Monday, February 24, 2014

3 Weeks to Go!

Last week was another solid week of training as I prepare for the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach.  We had a slight break in the winter weather at the end of the week, and I made the most of it.  Towards the end of this week, I was definitely noticing a little weariness building up in my legs, but I pushed through it knowing that once this week was over, my training load will start to lighten as I begin to taper and freshen up for race day.  I did my last hard 20 mile run this weekend and have one more key workout to look forward to next weekend, 3 x 4 mile.  From there out, it will be mostly easy running and several short workouts and tempo runs just to keep the legs loose.  The bulk of my work is now behind me and I just have to relax and trust in the hard work that I have done the past 3 months.

Monday - 12 miles @ 6:20 pace
Tuesday - AM run - 4.5 miles, PM run - 12 miles - 3 mile warmup, 3-2-1 mile in 14:57-9:50-4:45, 3 mile cooldown
Wednesday - 15 miles @ 6:16 pace
Thursday - AM run - 4.5 miles, PM run - 10 miles @ 5:58 pace
Friday - AM run - 4.5 miles, PM run - 12 miles - 2 mile warmup, 8 mile tempo @ 5:11 pace, 2 mile cooldown
Saturday - 11 miles @ 6:16 pace
Sunday - 20 miles @ 5:38 pace - progressive run on a rolling, hilly loop - first 5 miles around 6:00 pace, from 5-10 miles @ 5:40 pace, from 10-15 miles @ 5:30 pace, from 15-20 miles @ 5:25 pace with last 3 miles @ 5:20 pace

Total - 105.5

The overall pace of my training runs was very good this week.  From here out, I will try and keep things in the 6:30 range on non-workout days.  My tempo run on Friday felt very comfortable, and I was surprised when I looked at the final time that I had averaged 5:11 as the effort felt more like 5:20-5:30 type effort.  I am also incredibly pleased with my long run on Sunday.  I have done faster long runs, but not on loops with the amount of hills that this one had.  Given the terrain I was running on, I am very pleased that I was able to run near marathon pace the last three miles and close my last mile in 5:11.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

It's Grind Time

It is now just under a month to go until the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach!  The race is so close I can almost feel the warm ocean breeze and smell the salty air.  It could just be the brutal winter we've been having here in the Northeast or it may be the fact that I am confident I am in the best shape of my life, but I cannot wait to get to the starting line!

The next two weeks of training will be crucial as I wrap up the heaviest portion of my training.  The last two weeks before the race I will be tapering and not doing any hard workouts.  At this point, I have already done the bulk of the work that I needed to do in training.  These next two weeks will just be about really grinding through two more weeks of high mileage and marathon specific workouts with an increased focus on rest, recovery, and health.  I have one more long progression run to do this weekend, and one more key interval workout, 3 x 4 mile to do before I can really relax and enter my taper content that I am ready for a marathon.

As I enter the final month of training before the race, there are several minor tweaks I will be making to my weekly routine as I try to feel as fresh and sharp as possible.  I will begin eliminating the double I had been doing on Monday after my long run.  I will still be doubling the next two weeks on days before workouts because I find that my legs feel fresher for a hard workout after a morning run.  During my taper I do not plan to do any doubles.  I have always found that doubles help to boost my energy on the main run of the day while also serving to give me an additional 10-15 miles of running a week.  I also plan to run much slower on days between workouts than I usually do.  One thing I have done differently during this marathon buildup is not hold back on my daily training runs.  Building up for Vermont last spring, I held myself back a lot on training runs, rarely running below 6:30 pace.  This time around, I have upped the intensity of my training runs considerably, approaching 6:00 pace on most days.  I am very pleased with the results, as I think running at a higher intensity day in and day out has made me considerably stronger than I was last spring.  I did not worry too much about feeling tired the day of a workout after a hard run the previous day, because in the second half of a marathon, I will definitely be feeling tired.  I think the general fatigue associated with training hard on a daily basis with very few true easy days has served me well as I get ready to race hard for 26.2 miles.  Now, with not much more to be gained aerobically in a month, I will be dialing it down to make sure my legs are ready to race.

One other thing I have done this training cycle is do as little supplementary recovery such as ice bath, epsom salt bath, and anti-inflammatories.  I read about a theory of Jerry Schumacher utilizes with his group where they avoid using these type of recovery tools right up until the very end of training.  The thought is that not using these recovery aids during the hardest part of training will increase their effects when finally used during the taper.  I also believe this is a good idea when marathon training, because as previously stated, I think doing the bulk of my training with slightly tired legs will pay off in the long run once I dial things back.  When training this way, it is extremely important to be very aware of your body at all times, because you really are right on the limit of what your body can handle.  Luckily, I have made it through the hardest part of my training relatively unscathed and feeling good.  Time to nail down my final hard weeks of training and then relax!

