Fookin’ chilly!

Posted on November 21, 2008 by threlkeld

As in 2007, winter has arrived a month early in an instantaneous, nostril-freezing blast over the last couple of days. We had one of the longest winters in the quarter-odd century I’ve lived in New York last year, and I’m wondering if this year will be a repeat.

No matter. Except for the problem of ice and the demonic drivers who hurtle over it with aplomb in their two ton deathmobiles (we have precious few sidewalks in our suburban hamlet), I love winter training. The colder the better.

Racing in cold weather is even more delighted squeal inducing, and I’ll have a chance to race in wind chills of around 13 degrees tomorrow morning. I ran my measly five recovery miles this morning at embarrassingly slow pace in anticipation. Race report to come.

For now, it’s almost 4PM on Thanksgiving Week Eve, which means everyone I work with has ceased to care about anything, a situation that I happily embrace. I’m technically working today, but it consists of cleaning out my email inbox and addressing the 14 inch high stack of crap that’s accumulated on my desk over the last 11 months. My manager at Massive Nameless Corporation just dragged me into gifted me with two more months-long projects, so I’m feeling fairly confident that I’ll be able to continue to pay for running shoes, quality beer and interesting cheeses for another year.

Filed under: drinking, eating, everyday life, racing, training | 3 Comments »

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 »

I must be almost recovered because…

Posted on October 31, 2008 by threlkeld

…not being able to run more is beginning to really bug me.

Before my fall training kicked into highest gear (and I was exhausted most of the time), I got to really liking running twice a day. The morning run woke me up and got me both energized and relaxed for the rest of the day. The evening run was the day’s reward, during which I cleared out all the detritus that had accumulated in my mind over the preceding 10 or so hours.

Now I’m limited to one measly 6 mile run most days. I do it in the morning so it gets done. It’s also starting to get very dark, very early — a condition that will get worse after Sunday when we turn the clocks back an hour — so I guess it’s time to break out the headlamp for those evening runs.

At first I enjoyed having those aimless hours in the evening; I was still too tired to run more than a few miles anyway, so lying on a couch and reading a book was about the limit of what I could do anyway. Now I resent not being able to go run after work. The extra four pounds I’m carrying around (and the need to watch what I’m eating because I can’t run more miles) is only adding to the frustration. In fact, I’ve stopped drinking completely, since I can’t afford the calories. This is always guaranteed to make me very irritated, especially on the weekend. And, worst of all, my “longest” run on the weekend is laughably short: 10 miles? That’s all? That’s less than 1.5 hours. What will I do with the rest of the morning?

Just a few more weeks of this and then I can go back to running doubles most days and doing nice, long runs on Sundays and Wednesdays again.

I do sound like an addict, don’t I?

Filed under: recovery, training | 4 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 »

Recovering nicely

Posted on October 22, 2008 by threlkeld

I’m taking a very casual approach to post-marathon recovery this time around. Although I’m loosely following a recovery schedule from Advanced Marathoning, I didn’t run at all for six days post-race, then did five on Sunday and Monday, and seven yesterday, plus a little time on the stationary bike. I ran too many miles too soon and too fast in April; I won’t make that mistake again.

It’s been difficult to run slow, since my legs feel really good and — coupled with the cool weather — it’s a lot of fun to be out running again. But I’ve kept things at avg 70% max heart rate so far. I will do a 10 mile easy run (75-82%) on Sunday, which I’m so looking forward to.

I have gained weight from eating and drinking too much of the wrong things. No surprise there, but it is a little distressing. Hence, the time on the bike. I’ll do a longer ride this evening.

Now that it’s cold, I’ve rediscovered the pleasures of eating oatmeal. I started buying McCann’s Irish Oatmeal from Trader Joe’s. This stuff rocks.

I’ll be planning out my spring training this weekend. I’m pretty much sold on the idea of returning to the plan I used from Advanced Marathoning (the 18 weeks at 70+ mpw plan), with the same modifications I made the first time around. The biggest difference this time around will be that I’ll start out with a much bigger mileage base (100+ mpw vs. 80 mpw last year) and I may shorten the plan to 14 or 16 weeks.

Lots to look forward to.

Filed under: eating, recovery, training | 1 Comment »

Eating candy and hitting “refresh”

Posted on October 10, 2008 by threlkeld

48 hours from now, I’ll be running into downtown Carbondale, PA, many miles from the finish line in Scranton. The weather forecast is looking very good indeed: mid-to-upper 40s at the start, mid-to-upper 60s at the finish and the little wind forecast would be a tailwind.

On the other hand, it’s only Friday morning. Everything can change. So I’ll bring my entire running wardrobe. Just in case. And keep checking the weather every hour or so.

