Getting professional help

Posted on November 19, 2008 by threlkeld

I hired a coach about two weeks ago: Kevin Beck. He was one name on a short list of other possibilities, all of whom I ultimately rejected for various reasons. More on that in a moment.

Why did I hire a coach?

But first a note about why I decided to work with a coach. Over the last couple of years that I’ve been training for and racing marathons, my finishing times have steadily (and dramatically) improved. But something went very wrong for the last race, in terms of the training and my experience of the race itself. I never felt adequately rested during training, nor did I feel that my “quality” workouts were going well. For months I had a nagging suspicion that I wasn’t as fit as I wanted to be, something that was confirmed on race day when I succumbed to fatigue in the last eight miles of the race.

A few years ago, a friend of mine went to see a strange Russian man whose business was helping people to stop smoking once and for all. The “treatment” consisted of going into a room with five or six other clients, handing the Russian a crisp, new $100 dollar bill, closing your eyes, and hearing the Russian say to you, “When I snap my fingers, you will have lost all desire to ever smoke again.” Sounds hokey (and a little shady), but it worked for her.

The reason I share this story isn’t because I think there was anything magical the Russian did. The effectiveness of the treatment had everything to do with the power of suggestion. Going to see some weird Russian to stop smoking, deciding to go to a therapist for help, hiring a coach — they all share the element of a catalytic action, and the raised expectations that come from having taken it. In some ways, I feel that’s just as important as the guidance you get. And, in the end, you’re the one doing all the work. Sometimes the thing you need most is for someone to say “go.”

Why did I hire Kevin?

I don’t know how you people shop for goods and services, but here’s what I tend to do: I decide I want to buy something. Then I look at what’s usually a pretty small universe of candidates. At some point fairly early in the shopping process, some thing (or combination of things) tips my interest in the direction of one candidate. At that point, although I’ll continue to do some research on the others, that activity drops off a cliff and I’m basically looking for reasons not to go with my favored choice.

I had a few leads on other coaches, some of them quite well-known, but I rejected them all for various reasons, including:

  • A young woman posted to LetsRun.com about her experience of approaching one of the coaches on my list and offering to pay him upwards of $500 a month for his services. His response was to suggest she work with one of his runners instead. Her response? I want an actual coach, not another runner helping me.
  • One of the coaches I was considering wrote a recent article that was so poorly written that I actually complained to the editor in chief. If I’m going to work with someone remotely, he or she needs to be a skilled and conscientious communicator.
  • I checked out the “remote coaching” site for another well-known person, but (and this will sound odd), it just looked too slick. My impression was “coaching mill.” I just got the sense that I’d get a training plan that might be slightly more individualized than what I’d get out of book, but not much more.

While I was busy rejecting the other candidates for these and other reasons, I had other forces tipping me toward Kevin. They included:

  • The fact that another writer/blogger whom I respect, Matt Fitzgerald, had also decided to start working with him. Realizing that a guy who writes books about training is working with a coach was sort of equivalent to the time I read about the fact that Adam Clayton (U2’s bassist) still takes bass lessons.
  • Kevin coaches through Pete Pfitzinger’s online DistanceCoach site. Pfitz’s book with Scott Douglas, Advanced Marathoning, is (in my humble opinion) one of the best training books ever written. Using it resulted in my best marathon experience (and biggest PR) thus far. So Pete, and anyone associated with him, can do no wrong.*
  • I have enjoyed Kevin’s writings over the years, most notably in Running Times. Here’s a particularly good article, but a Google or Running Times search will yield other goodies too. I also loved this page on his site for the clues it yields on his approach to running (and, presumably, coaching), specifically this snippet (emphasis is mine):

There will always be those who do not adopt mad training regimens simply because they do not want to. There are no demons flitting about compelling them to do more, ever more, and to make running a top priority in the face of swirling relationships, occupational and scholastic concerns, and what have you. These are legitimate issues often at odds with consistent training. And I do not believe that a runner can be taught to hunger the way some of us do. It may be as innate as the color of our eyes. It is not something upon which judgment need be placed or for which merit points ought to be allotted. There are runners and there are competitive runners, and there are racers.

Don’t get me wrong. I love running for its whole spectrum of benefits and the range of experiences I’ve had, many of them outside the competitive milieu. But I have one basic reason for doing what I do. The rest is gravy, basting the raw, tough, but often tender and delicious meat of competing against the rag-tag army of my alleged constraints — going into some awful yet welcoming zone, headed straight into downtown Hell to rip it up yet another time.

Once I’d gotten to the point where I was ready to look for reasons not to hire Kevin, I submitted him to a grueling litany of emailed questions. He answered them all in great detail (and with humor and humility, which was a bonus). Besides, he’s a writer. So he likes to write and writes well. As a writer myself, I’ll always be biased toward a writer in any area where I have a choice. The pre-PayPal phone call sealed the deal.

What did I get?

