Friday, November 28, 2014
No Cure for the Runs: Philly Marathon
No Cure for the Runs: Philly Marathon: It's been a while since my last blog post....I pretty much went dark once the real training set in for the Philadelphia Marathon. This ...
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Philly Marathon
It's been a while since my last blog post....I pretty much went dark once the real training set in for the Philadelphia Marathon. This will be a race report but first some random thoughts....
The Colonial Winter Fun Runs start up again this weekend. The Raynham version starts Sunday at 9am at the Lions Club on King Phillip Street. It's pretty much the same course as the Summer Fun Run, just a tad bit longer at 4 miles. They get the extra 3/4 mile bypassing Gardiner Street and turning left on Lakeview on the way back to the Lions Club. Jeez, I hope I have this right.....I am confident it is 4 miles.
Anyway, for those that I will spend the winter bugging to run the KofC Race here in Raynham, this fun run series is PERFECT training. A timed event so you can monitor your progress....and all for $2.
So Philly.....I originally chose this race as it fit my two main criteria for a marathon. Flat (supposedly) and no heat (pretty much a guarantee for Philly in late November). My single goal for this, my third marathon, was to qualify for Boston. To do this, I needed to run 3:30 or better. Anything under that time technically qualified me, but to be safe I really needed 3:28:00. The Boston registration process is complicated but all that is important to know is that there are usually more qualifiers than spots available. So to be safe, runners need to have a couple minutes cushion as slots are filled first by those that qualified by the most (time under standard).
My training for this race went really well. Pretty much injury free and I didn't skip a single workout. Not one. 5 days a week culminating with 2 weeks with over 50 miles of running. Sprinkled in were 1-2 speed workouts per week. Intervals, threshold runs.....they really ran the gamut and they were all very challenging. The upside was they were all "short". Meaning all of them were less than an hour and ranged in distance from 4-9 miles. But they were tough.....like almost puking tough for the last 1-2. Sweating through clothes tough.....get me through this tough.
I could write an entire blog post on my training program, and probably will some day. But for now, this blog is about my race. We left for Philly around 8am Friday morning. I figured around 6 hours and thats just about what it took. We got settled in at the Downtown Marriott and then walked over to the 30th Street Amtrak station to pick up middle daughter who was coming in from DC. Dinner was a big plate of pasta marinara at Maggiano's, which happened to be right across street from Marriott. Good planning. After dinner, I strolled over to the Convention Center for packet pickup and some browsing of the vendor fair. Pretty quiet and glad I got it over with.
Saturday consisted of a big breakfast of Banana Bacon French Toast at the Reading Terminal. Decadent but I need my carbs, right? A couple hours of touristy stuff including the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall.....right in my wheelhouse and the family obliged. Back to the hotel and another plate of pasta for lunch....my last meal. Oh yeah, snuck in a hair cut which is a great story......but since I have no idea who reads this blog, I have to save it for friends and family. I did head back to the Expo as I wanted to hear a speaker talk about the course. Also got to see Bill Rodgers. Still looks like he could run sub 2:20 if he wanted to. After laying out my race day stuff and planning the family meeting spot for viewing and post race, I drifted off to sleep....and slept well.
5 am came quick. Nice hot shower, dressed and out the door in about 20 minutes. I had already staked out a 24 hour Dunks so I grabbed a multi grain bagel and a medium coffee for the one mile walk to the start. I t was dark.....and eerily quiet. Except for us runners....it literally looked like an episode of the Walking Dead we solemnly trudged up Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the start area. There's something about runners that's hard to explain....as we made our way to the start area it was as if we were all sympathetically being drawn to a distant light....proceeding with trepidation but never wavering. Hard to explain, but the sense of a common purpose was abundant.
STOP: This is the point in the race report where things happen that might cause you to say WTF? Why is he sharing THAT! Well, race reports serve two purposes. First, to tell your story. But as important, all marathon runners scour the internet in the weeks leading up to their race looking for race reports from their race. There is NO better way to get an idea of what they are about to put themselves through than real life race reports. As such, I have always found the best reports are the reports where the writer is brutally honest. About the race.....about themselves.....about everything. So here is your warning....read no further if bodily processes make you queasy.
6am-7am - Pre-Race - cleared security and immediately started to scope out a porta potty. A previous report had a great tip that the facilities on the left side of BFP are virtually unused in the hour leading up to the race. Apparently there is some human default mechanism that causes us to gravitate to the right when we are lining up. Well, that tip was spot on. Found about 50 porta potties and no line. My tendency of nerves before big runs was starting to reveal itself in its normal way. Yup, apparently my body has programmed itself to empty itself at the first sign of anxiety. So with plenty of time to spare before the start I obliged. It was dark and cold inside my little green dookie chalet. Apparently I was its first tenant as the paper was still wrapped in its original packaging. I laughed as I struggled mightily trying to unwrap the roll and find the start of the first sheet. This humor would come back to haunt me much later. Suffice to say I felt much better and I continued my journey to the start. Finding my corral I settled in for the 45 minute wait. Oops.....apparently my anxiety did not completely leave my body......off to find another chalet. This time, I had to wait 10 minutes but it was worth the wait.
6:45 - popped 3 Clif Blocks to top off the glycerol stores. I had spent a lot of time thinking about proper nutrition for this run. Both pre-race and during. My plan was 3 Clif Blocks every 5 miles and alternating water/gatorade at the water stops as needed. I also had about half a bottle of Gatorade with me at the start. I knew the first couple water stops would be crowded and crazy so I wanted to just run through them without slowing down. Worked out well. I also discarded the $7 sweatshirt that I had bought at Marshall's as well as the satin Boston Celtic warmup pants. I have fun with my throwaway clothes shopping. It's my one opportunity to dress like a complete idiot and I take full advantage.
7:00 AM Start - Miles 1-7 Just to recap. My 3:28 goal meant approx 7:55/mile pace. I had a dilemma. I have always found the Clif Bar Pace Teams to be very helpful. These guys really know what they are doing and it helps to run with a group with a similar goal. Problem was they had a 3:25 group and a 3:35 group. Do I run with the faster team and hope for the best or start with the 3:35 team and then breakoff at some point? I chose to let the 3:25 team get out in front of me for the first 1/3 of the race. Keep them in sight and then see how I feel at mile 10. The first 7 miles of this race are run through the downtown area and are very flat. We went out and it was tight. Very tight. You could not run your pace, you pretty much had to run the pace of those around you. Which was fine as I fell into a groove running around 8:05's. Yes, off my pace but very, very easy to make up once the crowd thinned out. I was feeling really, really good. The only concern was I couldn't get my heart rate down under 160. I really needed it to be around 156-159 if I was going to have a chance at maintaining sub 8:00 pace later in the race. Something wasn't adding up.....at the pace I was running there was no way I should be having a HR of 175-180. I thought maybe the coffee was the cause so I didn't let it bother me too much. But I have to admit it was starting to piss me off. Finally, around mile 6 I started registering sub 160. Yes, time to settle in. It was also about time to look for Lisa and the girls. We had arranged for them to be at Chestnut and 13th Street, on the right side, about 5.5 miles in. Problem was we were still jammed in like sardines so I was literally 10 feet from them when we saw each other. About 3 seconds to wave and say hello.