Here is a breakdown of my training last week:

Monday - AM run - 4.5 miles @ 6:30 pace, PM run - 12 miles @ 6:10 pace
Tuesday - AM run - 4.5 miles untimed, PM run - 12.5 total - 3 mile warmup, 4 x mile with 1:00 jog - 4:55, 4:55, 4:53, 4:51, 4 x 800 with 2:00 jog - 2:19, 2:18, 2:17, 2:15, 2 mile cooldown

This was a very good workout.  The mile repeats were meant to be at lactate threshold pace (for those of you wondering what the heck that means, the lactate threshold is the point at which lactic acid is being produced by your body faster than you can metabolize it - lactic acid = heavy legs = bad), and I felt that even with the short rest, I was not crossing over my threshold.

Wednesday - PM run - 16 miles @ 6:25 pace
Thursday - AM run - 12 miles - moderate progressive run on the treadmill as what I hope was the last snowpocalypse of the season hit - started @ 6:30 pace and worked down to 5:45 pace - averaged 6:08 for entire run
Friday - 17 miles total - 3 mile warmup, 3 x 3 mile with 5:45-6:00 rest mile - 15:13, 15:12, 15:13, 3 mile cooldown

This was one of the better workouts I have ever done.  Last spring when I was training for Vermont I did this workout several times and averaged between 15:30-15:45.  The effort I was putting out today felt the same as my effort last spring.  A great sign for sure!

Saturday - AM run - 11 miles @ 6:20 - it was snowing again...grrrrrrrr
Sunday - AM run - 20 miles @ 6:08 pace - 90 mins of easy running followed by 30 mins of 30 second strides @ 4:20-4:30 pace with 2:30 rest @ 6:00 pace

Total for week - 109.5 miles

Monday, February 10, 2014

The Train Rolls On

The 100 Mile Express continues to roll on, bound straight for Virginia Beach.  Last week, I put another 105 miles of work into my legs as I get ready for the Shamrock Marathon now only 5 weeks away.  I came into this week off of a very tough weekend the week prior.  On Saturday I used the Frosty 5k in Lewisburg as a hard tempo run, breaking the tape in 14:56 before cranking out 10x300 meters at 3k pace which ended up being between 46-48 seconds.  It was not quite a race effort, but it was the first time I had asked my body to work a little harder than normal tempo pace in a long time.  I came away from the workout feeling very pleased with the fact that I could run 14:56 as a controlled effort and follow it up with some fairly quick intervals.  Following this workout on Sunday, I set off on a 2:30 progression run.  This would be the longest progression run that I had ever done, and it went very well.  I gradually worked the pace down until I was hitting close to marathon pace the last 20 minutes of the run.  The final tally for the day was 24.5 miles with the last 3.5 miles run at 5:20 pace.  What wound up being a 37.5 mile weekend left me very tired entering this week, but with under a month of real training time left before the marathon, I had to keep the train rolling along.

I am not typically very conscious of the pace I run on a given training run, even an easy day.  My philosophy has always been that the body will settle in at the fastest pace it is capable of on a given day, whether that is 6:00 or 7:00.  For me, it has always been closer to 6:00, but last week, I was very careful to take my foot off the gas pedal a little more than normal on my easy days.  As I enter the heaviest volume workouts of my training cycle such as 3 x 3 mile and 3 x 4 mile, it is of the utmost importance to be feeling as fresh as you possibly can in the middle of a 100+ mile week.

I did 3 key workouts last week.  On Tuesday I did 5 x 2k with a 2:00 recovery jog between reps.  The goal for this workout was to feel comfortable right around 5:00 pace.  With only one full day of recovery after my hard 24.5 miler, there was no reason to push this workout extremely hard.  I ended up averaging 6:11 for the reps, which put me just under 5:00 pace.  This was a good workout for me, and I am confident I could have handled one or two more reps at the same pace, always a good sign when targeting threshold pace.  On Friday, I cranked out a very good 6 mile tempo run in 30:40.  I like to start my tempo runs at marathon pace, and gradually work the pace down to the very edge of my areobic threshold.  I was pleased that I could comfortably close the last 2 miles of the tempo in under 10 minutes, and did not come away with my legs feeling too heavy and sore on Saturday, always a good thing when you are trying to avoid lactic acid production as you should in a tempo run.  On Sunday, I did my favorite long run workout.  As I have previously written, when training for a marathon, I feel it is imperative that your long run be more than just a basic 20 mile run.  There needs to be variation in pace, as the long run is as close to marathon simulation as you can get.  I began with an easy 10 miles at 6:30 pace on a rolling out and back road.  From there, I went straight into a 10 mile fartlek alternating hard miles and moderate miles.  I ran the hard miles in 5:13, 5:05, 4:50, 5:05, and 5:00 all on rolling hills.  The moderate miles between were all comfortably done around 6:05 pace, and I felt more than ready to go at the end of my recovery each time.  Overall, I hit the last 10 miles of my run in 56:00.  I have done this workout several times in the past, and this was by far the best I have felt doing it.

