Dress Rehearsal

Today's long run was the closest to a dress rehearsal for Boston as I am going to get. I met the members of the Run for the Memory team at the top of Heartbreak Hill and drove out to Hopkinton. The plan was to run 23 miles today.

An extra bonus was the surprise visit from my marathon pace buddy from Arizona. I found out last week he was coming to town and would run with us this morning. I somehow managed to convince him months ago to give up his sweet starting position in corral #2 (he ran a 3:04 last year to qualify for Boston) and start in corral #25 with me and help me stay on pace for the marathon. And take some pictures along the way.

The morning was a little chilly, but with a strong sun out, it didn't feel as cold as the temperature indicated. And by mile 3, I was totally comfortable. My goal was to start out easy, perhaps around 8:35 pace and pick it up to 8:20 in miles 16-21, inconveniently located on all 4 Newton hills. We started out a little fast with the first 2 miles around 8:05 and I was immediately nervous. My pace buddy reassured me that we weren't going that fast and the downhills were partly responsible. We'd run what felt good.

The Run for the Memory team had awesome volunteers providing water stops about every 3 miles. Mile after mile and water stop after water stop ticked by. We still hovered around an 8:20 pace, and I still worried I was going to blow up on the hills. Mile 16 finished at 8:27 pace. Slower than I would have liked, but I wasn't spent. I just needed to pick it up. And that we did. The next 4 miles hovered around 8:15 and I totally hit the 8:20 goal for those 5 miles. We stopped for water and high fives from the RFTM volunteers at the top of Heartbreak Hill and then punched out 2 more miles.

Today's run was a great confidence builder and test of physical and mental preparation for the marathon. We finished the run at 8:21 pace. My pace buddy put it in perspective - If I run the first 23 miles of the marathon at this pace, I will have 37 minutes to run the last 4.2. That's about a 9 minute mile to achieve my goal. I like those odds.

Not a dirty 4 letter word

Writing this blog has been fun, but so has my training recently. It is not a coincidence that the 2 year gap from my first attempt at a blog to this time around coincided with an injury that had me in and out of running, and definitely not running marathons. So after the adrenaline from Sunday's race wore off, and the hip that had sidelined me for those 2 years started feeling sore, I debated whether or not to write about it. Partially because I didn't want my #1 fan (thanks Mom!) to worry, and partially because I didn't want to admit anything was wrong.

Anywhere else, my hamstrings, calves, shins, and I would brush it off as tired muscles, normal aches and pains of being 3+ weeks from the marathon. But not my stupid hip. I could not get up to pee in the middle of the night without evaluating how it felt with every step.

So I did what most runners hate to do. Rest. I tweaked my training plan for this week and cross-trained when I was supposed to run and rested when I was supposed to cross-train. I also squeaked in a massage last night as well. My plan was to test it out tonight with our usual Thursday night run from Woodland to Crossroads.

Well, it seems to have worked. I felt awesome from the start of my run. It could have been the new shoes, but I had a spring in my legs that made me feel light and quick, not lumbering like the past few weeks. I even decided to include a bunch of 30 second pick ups in the second half of my run. Better yet, it has been several hours since I finished my run and all still feels great.

I run with a training plan because I am good at following instructions when given to me. And while it pains me to deviate from that plan (Type A much?), this week's adaptation could have been the best thing I have done for myself in my training this year.

23 days to go and 23 miles this weekend. I am far from done. The psychological boost I got from running well today was huge. But the reminder that resting when my body needs it, even when it's not on the schedule may be what gets me to my goal on race day.

Running Report Card

It's been 3 years since I have run the New Bedford Half Marathon. It's odd that I would at all miss it these last few years, but I have. My introduction to this race in 2007 was a cold and WINDY day...the kind of day that now serves as the gold standard of windy races and has never been matched. I hated New Bedford after that first race.

But absence make the heart grow fonder, I guess. I was actually excited to run this year. And nervous. My last few runs have been just plain difficult. As I have described to my running partner, I just feel like I've been dragging something behind me. Something heavy, like those World's Strongest Man competitions when they have to pull an airplane. Yeah, that difficult.

I thought today could go 2 ways. The week could continue and the 13.1 miles might feel like a full marathon or I could go out and have a great day. Turns out, there is a 3rd option which fell somewhere in between.

I definitely felt better today than I have been feeling the last 2 weeks...for most of my race. Miles 1-7 were good, averaging a 7:50 pace. But at mile 8, the rhythm ended. For 2 miles it felt like I had cement in my quads. I don't know what caused the change, but it was not fun.

This whole training season has been a learning experience though and here was a chance for a new lesson. Yippee. This past week at our Run for the Memory team meeting, I had actually asked a very related question to our guest speaker, Assistant BAA coach, Terry Shea.

"How do you keep a not-great race from turning into a terrible race?"