Miles 7-13.1 - We left the downtown area and headed out to the Drexel/Penn neighborhood. I was felling great. Physically and mentally. The weather was perfect and the crowd was thinning which allowed me to start to work my way up and get closer to that 7:55 average pace that I needed. There are two formidable hills on this course and they are back to back. Mile 7-8 is all uphill. Mile 8-9 goes back down and then mile 9-10 goes back up. It's a test and its still early in the race which means if you screw this up you are in for a long day. I had been training to run on effort, not on pace, all summer. Meaning listen to my body, in this case my heart rate, and not chase a pace. I figured theses two hills would cost me 30 seconds each. In other words, I would run them at 8:25 pace. That would be time I could make up later. The key here was to respect the hill, keep my HR under 160 no matter what my pace. Did I mention I was feeling great? I ran the first hill mile in 7:52 with an average HR of 159. I then proceeded to run the downhill mile 8 at 7:26 with an avg HR of 156. One down, and it was friggin awesome. Hill 2? 7:54 with average HR of 158. The downhill? 7:37 with average HR of 153. I know this is all technical, but for someone that trained exclusively with HR training methodology, this was an absolute home run. I was in running nirvana. Mentally, I was on my game. The only thing nagging at me was that apparently the 3:25 pace team was also having a very good day. I really should have caught them on that second downhill but apparently they were putting time in the bank. Miles 11-13 were very flat and uneventful, although I did put two sub 7:40 miles on the board. This amy have been a mistake....more on that later.
Mile 13-20 - Mental check time. I always take a physical inventory at the half way mark. At mile 13 the half marathon runners peel off for their finish. It was really tempting to follow them but that was not happening. The rest of the course is an out and back along Kelley Drive. 6 miles out to Mayanuk and back. I noticed once the 1/2's peeled off that we were on a pretty long, steady decline. Which was great as I ran a 7:38 mile. But being the pragmatist that I am, I though to myself that the hill would be an uphill on way back......at mile 25.....when we are running on hope and a prayer. I tried to dismiss the thought and I settled in. I still felt good. The usual soreness in the quads, probably from pounding the downhills. A little twinge in my left achilles which has been a chronic problem for years. Hips felt great which was a welcome sign as they had given me trouble in my two prior marathons. I also noted a pretty steady headwind had developed. Not enough to freak me out but enough to notice.
****In virtually every race, a runner has to deal with some sort of adversity. Maybe a cramp, an injury, poor planning hindering performance. It's inevitable, you deal with it. At this point, around mile 15, I was running at an average pace of 7:50. Put another way, I had a little over a minute in the bank. But something wasn't right. I had taken my Clif Block at mile 10 and out of nowhere a burp filled my mouth with vomit. Not a lot, and not enough to make me stop (sorry people behind me), but enough to cause me to wonder what the hell was going on. I was fueling exactly as I had for my previous races and long runs. Oddly, I maintained pace and felt OK.....for about a half mile. It was then that I went from BQ in the bag to BQ on the bubble. At mile 16 I hit a porta potty and proceeded to empty my gut through the southern exit. Not pretty. Apparently whatever exited through my mouth had some buddies that chose the other way. The good news was it was quick. Similar to my morning visit to the dookie chalet, I was the first occupant here as well. This time I did not find it amusing that the paper roll was impossible to unwrap. I finally gave up on finding the first sheet and cleaned up using the paper packaging.....uncomfortable but effective. I exited having lost my minute in the bank and more. By my count approx 75 seconds. I was now running right on my mark, 7:55 average pace. That meant I had no wiggle room left. Mentally I was crushed. I had planned on using those 75 seconds over miles 21-26.2. The 15 seconds per mile would allow me to run 8:10's after hitting mile 21....totally doable even with the hill. Now, I would have to run 7:55's through the end. Again, I was crushed.
Miles 20-Finish - The turnaround for the out and back is at mile 20 in Mayanunk. Very cool little town and they come out to support the race. Over the mile leading into town and the mile leading out of town, I was offered a beer no fewer than 10 times. Tempting and some folks were partaking. I still had a goal and it would not be easy so I put my head down and grinded out of town. There is no more lonely place than the last 6 miles of a marathon. You are left with nothing but the voices in your head. Stop! Walk! Slow Down! Quit.......I had read that one strategy to use was to have a phrase to quiet the voices. Say it out loud if necessary. So if anyone reading this passed or was passed by a guy muttering "pain is temporary, BQ is permanent", that was me. It worked, sort of.
Funny thing about the last 6 miles of a marathon. Your mind will play all kinds of tricks on you. From mile 23 on, I felt like I was running 10 minute miles. I was barely picking up my feet. Everything hurt by now. Around mile 16 I had noticed a sharp pain developing in my left foot every time it struck the road. By mile 23, that pain was an all out emergency. Every foot strike felt like I was stepping on spike. Never had that pain before.....weird. Despite the mental anguish, and the physical pain, I ran mile 23 in 8:01 and mile 24 in 8:05. I know this now but at the time I was incapable of doing the math in my head so I was sure that my BQ was gone. The hill at mile 25 truly was every bit the nightmare I thought it might be. It ended up being an 8:25 mile. If you had told me 6 months ago that the worst mile in my marathon would be mile 25 at 8:25 I would have laughed out loud. That is fast than any mile I had done at the Marine Corp Marathon just one short year earlier. Finally the top of the hill and mile 26 was 8:21....a negative split to finish. OK, not technically but faster than the previous mile. The last 1/4 mile was a blur and I crossed the line in more pain than I had ever felt from running. I hit my watch and looked down to see 3:28:55. Jackpot, right? Well, no. I knew that I had my Garmin set on auto-pause. It's a feature that stops the clock when you physically stop moving. I use it because I often run in cities when I travel and all i really care about is my pace when I am moving. I didn't turn it off because I couldn't have foreseen stopping during a race. Never happened before. So I started to do some rough math. Remember I thought I had spent about 75 seconds in the mile 15 Ritz Carlton? If I had that right, my time would be approx. 3:30:10.......or 10 seconds short of a BQ.
Finish - I got my medal, my Mylar blanket, a water and a pretzel and set off to find the family in the family meet zone. Philly did a nice job with this aspect of the finish area. I found them all under the C-D sign. It was then that Erin informed me that the text message she got when I finished said my time was 3:29:49. If that was my official time, then I had my BQ. Apparently my 75 second break was really closer to a minute. That made me happy......even knowing it wouldn't be good enough to actually get me into Boston for 2016. From there we had a long, slow walk back to the hotel where a hot shower awaited. I rewarded myself with a disgustingly juicy cheeseburger and fries. Finally it was time to get Erin back to the train and for us to hit the road. About 5 hours later we were back home and I finally exhaled. What a trip it has been.
Thoughts on Philly - As I mentioned, flat and cool. The weather cooperated but to all those that run Philly thinking it is a fast BQ race, I disagree. The two hills at 7 and 9 are tough. Yes, there are the downhills but those will trash your quads if you aren't careful. And being careful means not making up the time lost on the uphill. The first 6 miles are tight and crowded. If you don't do well in close quarters, this is not your race. The out and back for miles 13-26 are tough. Very little crowd support, potential for wind along the river, at times lonely. And of course that hill at mile 25. All that being said, Philly puts on a great race. Very well organized and a great course. Just keep reasonable expectations. If you are training for a BQ, there are better options. I would run it again without reservation, but I would run it recreationally.
JD
The Colonial Winter Fun Runs start up again this weekend. The Raynham version starts Sunday at 9am at the Lions Club on King Phillip Street. It's pretty much the same course as the Summer Fun Run, just a tad bit longer at 4 miles. They get the extra 3/4 mile bypassing Gardiner Street and turning left on Lakeview on the way back to the Lions Club. Jeez, I hope I have this right.....I am confident it is 4 miles.
Anyway, for those that I will spend the winter bugging to run the KofC Race here in Raynham, this fun run series is PERFECT training. A timed event so you can monitor your progress....and all for $2.
So Philly.....I originally chose this race as it fit my two main criteria for a marathon. Flat (supposedly) and no heat (pretty much a guarantee for Philly in late November). My single goal for this, my third marathon, was to qualify for Boston. To do this, I needed to run 3:30 or better. Anything under that time technically qualified me, but to be safe I really needed 3:28:00. The Boston registration process is complicated but all that is important to know is that there are usually more qualifiers than spots available. So to be safe, runners need to have a couple minutes cushion as slots are filled first by those that qualified by the most (time under standard).