My next marathon is roughly seven months away, so I wasn’t ready to leap into a 31-week training program. Instead, I asked for a plan to rebuild my mileage over the next couple of months to lay the groundwork for the eventual training plan I’ll get. And I’m glad I did. The plan is radically different from what I designed for myself last time around: it’s high mileage, but with almost no doubles. It features lots of longer runs, pretty much every day, and a ton of shorter, faster work incorporated into at least three runs per week. Matt F. has a good summary (although, obviously, his plan has been customized in ways that are quite different from my own).

Three days in and so far, so good. I’m handling the challenging runs (despite running with the tail end of a cold) and feeling better than I did when I was grinding out doubles every day. On the other hand, I’m coming off five weeks of recovery, so come back in about a month…

*Incidentally, Kevin’s also written a book, Run Strong, which I have not yet read, but I will soon.

Filed under: basebuilding, coaching, how to get faster, reading, resources, training, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Easing back into running

Posted on October 26, 2008 by threlkeld

I ran every day this week except for Tuesday. I just couldn’t help myself. The weather is wonderfully cool (or even cold) in the morning and the leaves were so colorful this year; they burst into color over the last weekend and now they’re all falling, which is very dramatic on windy days.

I did a wonderful 10 miler this morning. The weather was gorgeous and perfect: sunny with temps around 52 and windy. I ran an average 8:40 pace at 78% heart rate and enjoyed myself immensely. I was truly sorry when the run was over. But it tired me out enough to nap for two hours on the couch after getting through the first few essays in the newish David Sedaris book When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

When I looked at my mileage this week, I could hardly believe it: I ran 39 miles. I hadn’t expected to get back up so quickly, but my legs have felt great and I wasn’t really paying attention to the cumulative mileage as the week wore on. I’ll probably keep it under 55 for the next couple of weeks, then start gradually working the mileage base back up into the 100+mpw range in preparation for starting up training again sometime around mid-January.

It’s nice to have such a long spell between races. The next one isn’t until very late May (that’s assuming we go through with our plans to run Newport, OR next year). I’m not going to do so much hard running during the base period again. Probably just one or two moderate-pace runs a week and the rest very easy. And I’ll probably do some racing for fun and training too, as there are some good ones coming up in the next few months: the Nyack Hospital 10K, the Hot Chocolate 15K, the Manhattan Half Marathon and the Boston Buildup series in CT.

Speaking of running 100+ miles a week, former champion Ingrid Kristiansen and 2008 gold medalist Constantina Tomescu-Dita had some training advice for Paula Radcliffe, who will be 38 when the 2012 Olympics roll around. Paula does not agree. I do, though, at least for myself. I’ll be cutting down on the mileage to average around 75 per week during training. I won’t, however, be having a baby.

Anyway, as for the next week, I have no plan. I will probably run almost every day again, once per day, with quicker running days determined by how I feel.

Filed under: basebuilding, elites, humor, olympics, racing, reading, recovery, training | 2 Comments »

Fall Training: Week 9

Posted on July 20, 2008 by threlkeld

Well, I’m in the thick of training now. This week was designed to be a little easier than last, although when you factor in the heat wave’s effects, I probably worked about as hard as last week. I just felt much worse doing it!

We’ve had temps in the 90s and dewpoints above 70, which means heat indices in the 100F range. Yoiks, that makes for some lame paces.

I did just over 96 miles with three hard workouts: hills on Wednesday, an easy run on Friday and a 22 miler today. The muscle soreness reported last week has eased off, although I did wake up at 3AM last night with it again, but not as severe as last week. I’m hoping this means it’s going to repeat last season’s pattern as something that shows up early in the training cycle, then disappears as my legs get used to the load.

No Billat surges on the Friday run since I wanted to preserve my legs for today. I still had trouble, mostly owing to the weather.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 6.2 miles recovery pace (AM); 6.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 11.8 mile easy run with 6×1 hill repeats
  • Thursday: 6.4 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 9.9 miles easy pace (AM); 4.8 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 22 mile long run with 3 miles at 105% of marathon pace

Total mileage: 96.1 miles

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 10:00 – 11:03
  • Easy: 8:31
  • Long: 7:45 – 10:00

I managed to get in the hill run before the worst of the heat wave took hold. I did them a bit slower this time around, with the net effect being that not only did I not have to walk during any of them, but my rest periods were slower and the repeat times completely consistent. In other words, my performance didn’t dramatically crater for the fifth and sixth repeat. That has to be good for something.

The long run today was a real bitch. I’d originally wanted to do 12 miles at easy pace followed by 10 at 105% x marathon pace. That plan quickly fell apart after mile 15. Oddly enough, my heart rate was in a very reasonable range, but my legs felt dead and I was out of breath (might have something to do with the heat, humidity and bad air quality). And this was inside on the treadmill. I can’t fathom how Jonathan managed to run 22 miles outside this morning.

I eased back on most of the remaining miles, running around 8:30 pace with the final two at a 9:40 crawl. At least I ran the whole 22, despite several attempts to talk myself out of it.

