12 posts tagged “marathons”
I didn't get up and run this morning but that is okay because I got most of my mileage in on Monday and Tuesday this week. That allowed me to use Wednesday as a rest day and while I would have loved to have completed my 9 mile tempo run this morning, it's more realistic for me to do it after work.
This weekend is a cutback 13 mile Long Run and the next three weeks after, my weekly mileage will really pick up. I hope to be up to 50 MPW by the time of the Ready to Run 20 miler --the only 20 miler I'm doing is going to come on Sept 21 and then I will cutback to only three runs per week including the Saturday LR.
One of the components of my marathon training is the tempo run. There are several schools of thought on what a tempo run should be. One theory is the Ladder, where you start out with a warm up mile, then -- depending how deep you are in the season and that run's mileage -- you might do a mile at marathon training pace, then marathon race pace then lactate threshold pace and finally 10K pace. Then you come back down.
Another idea is that you just pick a faster pace and run most or all your miles at your tempo pace. Finally, a less popular idea is to simply run for a set amount of time at a faster pace, e.g. warm up for 10 minutes, then run tempo for 40 minutes, then cool down for another 10 minutes. I'm sure there are other variations but you get the idea.
Whatever style you choose, you need to find a place to run those miles. Running on the lakefront path during the week isn't an option for me these days. And running through the hood isn't ideal for speed work either. Luckily I've found a place where I can get the distance and speed needed without too much hassle from pedestrians or cars.
Portage Park is a short drive from my place and I'm usually halfway there after work because I park my car near the Irving Park blue line station. So as long as I remember to pack my running clothes in a bag and leave it in my trunk, I can use the pool facilities to change and then do my tempo runs around the park. The perimeter comes out to about .95 miles so the more mileage I do, the further I move from my starting point. It's kinda a little game to keep things interesting, at least as interesting as a long tempo run can be.
It's always hard to succinctly describe how a race goes for me, so I'll simply say that today's run was very good. I set a new course Personal Record for the March Madness Half Marathon of 1:37:51. I learned that I have the ability to run at my BQ pace for 13.1 miles. I've actually run faster half marathons but this particular course gets its own distinction.
It's not called March Madness because of basketball. It gets its name from the fact that running in the middle of winter in the Midwest is crazy. The race has a history of being held during blizzards or rain storms with ice or sleet and cold and hills to boot. I've been very fortunate that each year I've run it (2005, 2006 and 2008) the weather has been moderate.
Establishing a new PR makes it hard to plead my case: that I'm losing my speed as I get older. Even though I set a new record for myself, gosh darn-it if I don't feel like I had a better experience two years ago. Today I had to concentrate on each mile to make sure that I either didn't go too fast or pushed myself to keep a particular pace. Whereas two years ago, I seem to recall that my pace was more natural and I simply cruised through some of the same miles that gave me struggle this year.
Technically, I ran these 13.1 miles at the pace I need to qualify for the Boston Marathon. However, I know that this is no guarantee that I will do it in three weeks in St Louis. There's still work to be done.
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. Michael Jordan
At this point in the marathon training season, I start to plan my post-race party to celebrate qualifying for Boston. I think about who I will invite and how they will interact with my other friends. Maybe a person I haven't seen in a while or someone I kinda know but only see once a week at a run or an event. Or extend an invite to an acquaintance in hopes of upgrading them to friend.
Then I go on a 20 mile run like this morning and reality comes crashing down: this may not be the year I BQ! It wasn't a horrible run as far as long runs go; I've certainly had worse. And it did accomplish what a 20 mile run is supposed to do: set the benchmark for where I am today and NOT be a predictor of how I'm going to do in 5 weeks in St Louis.
Having said that, I was a little disappointed in my performance because I wanted to see how I would do trying to maintain a 7:30 pace for 20 miles. I couldn't. My Garmin GPS says my average for the run was 8:30 or so, which doesn't tell the true story. I started to hit a wall before I even hit the halfway point. Perhaps I started out too quickly but I'm not sure because the path was slippery with ice and snow, so we did take the first couple miles easy.
My friend Carol said that I always seem to set my objectives for a run so high that I always seem disappointed with results that she would be proud of. She is right that I set the bar very high. But I'm not going to BQ by playing small ball.