At this point, I am now under a month to go until I begin to enter my taper the last two weeks leading up to the race.  At this point, all I can really do is keep doing the work and stay healthy.  The majority of the work for this race has already been done over the past nine weeks.  All I can do now is fine tune things and complete a couple more big workouts.

Here is a full summary of my training last week:

Monday - 12 miles easy - 1:18:00 (6:30 pace)
Tuesday - 12.5 miles total - 3 mile warmup, 5 x 2k (6:14, 6:14, 6:13, 6:09, 6:05 on 2:00 recovery),
                 2 mile cooldown
Wednesday - AM run - 5 miles, PM run - 12 miles easy - 1:15:55 (6:19 pace)
Thursday - AM run - 4.5 miles, PM run - 11 miles moderate effort - 1:06:24 (6:02 pace), also did a 
                   half mile of strides post run
Friday - AM run - 4.5 miles, PM run - 11 miles total - 3 mile warmup, 6 mile progressive tempo (5:17, 5:08, 5:09, 5:05, 5:03, 4:55), 2 mile cooldown
Saturday - 12 miles - 1:13:48 (6:09 pace)
Sunday - 20 miles - 10 easy (1:05:40), 10 mile fartlek (5:13, 5:05, 4:50, 5:05, 5:00 for hard miles, 56:00 total)

Week Total - 105 miles

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Crunch Time

My next marathon, the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach on St. Patrick's Day weekend is fast approaching.  With under 6 weeks to go until race day, I really only have a little over 3 weeks to really make any noticeable gains in fitness.  In these three weeks I will really be hitting the bulk of my longest marathon specific workouts.  My marathon specific training block started 8 weeks ago, and I could not be more pleased with how it has gone.

Despite the terrible weather we have had this winter, I have found a way to work around almost everything that Mother Nature has dumped on us.  I have not seen a track uncovered since late December, but I have done what I needed to do to get my workouts in, be it on the roads or treadmill.  Over the last 8 weeks, I have run over 800 miles, which includes an 85 mile week in which I took a day off.  It hasn't been easy keeping my training volume that high with constant snowfall and polar vortexes hammering the Northeast, but hopefully winter will be relinquishing its grasp within a few weeks.  It has definitely been a grind keeping my mileage up in the low 100's when the temperature dips into the 0's, but the work has gotten done, and now it is time to really bear down.

When it comes to marathon training, I like to take a very simple approach.  There are three key workouts each week - Tuesday intervals, Friday tempo runs, and Sunday long runs.  The Tuesday interval workouts touch on a variety of speeds throughout the training block.  I like to alternate longer intervals at marathon pace with shorter intervals at half marathon/10k pace on my Tuesday workouts.  This allows me to work on different energy systems.  When training for a marathon, it is important to remember that you cannot simply do all your workouts at one pace.  The body needs variety to really maximize fitness.  At the end of a marathon, you are going to need those fast twitch muscles to pitch in, so don't neglect them in your workouts.  As I get closer to race day, Tuesday workouts will creep a little closer to 5k pace as I sharpen up.  The second workout of the week for me is usually a tempo run or tempo intervals.  I will either do a 6-8 mile continuous tempo or 3 reps of 3 or 4 miles.  I feel that 3 x 4 mile is one of the best indicators of marathon fitness, and I will be doing that workout coming up shortly.  My last big workout of the week is always the Sunday long run, typically 20-24 miles.  I always try and incorporate some marathon pace running into my long runs.  My personal favorite is a long progression run taking the last 30 minutes of the run at marathon pace.  There are several other variations on the long run I like to use, but I hardly ever just run 20 miles at an even pace.  To truly get out of the long run what you need as a marathoner, there must be portions of the long run done at marathon pace.  The long run really is as close as you can get to simulating the actual race.  Woven through all of these workouts are basic training runs.  I have made a concerted effort to keep the intensity of these training runs on the higher side.  I think it is important not to let the intensity of your daily runs slide as you increase your mileage.  If you follow a mileage progression correctly, there is no reason you should not be able to run the same average pace in the middle of a 100 mile week as you were during an 80 mile week.  If the 100 mile week is slowing down your daily runs, then it is too much for you.  I will typically run at 6:00 to 6:20 pace on my training days.  The only day I am really conscious of pace is the day after a hard long run when my legs are really sore.  The rest of my workouts, while intense, are for the most part done at my aerobic threshold, and do not leave me feeling very sore or tired.