My training for this race went really well. Pretty much injury free and I didn't skip a single workout. Not one. 5 days a week culminating with 2 weeks with over 50 miles of running. Sprinkled in were 1-2 speed workouts per week. Intervals, threshold runs.....they really ran the gamut and they were all very challenging. The upside was they were all "short". Meaning all of them were less than an hour and ranged in distance from 4-9 miles. But they were tough.....like almost puking tough for the last 1-2. Sweating through clothes tough.....get me through this tough.
I could write an entire blog post on my training program, and probably will some day. But for now, this blog is about my race. We left for Philly around 8am Friday morning. I figured around 6 hours and thats just about what it took. We got settled in at the Downtown Marriott and then walked over to the 30th Street Amtrak station to pick up middle daughter who was coming in from DC. Dinner was a big plate of pasta marinara at Maggiano's, which happened to be right across street from Marriott. Good planning. After dinner, I strolled over to the Convention Center for packet pickup and some browsing of the vendor fair. Pretty quiet and glad I got it over with.
Saturday consisted of a big breakfast of Banana Bacon French Toast at the Reading Terminal. Decadent but I need my carbs, right? A couple hours of touristy stuff including the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall.....right in my wheelhouse and the family obliged. Back to the hotel and another plate of pasta for lunch....my last meal. Oh yeah, snuck in a hair cut which is a great story......but since I have no idea who reads this blog, I have to save it for friends and family. I did head back to the Expo as I wanted to hear a speaker talk about the course. Also got to see Bill Rodgers. Still looks like he could run sub 2:20 if he wanted to. After laying out my race day stuff and planning the family meeting spot for viewing and post race, I drifted off to sleep....and slept well.
5 am came quick. Nice hot shower, dressed and out the door in about 20 minutes. I had already staked out a 24 hour Dunks so I grabbed a multi grain bagel and a medium coffee for the one mile walk to the start. I t was dark.....and eerily quiet. Except for us runners....it literally looked like an episode of the Walking Dead we solemnly trudged up Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the start area. There's something about runners that's hard to explain....as we made our way to the start area it was as if we were all sympathetically being drawn to a distant light....proceeding with trepidation but never wavering. Hard to explain, but the sense of a common purpose was abundant.
STOP: This is the point in the race report where things happen that might cause you to say WTF? Why is he sharing THAT! Well, race reports serve two purposes. First, to tell your story. But as important, all marathon runners scour the internet in the weeks leading up to their race looking for race reports from their race. There is NO better way to get an idea of what they are about to put themselves through than real life race reports. As such, I have always found the best reports are the reports where the writer is brutally honest. About the race.....about themselves.....about everything. So here is your warning....read no further if bodily processes make you queasy.
6am-7am - Pre-Race - cleared security and immediately started to scope out a porta potty. A previous report had a great tip that the facilities on the left side of BFP are virtually unused in the hour leading up to the race. Apparently there is some human default mechanism that causes us to gravitate to the right when we are lining up. Well, that tip was spot on. Found about 50 porta potties and no line. My tendency of nerves before big runs was starting to reveal itself in its normal way. Yup, apparently my body has programmed itself to empty itself at the first sign of anxiety. So with plenty of time to spare before the start I obliged. It was dark and cold inside my little green dookie chalet. Apparently I was its first tenant as the paper was still wrapped in its original packaging. I laughed as I struggled mightily trying to unwrap the roll and find the start of the first sheet. This humor would come back to haunt me much later. Suffice to say I felt much better and I continued my journey to the start. Finding my corral I settled in for the 45 minute wait. Oops.....apparently my anxiety did not completely leave my body......off to find another chalet. This time, I had to wait 10 minutes but it was worth the wait.
6:45 - popped 3 Clif Blocks to top off the glycerol stores. I had spent a lot of time thinking about proper nutrition for this run. Both pre-race and during. My plan was 3 Clif Blocks every 5 miles and alternating water/gatorade at the water stops as needed. I also had about half a bottle of Gatorade with me at the start. I knew the first couple water stops would be crowded and crazy so I wanted to just run through them without slowing down. Worked out well. I also discarded the $7 sweatshirt that I had bought at Marshall's as well as the satin Boston Celtic warmup pants. I have fun with my throwaway clothes shopping. It's my one opportunity to dress like a complete idiot and I take full advantage.
7:00 AM Start - Miles 1-7 Just to recap. My 3:28 goal meant approx 7:55/mile pace. I had a dilemma. I have always found the Clif Bar Pace Teams to be very helpful. These guys really know what they are doing and it helps to run with a group with a similar goal. Problem was they had a 3:25 group and a 3:35 group. Do I run with the faster team and hope for the best or start with the 3:35 team and then breakoff at some point? I chose to let the 3:25 team get out in front of me for the first 1/3 of the race. Keep them in sight and then see how I feel at mile 10. The first 7 miles of this race are run through the downtown area and are very flat. We went out and it was tight. Very tight. You could not run your pace, you pretty much had to run the pace of those around you. Which was fine as I fell into a groove running around 8:05's. Yes, off my pace but very, very easy to make up once the crowd thinned out. I was feeling really, really good. The only concern was I couldn't get my heart rate down under 160. I really needed it to be around 156-159 if I was going to have a chance at maintaining sub 8:00 pace later in the race. Something wasn't adding up.....at the pace I was running there was no way I should be having a HR of 175-180. I thought maybe the coffee was the cause so I didn't let it bother me too much. But I have to admit it was starting to piss me off. Finally, around mile 6 I started registering sub 160. Yes, time to settle in. It was also about time to look for Lisa and the girls. We had arranged for them to be at Chestnut and 13th Street, on the right side, about 5.5 miles in. Problem was we were still jammed in like sardines so I was literally 10 feet from them when we saw each other. About 3 seconds to wave and say hello.
Miles 7-13.1 - We left the downtown area and headed out to the Drexel/Penn neighborhood. I was felling great. Physically and mentally. The weather was perfect and the crowd was thinning which allowed me to start to work my way up and get closer to that 7:55 average pace that I needed. There are two formidable hills on this course and they are back to back. Mile 7-8 is all uphill. Mile 8-9 goes back down and then mile 9-10 goes back up. It's a test and its still early in the race which means if you screw this up you are in for a long day. I had been training to run on effort, not on pace, all summer. Meaning listen to my body, in this case my heart rate, and not chase a pace. I figured theses two hills would cost me 30 seconds each. In other words, I would run them at 8:25 pace. That would be time I could make up later. The key here was to respect the hill, keep my HR under 160 no matter what my pace. Did I mention I was feeling great? I ran the first hill mile in 7:52 with an average HR of 159. I then proceeded to run the downhill mile 8 at 7:26 with an avg HR of 156. One down, and it was friggin awesome. Hill 2? 7:54 with average HR of 158. The downhill? 7:37 with average HR of 153. I know this is all technical, but for someone that trained exclusively with HR training methodology, this was an absolute home run. I was in running nirvana. Mentally, I was on my game. The only thing nagging at me was that apparently the 3:25 pace team was also having a very good day. I really should have caught them on that second downhill but apparently they were putting time in the bank. Miles 11-13 were very flat and uneventful, although I did put two sub 7:40 miles on the board. This amy have been a mistake....more on that later.