In other news, I registered for the first of two NYRR training runs in Central Park. I’ll be doing some marathon pace running on this one (if I go; at $7, I won’t feel too bad if I decide to bag the idea for one reason or another come August 2). It’s a good deal: race-like support and a crowd to pull me along. I do wonder how I’ll hack getting into town by the 7:00AM start. If I get DOMS again, maybe I’ll be up anyway!

Coming up in Fall Training Week 10: A much appreciated recovery week. Ahhh.

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, training | Leave a comment »

Fall Training: Week 8

Posted on July 13, 2008 by threlkeld

Week one of my “build” period of basebuilding went off with a bang — and ended with a milestone: I ran just under 97 miles this week, which is the most I’ve run in a week. Ever.

There was a lot of variety this week, with no less than four quality sessions* including an experiment with a relatively unsung method for improving VO2 max (more below). I also did two harder workouts back to back on Tue/Wed, just to see how I’d feel later in the week.

I know this week’s cumulative mileage, combined with some harder workouts (and the back-to-back sessions), was enough to facilitate some adaptation because I had two incidences of the dreaded DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) late in the week, back to back (surprise, surprise). This happened in the early days of hard training for my spring race, but it eventually went away, so I’m not worried about it. Unfortunately, it always seems to strike in the dead of the night, which totally disrupts my sleep cycle. It’s annoying, but I’m not annoyed enough to shift my harder runs to late in the day.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 11.8 miles easy pace with speed intervals on the track
  • Wednesday: 15.2 mile long run (steady pace)
  • Thursday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 6.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 10.1 miles easy pace with Billat surges (AM); 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6.2 miles recovery pace (AM); 6.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 20 mile long run with 4 miles at marathon pace

Total mileage: 96.8 miles

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 9:10 – 10:33
  • Intervals: 6:46 – 7:02
  • Easy: 8:02 – 8:58
  • Long: 8:32
  • Marathon pace: 7:25

Although I’m much better acclimated to the heat and humidity (and it was bad early in the week), my reaction to it seems very inconsistent. For example, on Tuesday I really struggled with doing intervals (1200m), when the temp was 75 and the humidity 85%. I’d planned to do 4-5 at 4:55-5:10 each, but ended up doing 3, dropping the workout when I had legs of lead midway through the 4th. It was quite uncomfortable running in the heat, and a brisk wind of around 10mph on the backstretch was also a factor.

The combined heat and humidity was even worse on Wednesday (same temp, but 87% humidity), yet I managed to run an 8:32 pace over 15 miles (less than 24 hours after speedwork, no less), with no water stops. I’ve always been better at long running, but I was very surprised by how easy the run was, and even pleasant at times. It was so bad out that I could actually wring sweat out of my shirt when I got home.

On Friday I did an easy run over 10 miles and threw in something I’d like to experiment with: I call them “Billat surges” (maybe other people do too, but if they do I’m not aware of it). What are Billat surges? They are a series of surges of faster running at V02 max, broken up with recoveries of equal time length at 50% of V02 max. They are based on several studies by French researcher (and 1:18 half marathoner) Veronique Billat. Information here and here.

In my case, this worked out to running for 30 seconds at around 6:20 per mile pace, followed by 30 seconds at 9:30 pace. It’s a great idea, but unfortunately my execution was lousy. I attempted to do this along Pipeline Road, a long, unsidewalked stretch of road that runs between Scarsdale and Hartsdale train stations (and the only way to get from the south to the north paved pedestrian path). It was rush hour (which means lots of crazed SUV drivers who can’t be bothered to slow down and move over 12 inches to keep from killing me) plus there was construction going on, so it was pretty chaotic.

Also, I’ve discovered that the Garmin takes just about 30 seconds to figure out what pace you’re running, so it’s very difficult to know if you’re going too slow, too fast or just right. The result was a series of 12 on/offs at anywhere from 5:55 to 6:45 pace for the “on”s. Not exactly on target. I want to incorporate these workouts into fall race training, so I’ll probably end up going to the track and doing them there, where I can put down some sort of markers for distance and just use the watch as stopwatch.

The muscle soreness appeared at 3:00AM on Friday night and then again, like clockwork, at 3:00 AM again last night. So I’ve gotten around 11 hours of sleep between those two nights. And yet, despite that, I felt pretty good this morning. Good enough to do a 20 miler inside on the treadmill with miles 16 through 19 at a pace equivalent to a 3:15 marathon (7:27ish — nothing’s exact on the treadmill).

I started this training cycle two months ago at 3:18 paces and guessed that I could move down to 3:15 at this point. Now I’m thinking I should move down further, since my heart rate for the marathon pace miles was between 81-84%. Pretty low effort. So I’ll start training (at least inside, where it’s not insanely hot) at 3:12-3:13 paces for the next few weeks as I attempt to work my way down to 3:08 training paces for October.

My, how the mind wanders while running 20 miles inside. Over the years, when trapped in a tedious environment, I’ve made up a little mental game of thinking up names for nonexistent rock bands (here are three: Girl in Trouble, Shudder To Think and Gay Baby). I thought up a good one for a band consisting of runners today: Cardiac Creep.

