Two Weeks to Go

Time is flying! I cannot believe I am down to two weeks. When I started my Philly training, I discussed my selection of training plans (pfitzinger 18 week /55 miles plan) and truth be told, I never thought I'd make it this far! Yes, I have modified it at times, but for the most part, I'm a pfitz follower. Come November 22 I will either put pete up on a well-deserved pedestal or berate him and expose all his shortcomings. (Statement made in jest....sort of..)

For now, the taper continues. I avoided the illness I spoke of last week. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared. But I'm still wary of sniffly people and staying at least six arms length from my fourthers. Last week's mileage (taper week one) was similar to the peak mileage weeks of my past. This is sad, but true.

* Thursday I ran five miles. I liked the splits: 8:53, 8:58, 8:40, 9:01, 8:48. Total: 44:22.
* Saturday was my last long run: 15 miles. It was cold when I started--42 degrees. But there was bright sun. I'll give splits for this one too:
8:59, 9:29, 9:31, 9:42, 9:34, 9:34, 9:26, 9:21, 9:26, 9:15, 8:47 (bumped into crazy b, jb24, and flyer JT--they pumped me up!), 9:21, 9:23, 9:05, 9:12. Total: 2hr20
* Sunday was an easy three. Time was ~ 30 minutes.
* Weekly total: 35.75 miles

This week will give me time to think about my strategy for Eleven-twenty-two. And write report cards..

Enter the Taper

First off, congratulations to all the nyc marathon runners!! I had a blast watching you all pass the by the power gel station on Sunday!! I have to give a special shout-out to Lam, who not only gave me a *huge* smile as he passed by, but a high-five as well! It was a special day full of energy and magic. As cool as it was to watch the elites zoom by, it was even more amazing to watch the herds of runners digging down deep to snag a PR, BQ, or marathon finish. I am so proud of my teammates (johnny!, crazy B) who can add another nyc marathon to their resumes because of Sunday. It's truly "a race like no other."

Back to my own little world...Saturday's twenty miler was killer. For starters, I bonked around mile 16. No idea why. Maybe my heart was not in it? I took one gel at mile seven and felt like I had a big lump in my stomach. I also fought back several side stitches that kept sneaking up on me. My splits were all over the place: 9:47, 10:03, 10:14, 10:07, 10:04, 10:10, 9:56, 10:12, 9:34, 10:02, 9:50, 9:53, 10:27, 10:56, 10:51, 9:19, {stick a fork in me..} 10:25, 10:18, 10:06, 10:33. Supposedly, Saturday was humid. I do not want to make excuses, but perhaps that played some small role. That, coupled with tired legs from 15 weeks of tough training, might have been the culprit. Either way, the bulk of my training is behind me! I ended October with 196 miles (another monthly mileage PR!).

Now that it's taper phase, my main job is to get sick so I get that out of the way before eleven-twenty-two. Looks like I will be achieving that goal sometime this week. I already feel my voice going--I'm gulping down some fresh squeezed orange juice and I stocked up on lemons and honey to make tea. No matter what I do, it's a-coming.

As for the first week of taper, yesterday was a recovery six. I felt pretty good on this run, but it got dark so early! Today I was scheduled to do eight but cut it short on account of the looming illness. I did a couple miles warm up, then 5x600 @ 5K pace (which was ~7:45 this time) and ended with a mile cool down. Total was 6.25. Blah.

It's almost November!!

This week was particularly challenging in terms of fitting in my workouts. With three days in a row of running and social engagements, not to mention work, I had very little freetime (some of which is due to the World Series, but still). And I haven't yet reached the taper..it's still one twenty miler away.

Tuesday was a toughie: 10 miles with 4 x1200 @ 5K pace. I nailed the intervals, but shortened the distance to nine. This was partially due to a stomach ache, but also important dinner/drink plans that night. My head must have been in the clouds because when I got to the gym, I discovered I had no hair-tie and no sports bra. I could have arguably done the workout with my hair in a rubber band (ouch), but the sports bra was non-negotiable. Luckily, my gym is within spitting distance of a drugstore and a sporting good store, so this was easily fixable. I warmed up with three miles @ easy pace and then did the four 1200s @ 7:35ish pace. The cooldown was about a mile and a half. Then I booked it out of there~

Wednesday: of course it had to rain again. All day. And we had an outdoor field trip. Lovely. I had to squeeze in my recovery run before another event I had that night. In all honestly, I just didn't want to run. But I made myself get on the treadmill and try a couple miles. I ended up doing three and congratulated myself.