Mile 13-20 - Mental check time. I always take a physical inventory at the half way mark. At mile 13 the half marathon runners peel off for their finish. It was really tempting to follow them but that was not happening. The rest of the course is an out and back along Kelley Drive. 6 miles out to Mayanuk and back. I noticed once the 1/2's peeled off that we were on a pretty long, steady decline. Which was great as I ran a 7:38 mile. But being the pragmatist that I am, I though to myself that the hill would be an uphill on way back......at mile 25.....when we are running on hope and a prayer. I tried to dismiss the thought and I settled in. I still felt good. The usual soreness in the quads, probably from pounding the downhills. A little twinge in my left achilles which has been a chronic problem for years. Hips felt great which was a welcome sign as they had given me trouble in my two prior marathons. I also noted a pretty steady headwind had developed. Not enough to freak me out but enough to notice.
****In virtually every race, a runner has to deal with some sort of adversity. Maybe a cramp, an injury, poor planning hindering performance. It's inevitable, you deal with it. At this point, around mile 15, I was running at an average pace of 7:50. Put another way, I had a little over a minute in the bank. But something wasn't right. I had taken my Clif Block at mile 10 and out of nowhere a burp filled my mouth with vomit. Not a lot, and not enough to make me stop (sorry people behind me), but enough to cause me to wonder what the hell was going on. I was fueling exactly as I had for my previous races and long runs. Oddly, I maintained pace and felt OK.....for about a half mile. It was then that I went from BQ in the bag to BQ on the bubble. At mile 16 I hit a porta potty and proceeded to empty my gut through the southern exit. Not pretty. Apparently whatever exited through my mouth had some buddies that chose the other way. The good news was it was quick. Similar to my morning visit to the dookie chalet, I was the first occupant here as well. This time I did not find it amusing that the paper roll was impossible to unwrap. I finally gave up on finding the first sheet and cleaned up using the paper packaging.....uncomfortable but effective. I exited having lost my minute in the bank and more. By my count approx 75 seconds. I was now running right on my mark, 7:55 average pace. That meant I had no wiggle room left. Mentally I was crushed. I had planned on using those 75 seconds over miles 21-26.2. The 15 seconds per mile would allow me to run 8:10's after hitting mile 21....totally doable even with the hill. Now, I would have to run 7:55's through the end. Again, I was crushed.
Miles 20-Finish - The turnaround for the out and back is at mile 20 in Mayanunk. Very cool little town and they come out to support the race. Over the mile leading into town and the mile leading out of town, I was offered a beer no fewer than 10 times. Tempting and some folks were partaking. I still had a goal and it would not be easy so I put my head down and grinded out of town. There is no more lonely place than the last 6 miles of a marathon. You are left with nothing but the voices in your head. Stop! Walk! Slow Down! Quit.......I had read that one strategy to use was to have a phrase to quiet the voices. Say it out loud if necessary. So if anyone reading this passed or was passed by a guy muttering "pain is temporary, BQ is permanent", that was me. It worked, sort of.
Funny thing about the last 6 miles of a marathon. Your mind will play all kinds of tricks on you. From mile 23 on, I felt like I was running 10 minute miles. I was barely picking up my feet. Everything hurt by now. Around mile 16 I had noticed a sharp pain developing in my left foot every time it struck the road. By mile 23, that pain was an all out emergency. Every foot strike felt like I was stepping on spike. Never had that pain before.....weird. Despite the mental anguish, and the physical pain, I ran mile 23 in 8:01 and mile 24 in 8:05. I know this now but at the time I was incapable of doing the math in my head so I was sure that my BQ was gone. The hill at mile 25 truly was every bit the nightmare I thought it might be. It ended up being an 8:25 mile. If you had told me 6 months ago that the worst mile in my marathon would be mile 25 at 8:25 I would have laughed out loud. That is fast than any mile I had done at the Marine Corp Marathon just one short year earlier. Finally the top of the hill and mile 26 was 8:21....a negative split to finish. OK, not technically but faster than the previous mile. The last 1/4 mile was a blur and I crossed the line in more pain than I had ever felt from running. I hit my watch and looked down to see 3:28:55. Jackpot, right? Well, no. I knew that I had my Garmin set on auto-pause. It's a feature that stops the clock when you physically stop moving. I use it because I often run in cities when I travel and all i really care about is my pace when I am moving. I didn't turn it off because I couldn't have foreseen stopping during a race. Never happened before. So I started to do some rough math. Remember I thought I had spent about 75 seconds in the mile 15 Ritz Carlton? If I had that right, my time would be approx. 3:30:10.......or 10 seconds short of a BQ.
Finish - I got my medal, my Mylar blanket, a water and a pretzel and set off to find the family in the family meet zone. Philly did a nice job with this aspect of the finish area. I found them all under the C-D sign. It was then that Erin informed me that the text message she got when I finished said my time was 3:29:49. If that was my official time, then I had my BQ. Apparently my 75 second break was really closer to a minute. That made me happy......even knowing it wouldn't be good enough to actually get me into Boston for 2016. From there we had a long, slow walk back to the hotel where a hot shower awaited. I rewarded myself with a disgustingly juicy cheeseburger and fries. Finally it was time to get Erin back to the train and for us to hit the road. About 5 hours later we were back home and I finally exhaled. What a trip it has been.
Thoughts on Philly - As I mentioned, flat and cool. The weather cooperated but to all those that run Philly thinking it is a fast BQ race, I disagree. The two hills at 7 and 9 are tough. Yes, there are the downhills but those will trash your quads if you aren't careful. And being careful means not making up the time lost on the uphill. The first 6 miles are tight and crowded. If you don't do well in close quarters, this is not your race. The out and back for miles 13-26 are tough. Very little crowd support, potential for wind along the river, at times lonely. And of course that hill at mile 25. All that being said, Philly puts on a great race. Very well organized and a great course. Just keep reasonable expectations. If you are training for a BQ, there are better options. I would run it again without reservation, but I would run it recreationally.
JD
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Follow your heart....
Don't let the title of this blog fool you, this will not be some mushy post. Lord knows there are enough of those on Facebook and other social mediums to last us all a lifetime. Let it be known, as a rule I don't do mush. No, staying true to the reason for this blog......to capture my random thoughts on running.....today is all about the human engine, the heart. Is it an organ? A muscle? Both. It is medically termed a "muscular organ". As an organ, its function is necessary for us to survive. The fact that it is "muscular" suggests that it can be conditioned. Or perhaps better stated, its performance can be improved through training. So off we go....
A few months ago I was toying with the idea of running a fall marathon. I had a great experience running the Marine Corp Marathon in Oct 2013 and thought that perhaps I had left some time out on the course. It was only my second marathon yet I had trained for a finish under 4 hours. To level set what that meant to me at the time, I had run the Disney Marathon 10 months prior and ran 4:31:13. Suffice to say, knocking a half hour off my time was not going to happen just by training a little more and getting my diet right. I was really going to have to get after it to have a chance. So get after it I did, adding mileage as well as the number of long runs to my plan. I toed the line in DC as ready as I could be with the good fortune of perfect weather at the start. Temps in mid 40's and no rain in site. Long story short, I paced with the Clif Bar 4 hour team and at mile 16, somewhere around the National Mall, I kicked it up and put a few minutes in the bank. Crossing the line surrounded by Marines shouting "dig down, sir. Finish strong", I looked down at my watch to see 3:59:03.