To further fill the three hours of tedium in my little room of torture, I listened to a newish mix of mp3s while watching parts of various movies. If you’ve never combined random music as background to popular movies, it’s time you tried. You could probably skip the next Whitney Biennial because you will hit on something approaching art, since wildly incongruous pairings of musical and cinematic artistic expression can result. Some of the odd (and, I suppose, ironic) pairings this morning included:

  • “Let The Good Times Roll” (The Cars) playing behind a scene from “Cape Fear” (the remake) in which Robert DeNiro takes a chunk out of poor Ileana Douglas‘ cheek with his bare teeth.
  • “More Human Than Human” (White Zombie) playing behind a scene of Edward Norton getting the crap beaten out of him in “Fight Club”.
  • “Highway To Hell” (AC/DC) playing behind a scene of Molly Ringwald sewing what looks like a pink potato sack prom frock in “Pretty In Pink”.

What else is there to say? I’m a strange person.

Coming up in Fall Training Week 9: I hold the pace at 97 miles, but with a little less intensity. I’ll do another attempt at the Billat surges, another set of hill repeats, and a little more marathon pace running. All capped by the first 22 miler in about four months. This is assuming my legs don’t explode in the middle of the night first.

*Probably too many. But, hey, I’m excited.

Filed under: basebuilding, billat, how to get faster, movies, music, reading, strength training, tracks, training | 2 Comments »

Fall Training: Week 7

Posted on July 7, 2008 by threlkeld

In this, the final week of my “base” period, I ran 90.6 miles — just a hair more than three weeks ago. That mileage is starting to feel comfortable, which is a good thing since it’s still going to go up in the coming weeks.

This coming week starts the “build” period, during which I reintroduce the midweek long run and bring the number of quality workouts up to three per week on a consistent basis (with the exception of recovery weeks).

I did three good workouts this week anyway, plus some weight work for the first time in about a year. Coming off of a recovery week, my legs felt good, so I thought I may as well take advantage of that fact with the runs.

As for the weight work, I put together a routine of exercises to focus on back, shoulder, arm and core strength, which I’ll do at least once per week during training. My form tends to fall apart late in races and I don’t want it to anymore.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 5 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 5 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 10.5 miles with 5 x 1 mile hill repeats (AM); 4.3 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 5 miles with 3 x 1 at tempo pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 20.7 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 90.6 miles

60% of the miles were at recovery pace. Next week, that goes down to 40%. I’ll see how that feels.

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 9:14 – 10:29
  • Hills: 7:43 – 8:12
  • Tempo: 7:00 – 7:04
  • Long: 8:42

The tempo run, which I did on the treadmill, felt somewhat easy. To be fair, though, I only did a mile at tempo pace at a time. Next time, I’ll try two. There’s always the chance that the treadmill is off, which is why I prefer to do them outside on a track, weather permitting.

I bit the bullet and did my other two quality runs outside in very high humidity. The hill run surprised me, as I managed to do the repeats 10-20 seconds faster than last time around. And yesterday’s long run was done in 75 degree weather and 80+% humidity, and it didn’t feel that bad. I guess I’m getting acclimated. I was sweating like a pig, which is a good sign. There was not a dry spot on my shirt when I got home.

I ran with my Camelbak, filled with close to 70 oz. of water, which I’ll continue to do in these conditions despite the fact that it’s an added 4 lbs. to haul around. I managed to get through most of the water (and shared some with Jonathan when we crossed each others’ paths in White Plains). I also took an Endurolyte during and after the run — something new I’m experimenting with.

After those monster runs on Sunday I’ve learned not to fight the impulse to nap. If I allow myself an hour or so of napping (or even just dozing), I feel good enough to do things like go food shopping amongst the madding crowd at Trader Joe’s on a Sunday afternoon. Naps are good. I just wish I could take them mid-week during the peak phase of training.

I feel good today, too, having slept like a rock for 9 hours. I dreamed of being stuck with two grape-colored hand grenades that I couldn’t get rid of. I don’t know what that means — what am I afraid of accidentally blowing up, I wonder? Maybe the hand grenades represent my legs. Or maybe dreams really are the expression of meaningless mental noise.

As far as the weight work goes, here’s the strength workout I put together (a set is 12 reps). For the first few weeks, I’ll do one set each of these. Then I’ll add in extra sets over time. We have free weights and a Bowflex*, which I’ll mix and match for these.

  • Squats
  • Calf Raises
  • Standing lateral raises
  • Military presses
  • Lower back extension
  • Seated biceps curl
  • Seated abs crunch
  • Trunk rotation

Coming up in Fall Training Week 8: Five more miles. A speed session in high humidity, which should be very uncomfortable (although, looking on the bright side, maybe the track will be less crowded). The return of the regular Wednesday long(ish) run. And another 20 miler, with the last few at marathon pace.

*Yep. We fell for the ads.