Thursday: an energetic eight miler in the park. I hit a few MP miles just for kicks. After this run was the annual Flyer pasta party--this year we invited Brian Sell. Among the things I took away from his visit: he runs ridiculously fast; he logs A LOT of miles; he endorses my favorite sports drink; and he really likes running ;)

Tonight I'm resting up for my last twenty miler tomorrow. The real test of my endurance will be later that night, when I party it up for Halloween! Good luck to everyone running nyc on Sunday!! I will be there cheering!!

More of the Same

Another week down. The tail end of this week held a few more runs, which put my weekly total at 44.

Thursday, I ran eleven on the west side highway. I remember being bored by this run. The weather was nice (warmer--maybe 70, with wind) but I was eager for it to be over. It took 1hr48.

I did my long run on Saturday--in rain (again). Life cannot always accommodate a Sunday long run; or rather, sometimes a person just wants to go out on a Saturday night for godsake, pfitz. Because it was a "shorter" long run (17), I paid no attention to proper fueling (the run was gu-free). Also, I started later than usual (like 10a). And shortened it to 16 when I just got bored with it. Also, what difference does it make if I run 16 or 17 miles? At this point, I've done so many long runs, I doubt it matters. In fact, it might be better to shorten it since I really want to nail next week's LAST and FINAL twenty miler. So yeah. This run was a mix of the west side highway and central park. It took 2hr37, so whatever that means.

Today, I chose to do a recovery run of five miles. It was another late start (noon), which I regretted because it was soooo crowded in the park due to the perfect weather. Still, a recovery run to add to the books.

Here is a picture of my husband and me (I'm on the left..):

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Thank you, Philly, for giving me the opportunity to train hard and enjoy it!

It's been 13.5 weeks since I started training. The first eleven weeks (or so) were tough; out-of-shapeness, humidity, blisters, mileage increase, endless energy-zapping long runs, etc. But now, I'm feeling like I'm in the groove. Take yesterday's workout for example: 8 miles with 6 x 600 @ 5K pace. I did this on the roads instead of the 'mill. I used my garmin to its full potential--having it beep at me for each interval and beep for the recovery jogs. Stats were like so:

2 miles warm up (~10 min pace, but the garmin sat some of it out, so the pace may have been a bit faster..)
600s (avg pace): 7:51, 7:44, 7:43, 8:11 (dealt with a piercing cramp from too much water I think), 7:27, 7:51. Inbetween each was some jogging.
2.5 miles cool down (~ 9:30 pace)

Now an argument can be made that I could've run the intervals faster..but if you don't make that argument, then this workout was a huge success. I felt strong and energetic. Aside from the cramp, this was a great run!

Last Sunday was also rather successful. Unfortunately, it was raining and cold (like 40s) when I set out for my 18 miler (in tights!!). I ran about three miles to meet up with a group doing "the last ten miles" (of the New York marathon), which I did with relative ease. I had a great time running with flygirl and Lam (set a PR for distance run with Lam that day ;)) and finished this portion strong. I had grand plans to run another 4.5 in the park, but my hands were numb from the cold (and wet from the rain) but I changed plans and ran home so I could get on the warm treadmill. It seems like yesterday when I was running home to get on the treadmill to escape the heat.. In retrospect, this was a good decision. I was warm, had water, and pushed myself accordingly.

Today was a recovery four. This run was practically effortless. I just cruised along, trying to keep my pace slow and enjoying the city at dusk.

Keep on Keepin' On

While most runners are already tapering, I'm still in the height of my training schedule. I'm somewhat jealous of those who get to reduce their mileage and have the end in sight, but at the same time, I'm really loving my training! Something happened since the end of September..I have been feeling stronger (or less like crap) and enjoying most of my workouts. Cases in point:

Tuesday was an eight miler. This is such a nice distance! I wore the HR monitor again and circled the loop and the rez (1hr15).

Wednesday I did some PT stuff and abs...stretched and all that stuff.

Thursday was a tough one on paper: 9 miles with 5 x 1000m @ 5K pace. On my way to school that morning, I was thinking about what percentage of a mile 1000m was for treadmill purposes. Instead of grabbing a calculator, I asked a past student of mine (now an eighth grader) whom I passed on the way in to do the math for me. He was only too happy to oblige and reported that the distance is 62.5%. This was helpful because once I got to the intervals, I knew I had to go .62 of a mile at that killer pace. Obviously, it pays to have math geniuses at your disposal..

