Unsuccess

Well, on the heels of Thursday's great tempo, I had a rather disappointing failure of a long run today. The goal was 2:40, but bonked pretty hard around 2 hours and made it only as long as 2:10. This made it almost identical in distance and time to the long run I did on August 18th, except for the end: on the earlier run I never bonked; in fact I felt strong at the end and was pretty sure I could have done another 15-20 minutes without too much difficulty.

Here's a summary of the two runs:

August 18th, successful long run

Distance:         16.78 mi
Time: 2:15:02
Avg Pace:         8:03 min/mi
Elevation Gain: 1,367 ft

split       time                     dist.      pace
1      35:27.1 4.33      8:11
2      57:32.7 7.02      8:12
3      27:01.9 3.44      7:51
4      15:00.0 1.99      7:33

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Weather: Cool, cloudy, intermittent rain, probably in the 60s.
Terrain: Varied, but substantial flat sections along the Charles River. Roughly 2/3rds trail.
Nutrition: 3x shot blocks (i.e. 1/2 package) and water, my usual.


September 1st, unsuccessful long run

Distance:         16.88 mi
Time: 2:10:01
Avg Pace:         7:42 min/mi
Elevation Gain: 690 ft

split     time               dist.     pace

1    1:00:07.8 7.77    7:44
2    59:53.6 7.89    7:35
3    9:59.4 1.21    8:14  *bonk*

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Weather: felt like 70s, sunny, with a cool breeze.
Terrain: 100% road; mostly rolling hills (I'm shocked this route had less elevation gain than the other)
Nutrition: 3x shot blocks and water, +1 salt tab.


So why the big difference? Let's see...
Nutrition: pretty much identical. I know some would suggest eating more, but I honestly don't think that's it.
Terrain: The lengthy trail sections probably helped save my legs, but I'm unsure how much.
Weather: Today's weather felt gorgeous. But I think it might have been easy to underestimate the affect of the sun, which is still quite potent. Likely contributing factor.
Pace: yeah...I'm dreading that this is the main factor. The 30s /mile difference, stacked over 12-13 miles, is perhaps wearing me down?

I have two more long runs scheduled. I have been running with my Garmin showing only chrono, because I didn't want to get distracted by pace, but I think next time I'm going to reverse that and forceably limit myself to 8 minute miles. Discouraging--it almost feels like the long tempos are pointless, since they don't seem to make a whit of difference in when I crack--but for now I guess I'm just going to try to keep the optimism that somehow endurance and speed are going to come together in time for the race.

(Feeling pretty sore now, but I'm signed up for Walpole 10K on Monday. We'll see how it goes).

Progress

Great run this morning: 2 miles warmup, 2 miles @ 6:45 pace, 5 miles @ 6:40 pace, 2 miles @ 6:30 pace, feeling easier and easier the whole way. On uphills I just increased my cadence and hardly felt them. It helped that it was practically ideal running weather (unlike my track intervals last Tuesday, which were done in pouring rain, with tractors reseeding the infield that kept backing up and turning in Lane 1). In early August, it felt like a good job just to finish a 14 mile run in the muggy heat, and even the concept of running a full marathon seemed like a mean-spirited joke. Now I'm back to nearly the fitness I had in April, the weather is better, and I'm starting to anticipate my long runs with some proper enthusiasm.

Days like today make me think that I really might be able to hold up to a 6:45 marathon pace (though I'm not relenting on my determination to start at a "walk", i.e. ~7:20 pace).

2hr, 45min run this Saturday. I'm thinking of driving out of my normal zone so I can see some new roads.

pacing for baystate

Back in January of this year I ran the Derry 16 miler for the second time--a beautiful hilly winter run up in New Hampshire. And, if I don't mind saying so, I was killing it. I went through the half marathon in around 9th place, and a little under 85 minutes. And then I totally died, like someone popped open a plug and all the energy drained out of me. You would think (as I would have thought), that with under 5k to go, in a strong position in the field, I would be able to "just gut it out"--but seemingly not. After a dismal 2.9 miles of walk-jogging, I crossed the line and pretty much vowed I'd never do another marathon (strangely, even in the middle of the suck, I was thinking I'd do Derry again--but marathons seemed out of the question). 

I've replicated that sad performance in pretty much all of my other races above 1/2 marathon distance. My record has not been bad. It has been absolutely dismal. I blew up in the MV 20 miler, both my marathons, one of my two Derry 16M races (the other was merely OK), and Highland Sky (but that one gets a pass, since the point was just to finish). 