So back to thinking about a fall marathon. I didn't want to do a marathon just to do it. Way too much time and effort go into training. Not to mention the effect it has on the household schedule. Delayed dinners, messed up Sunday mornings when I sneak out at 7am for a 3 hour run. It can be disruptive. No, if I was going to run in the fall, I needed a goal. Leave it to your fellow runners to provide that goal, indirectly as it may be. In April, seeing the stories of so many runners crossing the finish line in Boston, I decided I would make a run at a Boston qualifier. As most of you know, there are 3 ways into the Boston Marathon. 1) Invitation - think Kenyans and really fast skinny people. Not happening. 2) charity - you can have a bib #, just raise $5,000 or more for Charity ABC. And BTW, you guarantee the proceeds. Your credit card on file and it will be charged the difference between what you raise and your commitment. Very ambitious, very worthwhile. But I hate asking people for money. 3) Qualify - Boston has a system whereas runners can qualify to run Boston by running what is called a Boston qualifying race. There are lots of them. That's the easy part. The tough part is you then have to finish the race under a specific time for your age group. For me, now in the male 50-59 group, I would have to shave 30 minutes off my MCM time and run under 3:30. Put another way, I ran the MCM averaging approximately 9:09 per mile. Thats 9 minutes and 9 seconds....per mile....on average. To qualify for Boston, I will have to average 8 minute miles. All 26 of them.....I can run maybe 8-10 miles @ 8 min/ mile......but 26? Consecutively?
So, given the likely impossibility of a BQ what do I do? Of course I search for a race and a training plan that will make it happen. Race - flat, fast, cool weather......those are the only requirements. First up, the NYC Marathon. Lottery, denied. Next up, Chicago in October. Perfect, except we will be at Parents weekend at daughters college. That's more important, right? So I settle on Philly on Nov 23rd, the city of brotherly love. Always wondered about that title.....hell, this is the city that booed Santa Claus and pelted him with snow balls at an Eagles game in December many years ago. But I choose to think that perhaps I will be provided with motivation to keep up my pace given that the race is run entirely in the city.
So if you have got this far, you have to be asking yourself.....what the Hell does this have to do with the heart? Patience, reader, patience. So, impossible goal has been established. Race chosen and registration complete. All that is left to do is to get this 50 year old bucket of bones and worn out cartilage ready to do something it has never done before, run an improbable race at an impossible pace. Thinking back to the original motivation, reading all of those awesome Boston stories, I couldn't help but keep coming back to the story of one particular runner who happens to run locally in the same running club as me. He will remain nameless since I haven't had the opportunity to ask him if I could refer to him in this blog. Long story short, he's a bit younger than me but he ran a sub 3 hour time in Boston. Well, he must be one of those freakishly gifted runners, right? Well, yeah, he makes it look easy. But then I heard his history. First marathon, somewhere well north of 4 hours. Followed by breaking 4 hours. Sound familiar? How did he do it? I asked. Heart rate training.
Prior to this training cycle, I always ran based upon mileage. The more miles the better. Pace? during the week, I ran comfortably. Long runs on Sundays? A bit conservative, shooting for a minute slower per mile than race pace. But the heart rate theory intrigued me. The more I read, the more I liked what I was reading. I could write an entire blog just on heart rate training, and maybe I will. But for now, the basics. Heart rate training is based upon a calculation with inputs that include your maximum and your resting heart rates. Through a formula, you then determine 5 HR zones. Think of zone 1 as a brisk walk and zone 5 as a sprint that makes it feel like your heart is about to explode. While we never train in those 2 zones, it's important to know them. Zone 2 is the money zone, your basic endurance training and approx 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. At this pace, conversation is easy and you feel like you could run all day. Zone 4 is your threshold pace. You are really working and when you speak it is in short, choppy sentences. You probably cant run at this pace for an extended period. You might run this fast for a 5k or 10k. This is the pace where lactic acid begins to build up. Bottom line, it's uncomfortable. And that leaves zone 3. This is marathon race pace. Slightly above the easy zone 2, but still not so uncomfortable that you cant maintain it for an extended period. It will challenge you, but it shouldn't be uncomfortable.
So once I knew my zones, i turned to the good folks at Garmin and they provided me with a 16 week training plan based entirely upon zone training and time. 5 training sessions per week. Through the entire plan there is no mention of mileage. Long run? Tomorrow I will run for 2:30 in Zone 2. (HR approx 135 bpm). Depending upon conditions or my fatigue, it may be 15 miles, it may be 17 miles. During the week there are various runs from 30 minutes easy Zone 2 to interval workouts. Interval workouts are done in Zone 4. The intent here is to develop speed by pushing the heart as well as training the body to more efficiently remove lactic acid from the muscles. As an example, this morning I did a 10 minute warmup at easy pace followed by 4x10:00 in zone 4. Thats 4 periods of running at zone 4 for 10 minutes with a 90 second rest break between. It's a bitch of a workout. However, it works. This particular workout 7 weeks ago had me running those intervals at around a 7:50 pace. Today, I ran them at 7:15. Further proof? My long, zone 2 runs were averaging around 9:45 per mile. Last Sunday I ran 16.5 miles with an average pace of 9:10.
So there is my pitch for heart rate training. It works and it works because its based entirely upon what the body can do at any given time. Your heart rate will tell you if you are weary from overtraining. It will save you from injury due to overtraining. For me it works because it put me on a clear training regimen. And thanks to my nifty Garmin Forerunner 620, I can see every bit of data from every run. More on this in a later blog......
A few months ago I was toying with the idea of running a fall marathon. I had a great experience running the Marine Corp Marathon in Oct 2013 and thought that perhaps I had left some time out on the course. It was only my second marathon yet I had trained for a finish under 4 hours. To level set what that meant to me at the time, I had run the Disney Marathon 10 months prior and ran 4:31:13. Suffice to say, knocking a half hour off my time was not going to happen just by training a little more and getting my diet right. I was really going to have to get after it to have a chance. So get after it I did, adding mileage as well as the number of long runs to my plan. I toed the line in DC as ready as I could be with the good fortune of perfect weather at the start. Temps in mid 40's and no rain in site. Long story short, I paced with the Clif Bar 4 hour team and at mile 16, somewhere around the National Mall, I kicked it up and put a few minutes in the bank. Crossing the line surrounded by Marines shouting "dig down, sir. Finish strong", I looked down at my watch to see 3:59:03.
So back to thinking about a fall marathon. I didn't want to do a marathon just to do it. Way too much time and effort go into training. Not to mention the effect it has on the household schedule. Delayed dinners, messed up Sunday mornings when I sneak out at 7am for a 3 hour run. It can be disruptive. No, if I was going to run in the fall, I needed a goal. Leave it to your fellow runners to provide that goal, indirectly as it may be. In April, seeing the stories of so many runners crossing the finish line in Boston, I decided I would make a run at a Boston qualifier. As most of you know, there are 3 ways into the Boston Marathon. 1) Invitation - think Kenyans and really fast skinny people. Not happening. 2) charity - you can have a bib #, just raise $5,000 or more for Charity ABC. And BTW, you guarantee the proceeds. Your credit card on file and it will be charged the difference between what you raise and your commitment. Very ambitious, very worthwhile. But I hate asking people for money. 3) Qualify - Boston has a system whereas runners can qualify to run Boston by running what is called a Boston qualifying race. There are lots of them. That's the easy part. The tough part is you then have to finish the race under a specific time for your age group. For me, now in the male 50-59 group, I would have to shave 30 minutes off my MCM time and run under 3:30. Put another way, I ran the MCM averaging approximately 9:09 per mile. Thats 9 minutes and 9 seconds....per mile....on average. To qualify for Boston, I will have to average 8 minute miles. All 26 of them.....I can run maybe 8-10 miles @ 8 min/ mile......but 26? Consecutively?
So, given the likely impossibility of a BQ what do I do? Of course I search for a race and a training plan that will make it happen. Race - flat, fast, cool weather......those are the only requirements. First up, the NYC Marathon. Lottery, denied. Next up, Chicago in October. Perfect, except we will be at Parents weekend at daughters college. That's more important, right? So I settle on Philly on Nov 23rd, the city of brotherly love. Always wondered about that title.....hell, this is the city that booed Santa Claus and pelted him with snow balls at an Eagles game in December many years ago. But I choose to think that perhaps I will be provided with motivation to keep up my pace given that the race is run entirely in the city.