If my approach to marathon training sounds simple, that's because it is.  The marathon is a beast of a race, but it is for the most part, an entirely aerobic race.  Unlike the 5k or 10k on the track, you are not pushing your body into the anaerobic state.  When you get tired at the end of a marathon, it is not because your muscles are filling with lactic acid, it is simply because 26.2 miles is an extremely long distance to run.  Essentially, a marathon is a tempo run from hell.  As I train for one, I simply throw as much aerobic strengthening work at my body as I can possibly handle and hope it sticks.  It truly is a fine line to navigate, but I feel as if I have gotten a good handle on exactly how much my body can handle.  Running the type of marathon I am capable of requires me to get as close to that limit as possible in my training.

My workouts have gone incredibly well the past 8 weeks and I have not walked away from a workout thinking that I had asked too much of my body.  My Tuesday workouts have consisted of 1k, 2k, 1 mile, and 2 mile repeats.  I like to rotate through the various distances, very rarely doing the same distance two weeks in a row.  This gives some variety and keeps the body from getting too comfortable at one pace.  Some examples of workouts I have done so far are 8x1k, 5x2k, 8xmile, and 3x2 mile.  These workouts have gone very similarly to the ones I was doing on Tuesday as I built up for Vermont last spring, but I have dropped the pace slightly while cutting down on the rest.  I believe too many people get caught up in doing their intervals faster and faster when they should be focusing on cutting down the rest.  Pushing your workouts closer to continuous is more beneficial in my opinion than running faster intervals but with more rest.  There is one workout that I have done that has really stood out to me as an indicator of how far I have come as a runner, and that is the 3x2 mile workout I did 2 weeks ago.  I averaged 9:30 for the workout while taking a quarter mile for recovery.  To put that in perspective, when I graduated high school, my 2 mile PR was 9:36.  I certainly have come a long way as a runner.

My tempo runs have also gone well.  The main point of my Tuesday workouts is to improve my running economy and make tempo/marathon pace feel easier, and that has certainly been the case.  I have tried to get away from the tempo intervals I did frequently in my last marathon buildup, and do more continuous progressive tempos.  Doing 3 x 3 mile is great, but I think that a 6-8 mile tempo run is a better workout for marathon prep as you do not give your body recovery periods.  I do these tempo runs starting at marathon pace, and gradually work down at the end towards half marathon or 10k pace depending on how good I am feeling.  I think you should always push the limits of your tempo pace because a 6-8 mile tempo run at marathon pace feels a little too easy.  It is, after all, the pace you are intending to run for 18-20 more miles.  I will typically average anywhere between 5:05 and 5:10 for these runs, but I think the extra stimulus I get from running the last mile or two at 4:50-4:55 pace will really pay off in the marathon.

My long runs have always been my favorite.  Everyone who has run with me knows how much I like to hammer my runs, and the long runs I have been doing give me the opportunity to do just that for over 2 hours.  I have incorporated several long run workouts into my training from the blog of Ryan Vail, the top American at the NYC marathon this fall.  Some examples are the 4-10-4 workout where the 4 mile segments are done at marathon pace with a 10 mile run at steady state pace done in between.  I did this workout three weeks ago now and averaged 5:12 pace for my 4's and 6:00 pace for the 10 in between.  I did a variation on this workout where the middle 10 was taken at tempo pace and averaged 5:10.  My favorite marathon workout will always be the long progression run.  Last Sunday, I nailed a 24.5 mile progression run, hitting the last 3.5 miles on rolling hills at 5:20 pace with the last half mile all out at 5:00 pace.  It was a great indicator of my level of fitness, and left me very sore, but extremely pumped about the kind of shape I am in.

A lot can happen in 5 weeks of training, but from where I stand now, I feel I am on the right track to run a fast marathon in Virginia Beach.  I have my sights set on 2:18 and an Olympic Trials qualifier.  If everything comes together on that day, it will be well within my reach.  I will try to do a better job of keeping updates on my training coming more frequently as I really get into the final stages.