Filed under: basebuilding, clothes and gear, strength training, training | 6 Comments »

Fall Training: Weeks 5 and 6

Posted on June 29, 2008 by threlkeld

The past two weeks featured lower mileage. Week 5 ended with a half marathon (for which lowering the mileage didn’t help; it was a dreadful race despite having been somewhat “rested” for it). Week 6 was a full recovery week.

We’re back into another heat wave, so I’ve spent lots of quality time with the treadmill for the past few days. I felt quite sluggish this past week, probably leftover fatigue from said race, but also the usual wacky hormonal ups and downs.

A look back at week 5:

  • Monday: 5.2 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.3 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 5.2 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.9 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 11 miles easy pace with 4x1000m at 5K race pace on the track
  • Thursday: 5.5 miles recovery pace (AM); 5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 6.4 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.9 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.9 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: half marathon race (13.3 miles total)

Total mileage: 76.9 miles

And week 6:

  • Monday: Rest day
  • Tuesday: Rest day
  • Wednesday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 6.2 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 6.3 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 6 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 15 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 63.5 miles

Paces over both weeks:

  • Recovery: 9:32 – 10:38
  • Race: 7:51
  • Speed: 6:34-6:44
  • Long: 8:32

These aging muscles really felt the lingering effects of the half marathon effort this week. I walked quite a bit on Tuesday, having spent most of the day with my friend Hillary and her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sophia, strolling around Central Park (including taking a load off for two go-rounds on the carousel).* It was interesting to experience the park from a perspective that doesn’t involve running fast and being in pain. Aside from the fact that it was fun to play hookey in a beautiful place with a friend on a work day, I think all the walking also helped recovery. Overall, I was grateful for the lower mileage (relatively speaking) and slower paces this week.

The party’s over for awhile starting tomorrow. The mileage goes right back up to 90 again. I had thought I’d do a Thursday evening 5K race in Van Cortlandt Park, but I’m going to reevaluate that idea based on what the weather does. No more hot weather races. If it’s still miserable then, I’ll take it inside and do a tempo run instead.

Next week caps the “base” phase. That’s followed by 6-7 weeks of “build,” during which I reintroduce the regular midweek long run and start adding in more marathon-pace running every week, along with the usual training runs (hills, intervals, etc.). And, of course, more miles. That phase leads up to a 4-5 week “peak” phase, followed by the taper, to bring me into mid-October as “race ready” as possible. It’s still over three months away, but I’m starting to feel excited about this next race. Let’s hope I can sustain that interest over the coming weeks, when I will surely need the occasional boost to my motivation.

Coming up in Fall Training Week 7: The mileage pops back up to 90. In there is another set of hill repeats, either a tempo run or a 5K race, a midweek and weekend long run, and lots and lots and lots of recovery miles.

*The trip to the carousel yielded one of those wonderful “only in New York City” exchanges. We noticed that there was no brass ring and asked a ticket taker about it. His response was, “Brass Ring? Oh. They just moved it to Brooklyn.”

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, training | Leave a comment »

Fall Training: Week 4

Posted on June 15, 2008 by threlkeld

I’m currently in a post-prandial stupor, probably headed off for a short nap soon. What better time to recap the week’s running?

This was my highest mileage week since February: 90 miles. Hard to believe. Still, just 1.5 miles more than two weeks ago. But some of them were tough miles indeed.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.9 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 11 miles with 5 x 1 mile hill repeats (AM); 4 miles easy pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 7.9 miles easy(!) pace; 4.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 6.4 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.8 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 3.4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 20 mile long run with 2 miles at marathon pace

Total mileage: 90 miles

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 9:22 – 11:13
  • Hills: 8:49
  • Easy: 7:59 – 8:49
  • Long: 8:30 with 2 x 1 miles at 7:35 pace

We had a real heat wave for the early part of the week. Then the weather eased up a bit and it was both cooler and drier. But still pretty hot.

Wednesday’s hill run went well, considering that it’s been months since I’ve done any hill-specific running. We found a great half-mile long hill in Scarsdale along Grand Boulevard. It starts with a big uphill, then a little dip, then a shorter uphill. On a mile round-trip you get to work the legs (and lungs!) on both types of hills, extreme up and extreme down. I did five repeats sandwiched inbetween three miles there and three miles back — and was wiped by the end.

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Oddly, though, my legs felt very fresh later in the day, so my planned recovery run turned into a fairly quick easy run. I have days where I decide to just run faster if I feel good, just as I make a day that doesn’t feel good into a slower day.

Wednesday’s effort definitely lingered, though. My legs were sore and tired (very tired) Thursday, making for glacial paces on that day’s runs. Then I did a very fast easy run on Friday morning, because the weather was so lovely — cool, dry and in the 60s. Paid for it yesterday, when my legs were again complaining.

Yesterday also brought the worst thunderstorms we’ve had since moving up here roughly 14 years ago. Heavy rain started a little after 6PM and I waited for it to move on. It went on and on. I did my little recovery run inside on the treadmill, but Jonathan had gone out to do his on the path. I finished up at 6:40 or so and was in the kitchen, looking out the window, when the sky went black in the space of about 10 seconds. I thought, “Hmm, this doesn’t look good.” Then the skies opened up and buckets of rain came down, punctuated by lightning strikes.