So if you have got this far, you have to be asking yourself.....what the Hell does this have to do with the heart? Patience, reader, patience. So, impossible goal has been established. Race chosen and registration complete. All that is left to do is to get this 50 year old bucket of bones and worn out cartilage ready to do something it has never done before, run an improbable race at an impossible pace. Thinking back to the original motivation, reading all of those awesome Boston stories, I couldn't help but keep coming back to the story of one particular runner who happens to run locally in the same running club as me. He will remain nameless since I haven't had the opportunity to ask him if I could refer to him in this blog. Long story short, he's a bit younger than me but he ran a sub 3 hour time in Boston. Well, he must be one of those freakishly gifted runners, right? Well, yeah, he makes it look easy. But then I heard his history. First marathon, somewhere well north of 4 hours. Followed by breaking 4 hours. Sound familiar? How did he do it? I asked. Heart rate training.
Prior to this training cycle, I always ran based upon mileage. The more miles the better. Pace? during the week, I ran comfortably. Long runs on Sundays? A bit conservative, shooting for a minute slower per mile than race pace. But the heart rate theory intrigued me. The more I read, the more I liked what I was reading. I could write an entire blog just on heart rate training, and maybe I will. But for now, the basics. Heart rate training is based upon a calculation with inputs that include your maximum and your resting heart rates. Through a formula, you then determine 5 HR zones. Think of zone 1 as a brisk walk and zone 5 as a sprint that makes it feel like your heart is about to explode. While we never train in those 2 zones, it's important to know them. Zone 2 is the money zone, your basic endurance training and approx 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. At this pace, conversation is easy and you feel like you could run all day. Zone 4 is your threshold pace. You are really working and when you speak it is in short, choppy sentences. You probably cant run at this pace for an extended period. You might run this fast for a 5k or 10k. This is the pace where lactic acid begins to build up. Bottom line, it's uncomfortable. And that leaves zone 3. This is marathon race pace. Slightly above the easy zone 2, but still not so uncomfortable that you cant maintain it for an extended period. It will challenge you, but it shouldn't be uncomfortable.
So once I knew my zones, i turned to the good folks at Garmin and they provided me with a 16 week training plan based entirely upon zone training and time. 5 training sessions per week. Through the entire plan there is no mention of mileage. Long run? Tomorrow I will run for 2:30 in Zone 2. (HR approx 135 bpm). Depending upon conditions or my fatigue, it may be 15 miles, it may be 17 miles. During the week there are various runs from 30 minutes easy Zone 2 to interval workouts. Interval workouts are done in Zone 4. The intent here is to develop speed by pushing the heart as well as training the body to more efficiently remove lactic acid from the muscles. As an example, this morning I did a 10 minute warmup at easy pace followed by 4x10:00 in zone 4. Thats 4 periods of running at zone 4 for 10 minutes with a 90 second rest break between. It's a bitch of a workout. However, it works. This particular workout 7 weeks ago had me running those intervals at around a 7:50 pace. Today, I ran them at 7:15. Further proof? My long, zone 2 runs were averaging around 9:45 per mile. Last Sunday I ran 16.5 miles with an average pace of 9:10.
So there is my pitch for heart rate training. It works and it works because its based entirely upon what the body can do at any given time. Your heart rate will tell you if you are weary from overtraining. It will save you from injury due to overtraining. For me it works because it put me on a clear training regimen. And thanks to my nifty Garmin Forerunner 620, I can see every bit of data from every run. More on this in a later blog......
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Running and Heat.....
It's too hot!!! The humidity will kill ya!!!!! It can't be healthy!!!! All valid responses when someone asks you the question.....running tonight? But before you use any of these very convenient excuses, challenge yourself and let the heat be damned. Personally, I love running in the heat. The hotter, the better. Throw in some oppressive humidity and let's have at it. You know, the type of heat that leaves you in a full, stanky, sweaty mess. The sweat that gets in your eyes mid-run causing momentary blindness. The heat that causes you to sweat from places previously incapable of producing moisture. My shins are sweating? seriously? Yeah, that heat.....and the best part? The first couple of minutes after you finish. When your body seems to declare.....hey, he stopped.....lets get rid of all this extra sweat in the next 3 minutes!!!!
Ok, enough of the hyperbole. What's really going on when we run in the heat. Disclaimer: not a doctor, just a curious reader with the internet at my fingertips. First things first, heat increases the stress on our physical plant and its to be taken seriously, very seriously. If you have medical issues, particularly concerning your heart, hazy-hot-humid days are no time to be a hero. Pour a glass of ice tea and let the old ticker chill. But for the other 98% of us, our bodies are well equipped and designed to handle an increase in physical exertion during the summer. Sweating is the bodies natural cooling system. Actually, its the evaporation of the sweat that causes the sensation of cooling. The issue here is the action of sweating will send more blood flow to the skin to be cooled, meaning further from the heart. This is why when we run in heat, it feels like our heart is about to jump out of our chest. This also explains a common phenomena seen during high heat exertion, feeling light-headed and disorientation. Not like zombie apocalypse disorientation, just that "weird, not right" feeling.
So that sounds horrible, and dangerous. It can be, but doesn't have to be. A couple simple precautions and common sense and you too can he a happy, sweaty runner. First, fluid replacement. Here's the common sense. Drink a lot of water or sports drink the day before and day of a hot run. During your run, especially a run over 30 minutes, aim to replace your fluids DURING your run. And finally, drink after. If you experience cramps, you are not drinking enough. If you detect signs of salt on your skin or clothing after your run, make sure you are replacing sodium in your diet via a sports drink.
More common sense. The really hot days are not the time to set a speed record unless you are in top condition. My guess is if you are an elite runner in top shape you know all this. But for the beginner or casual runner, take it easy out there. If you are training with a heart rate monitor, you are one step ahead and your adherence to your zones will go a long way towards keeping you safe. Personally, on the really hot days I will stick to my Zone 2 workout (60-70% of MHR). If I cant work around the heat and have to do a hard workout on a hot day, I am ultra, ultra aware of my personal condition. Not a bad idea to have a running buddy on these days.
And THAT leads me to my final point. I use the CRR Monday Night Summer Fun Run as one of my hard runs. Perfect for me as the course offers a hill portion and enough incentive courtesy of some friendly competition via fellow runners. But most important....I have over 100 running buddies in the unlikely event the heat got the best of me. There has to be someone in the medical field, right?
So if you find the heat curtailing your runs.....come on down to the Lions Club on Monday nights at 7pm. If it's hot, run it nice and easy. And when you are done, you can stand around with rest of us pretending that standing in a puddle of your own perspiration is a normal activity.
Run FOR life, not from it.
JD
Ok, enough of the hyperbole. What's really going on when we run in the heat. Disclaimer: not a doctor, just a curious reader with the internet at my fingertips. First things first, heat increases the stress on our physical plant and its to be taken seriously, very seriously. If you have medical issues, particularly concerning your heart, hazy-hot-humid days are no time to be a hero. Pour a glass of ice tea and let the old ticker chill. But for the other 98% of us, our bodies are well equipped and designed to handle an increase in physical exertion during the summer. Sweating is the bodies natural cooling system. Actually, its the evaporation of the sweat that causes the sensation of cooling. The issue here is the action of sweating will send more blood flow to the skin to be cooled, meaning further from the heart. This is why when we run in heat, it feels like our heart is about to jump out of our chest. This also explains a common phenomena seen during high heat exertion, feeling light-headed and disorientation. Not like zombie apocalypse disorientation, just that "weird, not right" feeling.