Some good things I can take from this morning's run is:
- I never got that "okay let's bag it and give up" feeling
- Even though I was struggling, there were some late miles that were sub 9 minutes
- During the post-race massage, my PT said that my gluts and hamstrings were tight but apparently not as bad as they were a year ago -- yoga must be helping
This week my leg muscles will regenerate and become stronger. I will run an easier LR next weekend and then I will start to mentally plan that party again.
Okay I wanted to get a newsletter in before October ended but unfortunately Life gets in the way around here. October was a busy month and I'm hoping that things settle down just a little bit before the holidays so I can get some home projects completed.
Redemption Run
After the fiasco that was the Chicago Marathon, the racing community rallied and various marathons have offered Chicago Marathon participants things like discounted or free admission to their marathons. The Lakefront 40 Ultra Marathon here in Chicago added a marathon distance. They capped it at 200 participants and I don't know if that filled up or what. I only know that I was one of the people who showed up on the 27th looking for a second chance attempt at BQing.
I told myself that I would never run three marathons in a year again, and certainly not back-to-back Jacks like this month. But when this chance came about, I knew I had to take my shot downfield. Of course I didn't BQ but I did run a 3:58 which is great for someone who ran a 5 hour marathon just three weeks before in horrendous conditions.
Good Bye Student Loans
my student loans are officially paid off. I didn't really expect the people at SLA to throw a parade but I hoped for a little more than a ubiquitous email that said my electronic payment plan would be suspended until further notice. Now I have to work on my HELOC. My goal is to get to a point where all I have is my mortgage bill, utilities and food. Then if I were to lose my job, I could get a roommate and a job with a cut in pay to make ends meet.
I'm in the process of posting my marathon story on another site and will gladly send a link to any readers that request it. The story is quite long so I won't put it here and having it elsewhere helps encapsulate my identity even though it wouldn't be terribly difficult to figure out who Icarus is in the real world.
What I will post here is my marathon thoughts along with a handy Runner Vocabulary chart I put together while I had nothing else to do the other day.
Everyone is writing about how the Chicago Marathon Officials blew it this year, both in preparation for the extreme heat and the Public Relations fiasco after the fact. There’s nothing I can say that will really add additional insight nor can I provide an untapped point of view. The simple fact is uncontrollable circumstances intersected with personal desires. We knew it was going to be hot and no one made us run. The only reason the marathon wasn’t canceled was because the marathon exists so Elites can attempt to set world records. Even with that in mind, no one could have really stopped us from attempting the race either.
For those that do not know what happened, here's the abridged version:
"History was made by a record high temperature for October 7th of 88 degrees, which was also a record high temperature for the Chicago marathon. History was made by the enactment of an emergency contingency plan that closed the race 3 ½ hours after it started. The approximate facts are: 45,000 registered participants, 9,000 of whom did not show up for the race, and 11,000 of whom did not finish. One person died, due to a pre-existing heart condition called mitral valve prolapsy. Over 300 people were either treated in medical tents located along the course or in area hospitals for heat-related illnesses. All week, the negative publicity has swirled around the city and nationwide." from AB's Marathon Story.
Depending on where you were at the 3.5 hour mark, you either got to continue on the course or were re-routed back to the Start/Finish area. You were allowed to get your medal, but your time is unofficial.
There was talk about how the marathon snafu could impact Chicago's chances of hosting the Olympics. That really shouldn't come in play since the marathon is a privately organized event put on by LaSalle Bank that pays the City of Chicago for the permits to block off the street and Police & Emergency resources. And while the City has its input and makes money off the tourist dollar, it was LaSalle's baby.
This isn't the first scandal associated with this year's marathon either. Earlier in the year, when registration closed, some running stores and clubs that had purchased or otherwise access to special blocks of marathon entries were providing people who missed out on registration the opportunity to purchase these entries, at the additional cost of buying merchandise from the story or joining the running club. A perfectly legitimate, if arguably swarmy way of doing business. [If they didn't have these blocks of tickets, the marathon wouldn't have been sold out so soon, goes one argument.]
