.

The race was on paved trail/sidewalks from Kent, WA to Alki Beach in Seattle. My wonderful wife, mom, and two friends came to see me off at the start. The horn sounded and I took off. I didn't see another runner from my start (their was an early start an hour before, most of whom I passed) until several minutes after I finished. I decided against my using my garmin. My best marathon came from not wearing my garmin so I went back to what worked before.

I felt strong through the first half (~1:28). My wife and mom met me here so I could swap for a new water bottle. There were aid stations along the course but I wanted to carry my own water and drink their sports drink at aid stations (another fueling trick I picked up in Tacoma). Around mile 17 I started to feel like I was trying harder. By mile 21 I was run/walking. I was super upset that I was crashing again! I pushed a little, probably not as much as I could have. I didn't want to need medical help after the race and I was in first place so I decided to settle for whatever time I got. Through the whole race, I was lucky enough to have some company from my running club. The lead biker was a one of my clubmates. Its nice to have someone to talk to late in the race when you are running alone. Around mile 23 (I think), I got held up at a stop light (free race=no closed streets). Thinking about it now, that probably cost me my PR. My official time was 3:09:52, 23 seconds short of my PR and 4+ minutes ahead of second place.

After having a few days to reflect on the race, I am happy with it. It brought out the fueling issues I was having in detail so I now know what to fix. It was my best race since I qualified for Boston in October 2010. While I didn't get under 3, I have a hard time complaining about finishing time when I won the whole race! Not to mention it was my 3rd marathon in 48 days.

I'm taking most of the week off from running (6.3-6.8). I haven't taken more than four days off in over a year. I was going to take a full week off but I want to go out with my club on Saturday. I think six days of rest is close enough. Next week, I'll start building up a base again for a few months. That will give me time to lay out a training plan/nutrition plan for my next marathon, Ghost of Seattle in November.

~Run Strong

Boston Repeat

That did not go as planned. I'll post a more extensive race report once I figure out what happened. I had a duplicate of my Boston race last year. Solid first half only to collapse the second half. Finished in 3:25:27, good enough for an age group win and 13th overall.

March/Weekly Stats

March
Distance: 231.8 miles
Pace: 7:53
Run Days/Rest Days: 27/4
YTD: 739.6 @ 8:24

March wasn't quite the distance I was looking for but it was a great month. I ran a new 10k PR and an unofficial 5k PR! It would have been a streak month (i.e. no rest days) if not for the dental procedure I had done on Monday. It put me out of commission for four days. Hence the low totals this week. So far I have 20 miles. Hoping to get out for another 5 tomorrow to give me 25 for the week.

M-Th: Rest days per Dr. orders
F: 7.25 miles @ 8:13
Sa: 13 miles @ 7:45
Su: 5 miles @ ?

Not sure how fast tomorrow's run will be. Probably a little slower, 8:30-9:00. My quads are a little sore after today's run. Hopefully next week is better than this week in terms of running. In terms of work it will be crazy. I'm use to teaching in the morning. Next quarter, which starts Monday, I will be teaching two night courses. MW I'm teaching until 10 and TTH until 7:50. That will take some getting use to. Also, I have 70+ new names to learn. Such is the life of a teacher.

Steep Taper

Looks like this first week of my taper will be very, very steep. I had an unscheduled (minor) procedure done on Monday. So I am not allowed to run until Friday. Now I'm planning this for a taper: 25-30 miles this week, 40 next week and 20-25 race week (not including the race).

Peak Week

Monday- 8.08 miles @ 7:03
Tuesday- 8 miles @ 7:18 (including a 5k TT @18:29)
Wednesday- 14 miles @ 7:22 (last 8 @ 6:49)
Thursday- 5 miles @ 7:58
Friday- 11.85 miles @ 7:39 (trail run)
Saturday- 21 miles @ 8:00
Sunday- 3.22 @ 10:50 (recovery run)
Total: 71.2 miles @ 7:46

I am very happy with this week! I hit the mileage I wanted to peak at and got in two sets of back-to-back hard workouts.

The first back-to-back was Tuesday/Wednesday. Tuesday was planned to be 8 miles with 5 at goal marathon pace. Unfortunately, I had an unplanned visit to the dentist that morning so I missed the start of the run (it was with a small group from my club). So, I decided to just haul until I caught them. Well, after I ran a 5k PR and was still about a half a mile back I decided to shut it down and cruise the rest of the run. They had already started the fast portion of the run (6:49's) so I knew I would have no chance at catching them. Slightly off track, I really need to find a 5k race to set an official PR. First I hit the PR as a split in a 10k, then I run faster than that in a training run. I guess my fitness is much better than it ever has been. Wednesday I ran on the treadmill. Mostly because I wanted to get in a lot of downhill miles. The marathon I am targeting in 3 weeks (still not 100% sure if we can afford it financially) has a long downhill section from ~15 miles in to the 20 mile mark. Here are the stats for that run:


2 miles @ 8:34 @ 1% 2 miles @ 8:00 @ 1% 1 mile @ 7:30 @ 2% 1 mile @ 7:30 @ 3% 8 miles @ 6:49 @ -3%

The second back-to-back was Friday/Saturday. Friday's run doesn't look to difficult but it was hard. It was a fairly hilly trail run with two runners much faster than I could ever hope to be. One is a former Division II runner who has a 1500m time under 4:00 and the other is a current DI runner. It was a walk in the park for them and a hard run for me. Saturday we had planned on 22 miles but decided that 21 was long enough. We (a friend training for Boston and myself) averaged ~8:15 for the first 15 miles and then picked up the pace to 7:3x. My last mile was a 6:37. Definitely a boost of confidence that I can pull that time out for the last mile of a 21 mile run with the week I had leading up to it.


Until next time...

Stats

Not too shabby for the week after a PR. Mileage: 62.8 Run days/Rest days: 7/0 Pace: 7:58 Breakdown: Monday- 10 miles @ 7:22 (last 3@6:49) Tuesday- 10.75 miles @ 7:59 (including 900+ ft elev gain) Wednesday- 5 miles @ 8:40 Thursday- 10 miles @ 7:08 (last 7/1 @6:49/6:27) Friday- 5 miles @ 8:59 Saturday- 20 miles @ 7:59 Sunday- 2.1 @ 10:29 (recovery) I had planned on running a 5 mile recovery run today. When I woke up today, the back of my right knee ached like I hyper extended it in my sleep or something. Instead of injuring myself, I took it a little easier than a normal recovery run and cut the distance down. The plan for this week has a similar breakdown but should get me to about 70 miles.

Race Pics

Official Results are in: 37:37.0 :)

Here are a few pics from the race

Near the 2.5k mark

2.5K mark again, but on the return trip so...7.5k mark

Finish line