So that sounds horrible, and dangerous. It can be, but doesn't have to be. A couple simple precautions and common sense and you too can he a happy, sweaty runner. First, fluid replacement. Here's the common sense. Drink a lot of water or sports drink the day before and day of a hot run. During your run, especially a run over 30 minutes, aim to replace your fluids DURING your run. And finally, drink after. If you experience cramps, you are not drinking enough. If you detect signs of salt on your skin or clothing after your run, make sure you are replacing sodium in your diet via a sports drink.
More common sense. The really hot days are not the time to set a speed record unless you are in top condition. My guess is if you are an elite runner in top shape you know all this. But for the beginner or casual runner, take it easy out there. If you are training with a heart rate monitor, you are one step ahead and your adherence to your zones will go a long way towards keeping you safe. Personally, on the really hot days I will stick to my Zone 2 workout (60-70% of MHR). If I cant work around the heat and have to do a hard workout on a hot day, I am ultra, ultra aware of my personal condition. Not a bad idea to have a running buddy on these days.
And THAT leads me to my final point. I use the CRR Monday Night Summer Fun Run as one of my hard runs. Perfect for me as the course offers a hill portion and enough incentive courtesy of some friendly competition via fellow runners. But most important....I have over 100 running buddies in the unlikely event the heat got the best of me. There has to be someone in the medical field, right?
So if you find the heat curtailing your runs.....come on down to the Lions Club on Monday nights at 7pm. If it's hot, run it nice and easy. And when you are done, you can stand around with rest of us pretending that standing in a puddle of your own perspiration is a normal activity.
Run FOR life, not from it.
JD
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
On Daughter's and Marathons
I warned you all in an earlier blog post that there was always going to be a chance that one of these blogs would go off on tangents.....simply because my runs are when I have the time to think. I should probably impose a 6 hour moratorium on posting after runs. Anyway, it's been an absolutely crazy month around here with oldest daughter moving home from Clemson May 2nd (Go Tigers!), middle daughter graduating high school and planning for college (here she comes American University, get ready), and my baby graduating from 5th grade at Moses Brown and about to embark on her next stop at The Middle House @ MB. Exciting times to say the least. And very, very busy. So with all the emotion of the last weeks what comes blaring through my headphones around mile 3 tonight? Tim McGraw and "My Little Girl." The Dads with daughters will certainly appreciate the song......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5UV4VWCSk
The chorus was especially poignant tonight with all the goings on and moving about in our house lately.
You're beautiful baby from the outside in.
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again.
Go on, take on this whole world.But to me you know you'll always be, my little girl.
OK, enough of the mushy crap. Let's talk about running. That is the point of this blog after all. Several weeks ago I was lamenting with a few Colonial Road Runners that over 3,000 registered runners failed to show for this years Boston Marathon. I can certainly understand that injuries or personal circumstances may have caused some to reluctantly drop out. But over 10% of the registered field? In the year after the bombing? Fo Real? The point was made, and well taken, that every race has its share of no shows. So why am I so worked up about it? Because there were probably a million runners just like me that would have gladly taken one of those spots. You see, I am not fast enough to qualify for my own bib number. (yes, you actually have to qualify for Boston). I would need to run a 3:25:00 marathon in a Boston qualifier race. Thats a full 35 minutes faster than my PR, 3:59:03 at the Marine Corp Marathon last October. To put it in perspective, I would have to clip more than a minute off my pace to qualify. To quote George H. W. Bush, nah ganna happen.
So, my little bitch session turned into a challenge of sorts. Essentially, I need to stop complaining and just qualify for the damn race. The good news, if you could ever call turning 50 good news, is that effective Sept 18th, my qualifying time goes up to 3:30:00. Woop de frickin doo. So the last month or so has been filled with thoughts around how I possibly trim a half hour off my time. And I have come to a very important conclusion. I don't. I won't. I can't. I refuse to be consumed by some arbitrary time. Boston is a very important race, a race that someday I will run even if I have to go the charity route and buy my way in. But I will not make running a job....I will not allow the rigor of a training plan to take away the joy that I get out on the roads. Running a 20 mile training run is an awesome experience when your goal is to enjoy your marathon. Running a 12 mile tempo run at race pace is a whole different story. And the last thing I want is to NOT enjoy a training run.
That's my plan. Now let's discuss reality. I am leaning towards the Philadelphia Marathon in November. October will be a crazy month and a nice cool Sunday in Philly sounds like a perfect time to run a marathon. It also happens to be a certified Boston qualifier. Plan A is to enjoy the summer and train for Philly with a conventional training plan. Something that will have me run comfortably with the 3:45:00 pace group. But of course there is a Plan B, right? Yes, always. You see, I have recently started heart rate training. I could do a blog just on what I have learned about it over the last couple of months. I was intrigued by Colonial Bill Rivers and his performance in Boston this past April. Bill has a marathon history similar to mine. A 4+ marathon to start followed by breaking the 4 hour mark in a later race. But then Bill did something that I still cant figure out. He went out and broke 3 hours in Boston. When I asked him how he did it, he attributed it to heart rate training. I'll try just about anything that has a shot at shaving minutes off my time so I am now about 3 weeks into heart rate zone training. I plan on sticking with it through at least the half way point of my marathon plan. I am going to settle on a plan based on zone training and see how I feel when I run a half marathon in September. If it's working, I will stay with it. And if I stay with it, it's on like Donkey Kong. I will target 3:30:00 and let it rip in Philly. Of course there is always the chance that my body will laugh at me and remind me that those times are for guys in their 30's. Like Bill. We shall see.
Time to wrap up......but not without reminding everyone that The Colonials are full on into our summer fun run series. Mondays in Raynham, Tuesdays in Abington, and Wednesdays in Brockton. If you have ever thought about trying out running, this is your opportunity. All ages and abilities come out to these fun runs. You will not be alone and I can guarantee you will have fun. And its all for $2. See you there!!!!
Run FOR life, not from it,
JD
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Raynham Fun Run
Just back from a 6.5 miler with the Colonial Road Runners. We have a core group of 8-10 of us that meet every Saturday at 8am. Runs cover the gamut.....from 3 miles to as long as 18 when folks are training for something. But safe to say the average run is around 5 miles. The beauty of these runs is that there is always someone that will run your distance. Feel like 3? Someone running 6 will run with you and then just do a second loop. I can't stress enough how important it is to occasionally run with a group. It removes the mental barriers that your mind will put up in your path. It's so easy to cut an intended 6 miler short when you are alone. If you have even the faintest glimmer of competitiveness, there is no way you will let your running mate down by cutting short. So join us. Every Saturday at 8am. We meet at the Lions Club on King Phillip. But be warned.....be on time. We leave at 8am on the dot.....we wait for no one!!
A sure sign of spring is the return of the Raynham Fun Run!!!! Every Monday night, the Colonials host a 3.25 mile Fun Run. Again, we start at the Lions Club at 7pm sharp!! The run will cost you $2 each week. (please bring singles, nothing worse than making change for a $20). Show up early the first time you run. (6:30??) You will have to sign up and you will receive a bib number. That bib number will stay with you all summer long, it's yours every week so don't lose it. So it's only the first week that you need to sign up, and show up early. Every week after that you simply stuff your two bucks in the jar.
I have been running these Fun Runs off and on since their inception. Local race directing legend Jim Dupont started these back in the late 90's? Early 00's? There was a group of about 10-15 of us that met on Judson Street behind the RAC every Monday night and did our thing. No frills, believe me. Like most things in life, if you build it, they will come. And come they did. Dupey's little run got big enough to get the attention of lots of runners.....and local officials. The latter of which was fielding calls from concerned citizens that all of a sudden their quiet neighborhoods were being overrun by a randy bunch of emaciated middle age folks that appeared to be enjoying themselves too much. So off of Judson Street we went.