The point is that no one remembers how much uproar there was over this in April/May because its October. The Chaos that was the 2007 Chicago Marathon will too pass. What I feel bad about is the runners who were not allowed to continue on the course at their own choosing, and/or first time marathoners who now have this experience burned into their memory.
Whether it is ones first, fifth or fiftieth, runners prepare for months to run a marathon. Almost all of them have some type of goal whether it’s to simply finish, set a new PR or BQ. Ultimately, it really comes down to the kind of day you have. The weather can be in your favor or work against you.
One good thing about this experience for those that participated in the race is that no runner, no marathoner, no athlete worth their weight in gold will think any less of anyone who didn't or couldn't finish this race. Be it because of the heat, the lack of fluids, or being forced off the course. Be proud of your accomplishments.
It's already 73 degrees Fahrenheit here in Chicago on an October Sunday at 4:30am. That doesn't bode well for today's race. Secretly, I was kinda hoping this one would be a re-do of 2003. In 2003 the Cubs were in the playoffs with the World Series in sight, I had a girlfriend who was supposed to come watch me run and I thought for sure I'd Boston Qualify.
Of course none of those things happened. My girlfriend decided she couldn't come watch me run and it was an unexpectedly hot day, so I was lucky to be able to finish -- a BQ was out of the question. And the Cubs choked in Game 6 of the NLDS.
And while this year sort of felt like 2003, it wasn't of course. No girlfriend and the Cubs post-season hopes ended yesterday. You cannot live in the past and you cannot script October.
Today is going to be hard on everyone and it's going to take doing something harder than BQing. It's going to require running smart. It's going to require the discipline and just plain good sense to run slower and not overheat. To put your ego aside and listen to your body before it is too late.
A friend asked me today if I was ready for Sunday's marathon. This will be her 3rd or 4th marathon and the following is a paraphrase of my recollection of that conversation.
"Yeah, I'm ready," I said, surprising myself a little at how confidently I answered that question.
"Everyone has been asking me that all week and I'm sick of it," she said. "Yet here I go and ask you the same thing."
"I know what you mean," I said. We went on to talk about how we are as ready as we can be at this point since there is nothing we can really do at this point except watch the wacky weather reports that have gone from cold T-storms to hot, humid and sunny for Sunday.
The things is, when a runner asks another runner one of those common, trite questions -- Are you ready for the marathon? | How do you think you'll do | How has your training gone -- we grant one another an exemption from the annoyingness that non-runners sometimes unintentially invoke when they ask about our marathon preparedness.
Part of it is because we understand where the other person is coming from. But a bigger part of it is, we are actually looking for something in the answer that we can take for ourselves. For example, when Jane asked if I'm ready and I said
"Well it was a tough training season and the forecast calls for hot weather so I'm just gonna go out and do my best."
Jane would take that and compare it to how her training season faired. If she had a tough summer, then she would give herself permission to relax a bit and not worry as much about her racing goals for Sunday. Or if she had a good training season then she might decide that she would at least have a better experience than I might.
If I had said "well I feel pretty good about the work I've put in, especially with all the distractions this summer."
Jane might have decided that she too had some distractions this summer and reflect on how much that impacted her training.
*******
I really don't know how Sunday is going to turn out. While the weather forecast calls for hot and humid, there is still enough time for one of Chicago's famous Weather 180s. Even if it is a repeat of 2003 (and the Cubs are in the playoffs for the moment), I'm hoping that it won't heat up too quickly.
In past seasons I've felt like I trained well for 9/10ths of the season and then slacked off at the end. I don't quite feel that way this year. Sure I had some rough patches and weeks were my results were not what I felt I needed to be on pace for Boston Qualification. But I also feel like I have made adjustments and hung in there when the impulse would be to mail it in. This is the best I've felt during Taper Week that I can ever remember.
I think what I'm trying to say is that I have more control over Sunday than I have acknowledged in the past. I'll know in the first few miles if I have it or not, or if the heat is going to be a factor. It will be up to me to make adjustments so that I can turn in a good marathon experience even if it means not BQing.