His advice was to have a A, B, and C goal at the beginning of the race. "A" being a perfect day, "B" being what you are realistically prepared for and "C" being the day something's just a little off. So I went into today with my goals - A: 7:45 pace; B: 7:50 pace and C: 1/2 marathon PR. Even if by 1 second, I wanted to achieve this goal.

I'll give today a B-/C+. I ran a half marathon PR by almost 2 minutes and beat my course PR by over 5 minutes! My pace was a tad slower than I had hoped, but I cracked the 8:00 barrier for the first time (also a goal of mine)!! It was also great practice to get through the tough miles and choose not to give up. After Miles 8-10, I bounced back with 2 good miles, before the cement legs returned on the course's final hill.

1:43:51. 7:56 pace. New 1/2 Marathon PR.

My race could have ended at Mile 8, and I didn't let it. I didn't give up, and it paid off. That was my lesson learned today. Bring on next week's 23 miler!

The 20 mile hump

This morning I ran my first 20 miler of the training season. Actually I was schedule for 21 miles. No easing over this mental hump - we are diving right in! I haven't run this far since Nov 2, 2008. I was anxious, nervous and excited all at the same time. Anxious that I wouldn't finish strong; nervous I would feel like crap the entire run, as I did last week; excited to reach this distance for the first time...again.

It has become a tradition on the Run for the Memory team schedule. Today's run was from Natick to the finish line in Boston. Like last week, a point to point run is so much easier to mentally get through. Brenna and I were running the furthest of the group and got dropped off first at the 8K mark on the course - right at the Ashland/Framingham town lines. It occurred to me then how much closer we were to the starting line than the finish at that point. And like it or not, we were running east!

From the first mile, I knew this week was going to be better than last week. And the fact that I did not need to look at my watch to see how close we were to the first water stop, confirmed that.

We ran the first half of the run at about an 8:20-8:25 pace. I felt good, but knew it was a little faster than I should be running today. At about mile 10, I decided to slow it down a tad. I let Brenna take off ahead of me - she's going to have a great marathon this year - and joined another teammate and her friend for what ended up being the rest of the run. We averaged about 8:35 pace. Not significantly slower, but just enough so that I felt comfortable.

I finished with 21.35 miles at 8:30 pace. Over the hump and exactly where I wanted to land today.

17 miles and a little perspective

Today's 17 miler was not my best run. It is unfortunate too, as it was great running weather and one of my favorite training routes; we drove out to Hopkinton and ran in to Mile 17 in Newton. It's so nice to run a point-to-point route. I wish my legs had agreed with me. I swear I was carrying an elephant on my back. Or at least a small child.

Every mile was work. The first 12 miles were supposed to be run at a "comfortable" pace. That definition was totally subjective, and reflected in my actual pace. But surprisingly the last 5 were supposed to be run at 8:00-8:10 pace and I hit it! Or my Garmin was just being nice to me.

Actually, this was not my best week. That's an exaggeration. It was my worst week training for this marathon so far. I think I'm still feeling the effects of essentially racing 16.6 miles last weekend. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

The amazing thing is, even thought my runs this week have not been as enjoyable as I would like, they are still faster than those runs 2 and 3 years ago. Not to pat myself on the back, but that's pretty amazing. At least I'm amazed.

And not that I'd like to repeat this week again, but if I had to, at least I know what I'm now able to do is still way beyond what I honestly thought I was capable of a few years ago.

Running in Wellesley with Brenna

Ragnar Revival

Last weekend I broke up my regular training with a 200 mile team relay race. In Arizona.

I appreciate the toughness it takes to train in the New England winter. I enjoy the feeling of a hot shower at the end of a cold run and am proud I can describe the differences in ideal layers for running in temperatures 0-10 degrees, 10-20 degrees, 20-30 degrees and 30-40 degrees.

But, man, did it feel good to throw on shorts and a t-shirt and just run last weekend. It was so simple. After an easy 6 mile run Thursday night, before the relay, I threw on a long sleeved t-shirt, just so I "didn't get chilly." That is the life, as far as I'm concerned.

During the nighttime run portion of the relay (my second leg began at ~2:45 am), the temperatures dipped to about 40 degrees. Before complaining, I realized that this would still probably be warmer than the high in Boston that day. Shortly after I finished my run at about 3:30 am, I also realized my friends back home would be waking up any minute to get ready for their weekend long runs.

Over the course of 27 hours, I ran 16.6 miles. The last 5.6 were of course into a head wind and mostly uphill. But as my van mates (5 guys) told me, the third leg is the hardest.

Despite sleeping only 2 hours, in the back seat of a van, Friday night, and 3 hours Sunday night, after flight delays brought me back to Boston at 4:00am, that trip to Arizona was exactly what I needed to break up a long, long winter. And I swear, when I ran this morning, I heard a few birds chirping and it did feel a little warmer out there.