Fast forward to the last few years. Dupey turned over the race to the Colonials and the Gillis family has picked up the ball. They do a great job along with the volunteers from the Colonials and put on a great little run. Also Mike from Spark BRS handles the hydration station with military efficiency. Did I say its a great little run? Well, it was little. At one point last year there were over 100 runners, perhaps closer to 150 if memory serves me right.
So, for those local readers that have been tempted by this blog to take your first steps as a new runner, here is your chance. You will NOT find a friendlier group run. We get runners from ages 8 to 80. From the high school rabbits that finish in 16 minutes to the run/walk crowd that take 45 minutes. And everything in between. There is NO legit excuse for you not to use these Monday nights as your incentive, your rallying call to just do it. You will not find a friendlier bunch of people and I guarantee you will find someone just like you to run with. By the end of the summer you will be running 9 minute miles, smiling and thinking to yourself how far you have come since May.
See you Monday!
Run FOR life, not from it,
JD
A sure sign of spring is the return of the Raynham Fun Run!!!! Every Monday night, the Colonials host a 3.25 mile Fun Run. Again, we start at the Lions Club at 7pm sharp!! The run will cost you $2 each week. (please bring singles, nothing worse than making change for a $20). Show up early the first time you run. (6:30??) You will have to sign up and you will receive a bib number. That bib number will stay with you all summer long, it's yours every week so don't lose it. So it's only the first week that you need to sign up, and show up early. Every week after that you simply stuff your two bucks in the jar.
I have been running these Fun Runs off and on since their inception. Local race directing legend Jim Dupont started these back in the late 90's? Early 00's? There was a group of about 10-15 of us that met on Judson Street behind the RAC every Monday night and did our thing. No frills, believe me. Like most things in life, if you build it, they will come. And come they did. Dupey's little run got big enough to get the attention of lots of runners.....and local officials. The latter of which was fielding calls from concerned citizens that all of a sudden their quiet neighborhoods were being overrun by a randy bunch of emaciated middle age folks that appeared to be enjoying themselves too much. So off of Judson Street we went.
Fast forward to the last few years. Dupey turned over the race to the Colonials and the Gillis family has picked up the ball. They do a great job along with the volunteers from the Colonials and put on a great little run. Also Mike from Spark BRS handles the hydration station with military efficiency. Did I say its a great little run? Well, it was little. At one point last year there were over 100 runners, perhaps closer to 150 if memory serves me right.
So, for those local readers that have been tempted by this blog to take your first steps as a new runner, here is your chance. You will NOT find a friendlier group run. We get runners from ages 8 to 80. From the high school rabbits that finish in 16 minutes to the run/walk crowd that take 45 minutes. And everything in between. There is NO legit excuse for you not to use these Monday nights as your incentive, your rallying call to just do it. You will not find a friendlier bunch of people and I guarantee you will find someone just like you to run with. By the end of the summer you will be running 9 minute miles, smiling and thinking to yourself how far you have come since May.
See you Monday!
Run FOR life, not from it,
JD
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Doyle's and Boston....
The third race for the Colonial Road Runners Grand Prix was this past Sunday. It was the Doyle's Emerald Necklace 5 Mile Race in JP. The course was predominantly run in Franklin Park so safe to say very runner friendly. It's a huge race....my guess is 1500+. Very well organized and a mix of all kinds of runners. From fast to slow and everyone in between. For the casual runner, or maybe first time racer, Doyle's would be an excellent event. And of course, being as it is Doyle's, one doesn't have to stray very far to get a cold beer....either before the race at 10am of after the race when runners drink for free!! There aren't many times that I miss a cold beer, but I have to admit Sunday post race was a test!
The weather was miserable at the start. A steady sprinkle and at times a little more than that. The problem was the 45 degree temp....or maybe 50. Whatever, it was that raw, wet feeling. As miserable as it was, this type of weather is actually very runner friendly. Temps in the 40's are absolutely perfect conditions if you are planning on getting after it. I wasn't, but did adjust my plan of an 8:30 average pace accordingly. So in typical JD fashion, out I went at a pace that was probably a bit aggressive. Hit mile 1 in 7:50. For this time of year, thats a tad foolish and, so I thought, probably not something I should expect to maintain. I'll spare the mile by mile details. But i surprised myself and maintained a 7:45 pace throughout. My goal entering the race was to be around 41-42. I ended up smashing that and came in sub 39:00. Very happy with that and also happy to take home second in my age group for the CRR Grand Prix.
So this is going to be an interesting next few days in Boston. All of the memories are rekindled and we all will deal with the Marathon in our own way. There are millions of stories out there and most of us will remember where we were at 2:50pm on Patriots Day 2013. We will also surely remember where we were that Friday night when the Watertown and State Police cornered the cowering punk curled up in a ball in a trailered boat. All of these memories very similar to 9-11, albeit to a lesser degree for most. Certainly not for the families of those killed or injured. This IS their 911. The emotions will run the gamut from sadness to anger to pride. Personally, for me Monday will be just another day. I'll get up, thank God for another day, and go to work. Sure, I will reflect in my own way and probably spend some time watching or reading about the race and the events surrounding it. Hoping that it's turns out to be a glorious, uneventful day.
While I would have liked to run this year in Boston, this old boy is neither fast enough to qualify nor lucky enough to be selected for a entry. That's OK, there are others more worthy. Perhaps one day soon, maybe in the fall, I will run my own Boston Marathon. Get dropped off in Hopkinton and just start running. For the love of the run.....my tribute to those lost last year.
Who's with me?
Good luck to all the runners Monday, especially the Colonials that are running. And good luck to all of the volunteers that make Boston the greatest race on Earth. Finally, let's pray for the safety of all in Boston Monday.
Run FOR life, not from it,
JD
The weather was miserable at the start. A steady sprinkle and at times a little more than that. The problem was the 45 degree temp....or maybe 50. Whatever, it was that raw, wet feeling. As miserable as it was, this type of weather is actually very runner friendly. Temps in the 40's are absolutely perfect conditions if you are planning on getting after it. I wasn't, but did adjust my plan of an 8:30 average pace accordingly. So in typical JD fashion, out I went at a pace that was probably a bit aggressive. Hit mile 1 in 7:50. For this time of year, thats a tad foolish and, so I thought, probably not something I should expect to maintain. I'll spare the mile by mile details. But i surprised myself and maintained a 7:45 pace throughout. My goal entering the race was to be around 41-42. I ended up smashing that and came in sub 39:00. Very happy with that and also happy to take home second in my age group for the CRR Grand Prix.
So this is going to be an interesting next few days in Boston. All of the memories are rekindled and we all will deal with the Marathon in our own way. There are millions of stories out there and most of us will remember where we were at 2:50pm on Patriots Day 2013. We will also surely remember where we were that Friday night when the Watertown and State Police cornered the cowering punk curled up in a ball in a trailered boat. All of these memories very similar to 9-11, albeit to a lesser degree for most. Certainly not for the families of those killed or injured. This IS their 911. The emotions will run the gamut from sadness to anger to pride. Personally, for me Monday will be just another day. I'll get up, thank God for another day, and go to work. Sure, I will reflect in my own way and probably spend some time watching or reading about the race and the events surrounding it. Hoping that it's turns out to be a glorious, uneventful day.
While I would have liked to run this year in Boston, this old boy is neither fast enough to qualify nor lucky enough to be selected for a entry. That's OK, there are others more worthy. Perhaps one day soon, maybe in the fall, I will run my own Boston Marathon. Get dropped off in Hopkinton and just start running. For the love of the run.....my tribute to those lost last year.
Who's with me?
Good luck to all the runners Monday, especially the Colonials that are running. And good luck to all of the volunteers that make Boston the greatest race on Earth. Finally, let's pray for the safety of all in Boston Monday.
Run FOR life, not from it,
JD
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)