The point is that I don't seem to handle bonk well. Maybe it's physiological, maybe it's a character flaw. Earlier in my experiments with endurance racing, I was really fixated on the idea of somehow "training up" the toughness. I still want to get mentally stronger! But my thinking has changed, or at least broadened. Now I'm keen on avoiding the bonk altogether. 

Marathon pacing feels like a game of over-under to me. When you start the race, you make a bet: "I think I can run this race in 6:55 pace," say. You want to pick the fastest speed possible, without going over your fitness. If you go over, at some point in the race, the wheels are going to come off. If this happens 2 miles from the finish, maybe you limp in OK--but if it happens at mile 20--or mile 18 (see Keybank VCM)--then it's going to get ugly.

This is all just background for my thoughts about how I want to try to pace Baystate. In my first marathon (Hyannis, winter 2010), I thought I was in 7:15 fitness and went out around 7:00 min/mi. In my second marathon, I trained targeting 7:00 minute pace, and started the race at 6:45 pace (and then it got hot). You may be noticing a problem here. 

So, for marathon #3: I am training targeting 6:40 pace. This is a little fast for me for long tempos (admittedly not according to the hilariously awesome McMillan Running Calculator, which seems to be under the impression I should be able to bust out a 2:45 marathon). I expect I may struggle to finish the gold-standard 15 mile tempo at that pace, but I'm planning on being flexible--breaking it into three chunks with breathers at 7:30 pace, for instance.

And then, once I have that under my belt, I'm going to start at 7:20 pace. I'm going to slowly to drop to around 7:05 pace, and go through the half at around 7:00 pace. And then I'm going to hold that pace, and hold it. And if things go according to plan, I'm hoping to finish in that pace, with no bonk. But I won't lie--making it down to 6:40 pace for the final mile would be grand, and I'm very much hoping for it.

Because, you see, for a runner that's been doing this 17 years, I'm dumb as rocks at the start of long races. I need to tie an anchor around my waist, put my feet in concrete--anything to keep the pace reasonable. In fact, I've given up on playing the under-over game, finding the right even pace. I want to pick a pace I'm sure is too slow for me, and then ease in. I want to negative split. That's the big goal. Negative split and no bonk.

#3

Mental state required to sign up for a marathon:

1. Manic Optimism. I ran 7 miles today, and my Achilles only hurt a little! It'll be fine..!

2. Amnesia. It's been over a year. I really don't remember what those last 6 miles felt like. 

3. Determination. Forget the last two marathons. This time I'm going to run to my potential. 

And so, after much dilly-dallying and internal debate whether to run a marathon this fall and if so which one, I have put my marbles on the table and signed up. I'll be running the Baystate Marathon on Sunday, October 21st. And I'll be chasing that 3 hour time. It's not a hard pace. The game is just to run that pace without exploding. 

I have some new theories about marathon preparation I want to experiment with over the next three months. I'll attempt to keep this blog updated with my progress as I explore them. 

Gilio 5K

A quick post from me, since I haven't been blogginating for a while. I ran the local club race this past Saturday. The day started cool and overcast, but by the time the 9am start rolled around it had transitioned to hut, muggy, and overcast. My 3 mile warm-up had left me drenched in sweat, and I was feeling intensely glad not to be running a half marathon today. My left Achilles was hurting (as it is wont to do). I had tweaked it a bit a week ago when I did what I thought was to be my penultimate specific-endurance workout for my upcoming half-marathon (11 miles with 42 minutes at 6 min "effort"). I finished the long AT section of the run, but my ankle was throbbing, and I reluctantly cut it two miles short. Since then I've been mostly resting it, and was up in the air about racing Saturday.

But I did, rightly or wrongly. The race kicked off on time, and I shot out along with John Sullivan from HFC, and a local Norwood runner. They stayed with me up the first hill, and then I started to pull away. First mile in 5:09.

I hit the rotary and tried to get a glimpse of my pursuers, but they must have been less than the rotary-circumference behind me, because I couldn't see them. I kept grinding on to mile 2, which was way slower.

The last mile up Albemarle ground on. I will cop to slacking off a bit. The humidity and the heat pressed down on me, but I guess it must have been affecting everyone else too because I didn't hear any footsteps or breathing. I reached the crest of the final hill and bombed down it, managing a little kick for the win, in 17:16.

I had two 2nd-place finishes at the Gilio 5K, so it felt good to finally win the thing. The downside? My achilles was really sore at the finish--even though the volunteer PTs there were nice enough to roll it out for me (thanks!). I had a pretty good limp going on. At present I am thinking I'm going to have to bow out of the Simsbury Iron Horse half marathon. I was really excited to run a flat 13.1 in my home-town, but I'm not going to if it just means digging more of a hole for myself. Time to lay off and wait for my body to give me the green-light signal.