Since I am the panicky sort, I got in the car to go look for Jonathan. Driving along the Bronx River Parkway, it was impossible to see more than five feet in front of the car. The roadway was a giant puddle, so I got off at Crestwood train station, hoping he’d taken shelter there. Ran up the stairs to see if he was inside, but no luck. Since the parkway was rapidly flooding, I decided to take local streets home to wait for him. But the streets were flooding too. I had a moment, right before driving into about two feet of water, where I thought, “I’m doing what stupid people do right now. I may need to abandon the car if it stalls out.”

Made it through the puddle and continued to stupidly think, “Well, I’m going uphill to our house. Higher ground should be safer.” Made the turn onto Underhill and it was a waterfall. I gunned the engine and hoped I’d make it up the hill. At our street, the situation was even worse: about a foot of water was rushing down the hill, carrying branches and boulders with it. The source was a drainage sluice that runs alongside our driveway, which didn’t look passable, let along driveable.

At that point, I pull up onto a neighbor’s raised driveway, turned on AM radio and waited. Flash flood warnings! Big shocker there. After about five minutes, the rain let up and the floodwaters started to ebb. Just as I was deciding what to do next, I saw Jonathan trudging up the street, looking like a drowned rat. It turns out he took shelter about a hundred feet north of the train station in a stand of trees. So I just missed him.

It was an exciting evening, to say the least. I had no plans to drink, but a shot of vodka was in order for its calming properties. Then a big bowl of mac and cheese and early bed for…

…the big run of the week: a 20 miler with some late miles at current marathon fitness pace (~7:35). Did this one on the treadmill due to dreadful humidity this morning. Luckily, I’ve got a 3+ hour mix of music on my MP3 player and for visual entertainment I watched “Waterworld” without the sound. “Waterworld” is sort of like “The Road Warrior” but with lots of water and none of the suspense or excitement.

I’d planned to do the last three miles at marathon pace, but my legs were complaining, so I cut it to doing miles 18 and 19, then a cooldown mile for 20. Yet another case of reminding myself that this is just basebuilding time, not real training yet. But soon. Soon.

Coming up in Fall Training Week 5: The mileage gets cut by 12 miles in order to be somewhat fresh for the Stratton Faxon Fairfield Half on Sunday. But not before a serious speed session on Wednesday.

Filed under: basebuilding, everyday life, training, westchester | 2 Comments »

Fall Training: Week 3

Posted on June 8, 2008 by threlkeld

I took a recovery week this week, having increased mileage significantly over the past few weeks, up from the ~45 miles per week I did during post-marathon recovery. I took Monday off and spent most of my sessions running at around 66% max heart rate. Very easy paces. I enjoyed all that slow running, actually. It gave me lots of time to think about all the not-so-slow running I’ll be doing in short order.

I had a good race yesterday, all things considered (weather, mostly). Then got my aching legs out of bed at 5:30AM this morning so I could be out doing my long run at 6:30 to beat the heat. Good strategy; I had a much better run as compared to last week’s Sunday death march.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: Rest day
  • Tuesday: 5 miles recovery pace (AM); 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 7 miles recovery pace (AM); 6.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 7.3 miles recovery pace
  • Friday: 6.3 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.8 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6.2 mile race
  • Sunday: 14.3 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 61 miles

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 9:18 – 10:46
  • Race: 7:07*
  • Long: 8:42

Despite the fact that the heat index was around 85 degrees this morning, I felt surprisingly good on my long run. Well, at least for the first seven miles. Once the sun came up over the trees, I had to slow down a bit. I did a repeat of a 7+ mile loop so I could stash a big bottle of water at the halfway point. That seemed to help a lot, as I always felt much better following the three stops for water over the course of two hours.

My legs are quite tired today, though. I know it’s from yesterday’s race, because the fatigue is in the muscles I’m only aware of after running fast up and down hills: adductors, glutes, hamstrings, quads. (Seems like there’s not much left, doesn’t it?)

Still, running in the heat this morning wasn’t that bad. The humidity was actually pretty low (around 60%), so that helped, despite the high temperatures. It was nice to be done with my long run by 9AM (shower included). It typically monopolizes my entire Sunday morning.

During the workweek I’ve been getting up earlier either to do some work in peace (before the rest of the world wakes up and starts bombarding me with email, phone calls and instant messages), or to go running. The flipside, of course, is that I’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier (because I fall asleep in my chair) as a result of getting up at 5:30 AM these days. At least my hours are reasonably flexible, so what I’ve often done is do the bulk of my work starting very early in the day, go out for a run from 11:00-12:00, then knock off work at 3:30 or so to relax or get errands done until I have to go running again at 6:00. Now that summer’s here, however, I suspect I’ll be trying to run as early as possible to beat the heat. In any case, I am so grateful that I don’t have to commute.