So the workout began with three miles at warm-up pace (6mph) and then I charged through the 1000s with about three minutes of recovery jog between them. Honestly, I felt pretty good throughout. I ended with about a mile and a half cool down for a total of nine miles.

Today I did not want to run. For starters, it is forty-some degrees here. And windy. And rainy. This is go-home-immediately-after-work-and-sit-on-the-couch-in-your-sweatpants-and-watch-The Office-while-drinking-hot-chocolate weather. As appealing as that sounded, I knew I had a recovery run to log. Instead of pulling out tights (which just seems wrong in October), I settled for shorts and last year's marathon shirt (What does it take??!) and phyched myself up to bang this thing out. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it wasn't as good as I would have liked. Can't love 'em all, I guess.

Tis the Season

Marathon season is in full swing! Congrats to those who ran yesterday and scored big PRs, BQs, and the like! Some of us only ran training runs, but, as we all know, training runs are what make the PRs/BQs happen. I had a good week training-wise.

Monday: I did a little bit of gym work--mostly to concentrate on stretching.

Tuesday: 8 miles with 6 x 600 @ 5K pace. This was great! I did a two mile warm up, staggered the 600s, then ran 1.5 miles at MP, and finished with a half mile cool down. This run was done on the treadmill, which helps track these kinds of intervals.

Wednesday: the plan was a five mile recovery run, but a massive category six migraine won out over the workout. In fact, it had me in bed at 7:30p and rendered me utterly useless. The silver lining was the eleven hours of sleep that resulted.

Thursday: Feeling much better, I tackled a twelver. Luckily, a friend of mine who recently moved out of the city was visiting and wanted to run some of this with me. I ran about four miles to our meeting spot, and then she set the pace for the next six miles. She's a speedy marathoner, not to mention TRI-athlete, so her easy conversational pace required some effort on my part to keep up. But she told me lots of good stories and helped me score some sub-MP splits. Thanks, L! I ended up running the last two at MP as well--guess I was on a roll.

Friday: a recovery fiver. I actually used my HR monitor for this one. That thing usually bugs the crap out of me, slipping and sliding all over the pace because of its tightening limits... but I managed to get it to stay in place (slid it under my sports-bra--ha!) For once it did not bother me and I got some interesting info re: my heartrate.

Saturday: rest day.

Sunday: 21 miler! UA sponsored a repeat of last month's 20 mile run, and I adjusted some workouts so I could attend. Yesterday was the most perfect running weather imaginable: 50s, sunny, a bit breezy, crisp, and dry. I ran with the ten minute group again, but our splits varied, averaging slightly faster than tens. This was fine with me since I actually wanted to try to run under tens. I have the splits here:

First Part: UA uptown --> UA downtown
1) 9:56
2) 10:03
3) 10:13
4) 10:05
5) 9:52
6) 9:45
7) 9:40

Second Part: Brooklyn Bridge & Brooklyn
8) 9:31
9) 9:56
10) 10:07
11) 9:52
12) 9:50
13) 9:43
14) 9:40

Third Part: Queens & 59th St Bridge
15) 9:52
16) 9:55
17) 10:09
18) 10:13
19) 10:26 (included a lot of stoplights on 59th st)

Fourth Part: Central Park --> UA
20) 9:22
21) 9:24

Total: 3hr27 (~9:54)

Worth noting: I was not totally spent after this run. For the first time (ever!), I had energy to spare after completing a significant long run. In addition, there were NO blisters, NO chafing, NO cramps, NO snafus, and NO injuries!!

Though I missed another 50 mile week by 4 miles (damn migraine), it's no big deal. A 46 mile week is still pretty solid; especially a 46 mile week that ended with a successful twenty-one miler. I'm still trying to figure out this Pfitz theory. This is the most mileage I've ever run in my life, but I still question the idea of high mileage and performance (especially when it comes to recreational runners.) My goal time is not so lofty compared to Pfitz's typical audience, and I'm following one of the lower-mileage plans. It's been a stretch for me to get my mileage into the forties, which is why I've made adjustments and tried to complete the workouts that work best for me. In the end, I wonder if skipping some of these "junk" miles will actually work in my favor..