You know that bone on the inside of your ankle? While doing my Long Runs (LR) this summer, I would sometimes kick my left ankle bone with the heel of my right shoe. I did it often enough to scrap skin and draw blood. Part of this was because I'd get tired and lose focus. But I think it is also because I changed shoes and these Reeboks have a slightly larger base than my previous shoes. I would draw blood one Saturday, put band-aids or New-Skin on during the week and then re-open the almost healed scab the following LR. I was doing a good job this last month and the wound was almost completely healed but then today I managed to hit myself once or twice and that was enough to make me look like Curt Schilling at least from the ankles.
I was looking through my journal from this time last year for a reference and noticed something. Last year I was struggling with my Long Runs, not having very many confidence boosting 20 milers and cautiously trying to sound optimistic about qualifying for Boston. Just like last year, I'm not doing my cross training with consistency. So as the old adage goes, you cannot expect different results if you keep doing (or not doing) the same things.
But I'm not ready to concede the race just yet, because I have done some things differently. I have made changes in all areas of life including my marathon training.
While running my last LR today (10 miles) I thought about how my first couple marathons were just about breaking 4 hours. After I did that, I wanted to break 3:30 and thought that getting a 3:15 and qualifying for Boston would be quick. Instead, I lost ground and started turning in a few more 4 hour marathons.
In 2005, I turned it around, so to speak and started getting 3:40s and more recently 3:30s. But none of those times have been easy. I could run a marathon just to have fun at an easier pace but I don't because I want to be my best.
There are two "problems" in my life that I shouldn't have but do. Many people tell me that I'm a good catch and I shouldn't be single. I'm told I'm attractive and have gotten enough glances from women to realize that there's something there even if growing up I never knew that. I'm smart, funny, financially stable...all the things on paper that make a person desirable. And I run marathons.
On paper, at least based on many of my race results, there is no reason I shouldn't have run a 3:15 marathon yet. I do the training and I have the experience, but just like when it comes to dating, I have some mental block that prevents me from going the distance. I once said that maybe the reason I haven't BQ'd yet is that there isn't anybody at the finish line for me to share it with. I don't know if there is a direct relation between the two goals but maybe if I solve one problem, I'll solve the other.
I tried to post last night but had some technical difficulties, which may have simple been coincidence or may have been the Universe wanting me to wait to post on the following subject.
Today was the last 20 mile run for most marathoner training for Chicago. CARA sponsored a point-to-point run that a lot of my running friends and I participated in. 20 milers can make or break your confidence because they are as close to running the marathon as you get.
Here's something I wrote as a group leader two years ago and sent to my group:
It’s over. Whether it was your first, second or third 20 mile run, it’s now over and done. Make your peace with it and say good-bye to long mileage. You won’t have to run that far again until the marathon.
There’s nothing more to do other than focus on the things you shouldn’t do. Watch what you eat, get enough rest and keep the leg muscles loose with the minimum allowed mileage.
If you haven’t already, this is your last chance to get a new pair of shoes as there are just enough miles left to break them in properly before race day.
If you had a good Twenty, that’s terrific. Keep those positives thought alive and build on it during the taper.
This is where your body rests and heals itself and stores the energy it will need on Marathon Day. You can help by eating right and getting plenty of rest. In fact, you have no choice. This is part of the deal between you and your body. You’ve shown it what you expect and it will deliver, provided you front the necessary nutrients and appropriate pillow time.
If this 20 miler broke your spirit and introduced doubt into your life, let me tell you a little secret: it doesn’t make any difference. How you perform on your 20 miler may be a benchmark for where you are at today, it’s not a prediction of how you will do in 3 weeks. You’ve come too far and worked too hard to give up now. You made it through the training, the early hours, the long mileage, unpredictable weather and you proven that you have the mental toughness to go the distance. Confidence is believing in a positive outcome when the empirical evidence suggests otherwise. And you have every reason in the world to be confident.
Remember your training and you will cross the finish line!
It was also sent to the entire downtown site. But as I said, having a bad 20 mile run is not an indication that your race day is going to be bad. Which also means that having a good 20 mile run doesn't necessarily mean you are going to have a great race day either. So while it pleases me that I had a great day today, it also scares me a little bit.
If someone asked me in July or even early August how I thought I would do on Oct 7, I would have told them that I would finish but would probably not PR let alone BQ. Lately however, I have felt that I'm either gonna just make or just miss the time I need to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