Another flipside, though, if you can have three of them, is that since I freelance in addition to my M-F contracting gig, I often have to work weekends to get all the work done to meet deadlines. This weekend was the first one in nearly two months during which I had no freelance work to do! So I’ve enjoyed the hours of nothingness. I’ve watched television, websurfed on the couch, napped and generally avoided anything resembling productivity, such as housework, bill-paying or errands. Even with the oppressive heat, it’s been a great weekend. And now, since it’s Sunday (my “free day” to eat and drink what I want), I think I’ll go crack open that bottle of sauvignon blanc…

Coming up in Fall Training Week 4: The mileage ramps back up to 88. Plus I do my first hill repeat session and cap the week with another 20 miler with the last few at marathon pace. Whee!

*Garmin says I ran 6.45 miles. I believe it; it was very crowded in spots.

Filed under: basebuilding, everyday life, training | Leave a comment »

Fall Training: Week 2

Posted on June 2, 2008 by threlkeld

This, week two of my eight week basebuilding experiment, proved a tough one. I ratcheted up the mileage another 10%. In two weeks, I’ve gone from 50 miles to 88 miles. This is bearing in mind that I averaged 76 mpw during training for the spring race. Still, I felt those extra miles by the weekend, and had to make some compromises as a result.

I kept most of the miles as recovery miles — nearly 60% of them. But that wasn’t enough. Read on.

Today starts a much-needed recovery week. No running today and lots of slow running. Then a race on Saturday — so much for recovery…

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 5.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 9.9 miles tempo with 2×2 at 15K-half marathon pace (AM); 4.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 6.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 7 miles easy pace (AM); 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 19.8 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 88.3 miles

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 9:50 – 11:20
  • Tempo: 6:59 – 7:13
  • Easy: 7:55
  • Long: 8:57

Things were going well until Saturday. I had a really good tempo run earlier in the week, then felt so good on Friday morning that I raced through seven miles at under 8:00 minutes per mile. And that turned out to be a big mistake.

I was tired on Saturday during both my runs. Then I didn’t get to bed until well after midnight since the Reebok meet ran late. Got seven hours of sleep Saturday night, woke up exhausted. And it was hot and humid.

I had one of the worst runs I’ve had in awhile on Sunday. I couldn’t drag myself out until after 9AM on Sunday (I usually start much earlier). I knew by mile five that it was going to be a tough run. I was tired, my legs hurt and it was 85 degrees and humid, with me sweating up a storm at high noon.

I must have been on crack when I thought I could run 20 with the last five at marathon pace at the end of this particular week. I gave up on that idea early on and engaged in a process of lowering my expectations with every mile. Finally settling on trying to keep the average pace under a 9:00 mile (just made it).

Anyway, I beat myself up over it and then realized that this is basebuilding, after all. I got my mileage in and there’s plenty of time for fast long runs later on. Things should get easier as I get more acclimatized to the heat and humidity too.

I registered for the NYRR Mini 10K on Saturday. It’s probably going to be hot and humid, but I’m still excited to run it. The olympic marathon team will be running it, as well as some big name international elites. They will, of course, be too far ahead of me to see, but I’ll know they’re there nevertheless.

This will also be the first NYRR race I’ll run since they instituted their seeded corrals policy. I wondered how they would figure my pace. It turns out they take the fastest per mile pace you’ve run in a NYRR race. It works to your advantage if you run shorter NYRR races, but it’s not so great if all you run are the longer ones. It seems like it would be easy enough to seed runners based on their best paces relative to other distance/pace equivalents. But them’s the rules and I shall not argue with the NYRR gods.

I don’t have a hard time goal, since the weather will be a factor. I just want to run as fast as I can. Wish me luck!

Coming up in Fall Training Week 3 (which started today): A day off, lots of slowpoke miles, a race and a long run on Sunday. All adding up to a mere 61 miles.

Filed under: basebuilding, inspiration, racing, training | 2 Comments »

Fall Training: Week 1

Posted on May 26, 2008 by threlkeld

I’m going to count this most recent week as week 1, since the real week 1 turned out to be a weak one. Ha ha. Isn’t that clever? It’s no wonder I get paid the big bucks as a freelance copywriter.

Recap of recovery — plus a race!
Here’s a high-level view of what I’ve been doing to lead up to rebuilding (and adding to) my mileage base:

April 6: Ran the More Marathon

Next, I spent a few weeks doing lots of very slow running to recover. But I did a tempo run during the second and third of these weeks in order to prepare for a half marathon in early May.
Week of April 7: 21 miles
Week of April 14: 42 miles
Week of April 21: 56 miles

Cut down the mileage a bit and capped the week with a fast (for me) half marathon on May 4.
Week of April 28: 47 miles

Lots of recovery again, to bounce back from the half.
Week of May 5: 59 miles

Then some travel, but a week with lots of quality miles jammed into just six sessions.
Week of May 12: 49 miles

Finally, the week of May 19, I’m ready to start basebuilding in earnest. I will be training for the Steamtown Marathon on October 12.

How to get faster
It’s always struck me as odd that no matter how many books or articles you read about training, no one ever tells you how to actually get faster. They’ll tell you how fast to run today based on your last race time. But they don’t tell you how to get faster, say, from one year to the next.

Since getting steadily faster is one of my goals, I’ve been left to my own devices to figure out how. The strategy I’ve used (and which seems to work), is this:

1. First, get a clear idea of what your fitness level is today, based on one or two very recent races (assuming the races went well and there was nothing artificially influencing the outcome for better or worse, such as headwinds, crowding, lots of hills, or — on the positive side — a big tailwind or miniature jetpacks attached to your ankles.)

2. Using something like the Macmillan calculator, map out a series of paces that are slightly faster than what you’re running today.

For example, my last half marathon time was deemed equivalent to a 3:20 marathon. I mapped out paces for a 3:18 marathon, so I’m pushing myself from the start. Here’s what they look like (along with the heart rate ranges I use for each):

Recovery* 9:00-10:30 60-68%
Long 8:05-9:05 72-83%
Easy 8:05-8:35 75-85%
Hills 8:05-8:35 75-90%
Mpace 7:34 82-86%
Tempo 6:50-7:10 86-88%
Speed TBD** 94-98%***

*Recovery times may be slower than this if I’m very tired. I go by heart rate always, so it’s not unusual to find me running 11:00+ minute miles some days.
**Since I run different interval lengths over different sessions, I figure out the speedwork paces before I head to the track by looking them up in a table in the back of the book “Advanced Marathoning” by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas.
***When doing shorter intervals, my heart rate may not get anywhere near this range; it will get up there doing 1000+ meter intervals, though. I stick to the paces recommended so I’m not running the shorter ones too fast.

3. Now spend a week or two running your workouts at those paces. Can you hit them within the target heart rates? Do they feel too easy? Too hard? Make adjustments downward or upward if so.

4. Next, pick your goal marathon pace (Mpace). This is the pace that you’d like to be able to run in the race that you’re training for and which is ideally about 4-5 months in the future. The pace you choose should be something that’s both aggressive and achievable (with hard work and consistency, natch). Set up a series of paces for that. Those are the paces you’re targeting to work your way down to as you get closer to the race.

5. If your first set of paces is “just right” in the Goldilocksian sense, then train at those paces until they start getting too easy (meaning you’re hitting the faster end of the pace spectrum at the lower end of the heart rate spectrum). When that happens, it’s time to adjust your time goal downward and start training at faster paces.

6. Monitor how you’re doing during the entire training cycle. You should be steadily working your way down to your second set of paces. If you’re having trouble getting there, you may need to adjust them to something less dramatic. And, perhaps more importantly, revisit your training to see what’s not working.

One good aspect to using this approach, which is really more art than science (since it’s all based on trial and error), is that you become very familiar with what your capabilities are. So much so that you can probably toe the line of your goal race with the knowledge of how fast you can run over 26.2 miles within a range of about 5-10 seconds per mile. This fact alone will give you an advantage that the vast majority of the runners around you will not have.

I’m neither a coach nor an exercise physiologist. But this method has worked for me.

The week that was
This week I reacquainted myself with the sensation of always either going out for or coming back from a run. Most weeks from here on out I’ll be running 11-13 times per week. I should also note that I’m building my base up to around 95 miles a week, and I’ll average 90 during the actual training phase, which starts in early July.

A look back at the week:

  • Monday: 6.2 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.9 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 6.9 miles recovery pace (AM); 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Wednesday: 9 miles easy with speedwork: 5 x 600m
  • Thursday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 3.7 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Friday: 9 miles easy pace
  • Saturday: 5.0 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 20.2 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 82 miles

Paces this week:

  • Recovery: 9:20 – 11:00
  • Speed: 2:24 per 600m
  • Easy: 8:24
  • Long: 8:15

Something to note is that my long run pace is pretty fast; it’s only 10 seconds slower than the bottom of the pace range. Some training philosophies call for doing your long run 1:00 to 1:30 per mile slower than your goal marathon pace. I don’t agree with this.

Here’s why: The long run is the foundation of marathon training, and as such needs to be exploited for its potential to facilitate real improvements in running fast over a long distance. Doing faster long runs introduces a particular kind of stress and forces adaptation to that stress week after week. A runner doing high mileage will already be doing a ton of slower miles during easy and recovery runs every week. It doesn’t make sense to me that you’d add in yet more slower miles on long run days.

The caveat to this is that, for a runner who is new to long distances, the weekend long run should probably be on the slower side, since the goal is to build endurance and prepare the body for harder training later on. But for someone who’s done that foundational work already, continuing to run long, slow distance seems like a lost opportunity.

Anyway, I’ve found the most success by doing all my long runs at a relatively fast clip (either as progression runs, long runs with lots of marathon pace miles at the end, or steady pace runs done at a quicker pace like yesterday’s).

Coming up in Fall Training Week 2: A jump to 88 miles.

Filed under: basebuilding, how to get faster, training | 4 Comments »

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