In the meantime, I’ve discovered the value of candy for carbo-loading: Swedish Fish and Twizzlers both offer an excellent calories vs. carbs ratio. Oh, and Medjool dates are also jam-packed with happy carbs. I never get to eat this stuff.

There’s not much more to say. I’m just twiddling my thumbs and not running today. I’m gald glad I have work to distract me.

Filed under: eating, training | 4 Comments »

Fall Training: Week 20

Posted on October 8, 2008 by threlkeld

Not that you can really call this a training week, since this was the second taper week. It’s more like a maintenance week. And “sitting around waiting and worrying” week.

A look back at training week 20:

  • Monday: 6.1 miles recovery pace
  • Tuesday: 6.2 miles recovery pace
  • Wednesday: 6.2 miles recovery pace
  • Thursday: 8.9 miles easy pace with 4×1 mile speed intervals
  • Friday: 6.9 miles recovery pace
  • Saturday: 6.0 miles recovery pace
  • Sunday: 13.1 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 53.5 miles

Paces last week:

  • Recovery: 10:12 – 10:53
  • Speed: 6:42 – 6:58
  • Long: 8:30 – 9:10

It’s taper week three, and the race is just four days away. The Scranton, PA weather report changes daily — one day it shows rain, another sun. I won’t sweat it until Saturday afternoon.

I was trying to think of a word that combines “fear” with “excitement.” I’m not sure such a word exists in English. But that’s what I’m feeling.

Filed under: training | 3 Comments »

Rested Legs Syndrome

Posted on October 4, 2008 by threlkeld

I went out for 7 miler yesterday morning, and it was an amazing little run. Not because I ran fast. Not because of anything I saw. No, it was amazing because I felt rested. For probably the first time since sometime in May.

It was such an enjoyable feeling, noodling along at 10:30 pace, at 62% heart rate. I was truly sorry when the run came to an end. I have a 6 miler today and I can’t wait to get out there.

This is what a taper is supposed to feel like. Now I remember.

Tomorrow I have an easy 13 miler (my last “long” run) and I am beside myself with anticipation. Tempted to make it 14 miles to savor the experience. Or run some miles fast because my legs are feeling so good.

But I will resist that temptation.

Filed under: training | 3 Comments »

Playing the mental game

Posted on October 1, 2008 by threlkeld

Now that I’m nearing the end of my second taper week, I have a lot of free time on my hands in the evening. I do my one daily run in the morning and I’m done! It’s a little weird. I do know that the house is a lot cleaner these days…

My legs have continued to feel tired, although there was a noticeable decrease in fatigue this morning. Tomorrow I do the first of two last harder runs before Steamtown: a 9 miler with 3 miles at 10K race pace. I’ll do it on the roads. Next Tuesday, I’ll do 8 miles with 2 at marathon pace — a rehearsal run of sorts, during which I’ll carry my gels, wear the clothes and shoes I plan to wear, eat the same breakfast, and run at about the same time as the race.

In the meantime, I’m working on my mental game. What worked for me last time around was to go over my training and remind myself of how very hard I’ve worked. I also paid special attention to the workouts (and tuneup races) that went well. Those were a little harder to recognize, given that the summer was so hot and humid, making my paces slower all around. But I’ve spotted some encouraging signs.

First, I turned the clock way back and took a look at my data from my last marathon and discovered that, although my finishing time was 3:32:20, I ran a very long race — 27.98 miles to be exact. Or at least that’s what my Garmin reported. I believe it, given that I had to weave through 7,000 runners over multiple laps, plus I ended up running outside of the racecourse (because it was so clogged) for much of the time. So I ran lots of miles very wide indeed.

If I divide the race up into quarter mile splits, I see that I got to 26.25 in 3:20:05. This makes sense, given that a month later I ran a half marathon (on a much flatter course) in a time equivalent to a 3:18 marathon. This is meaningful because I’d actually trained for a 3:24 race. So I did a lot better than my training would have indicated. In other words, on race day I rose to the occasion.

The other thing I notice is that I ran at a heart rate of 88-89% through miles 21 and 90-91% for the remaining miles. That is some hard running. So I have evidence that I can run at a very high level of effort for well over 3 hours. I need to reach and sustain that effort level for Steamtown, and be confident that I’m capable of holding it for the entirety of the race.

Next, I looked over the summer’s training and noted split times vs. heart rates vs. wind conditions vs. (perhaps most importantly) weather (heat and relative humidity in the form of dew point). The weather definitely affected my performance on lots of runs. But taking it into account, I did okay in training. I was not that far off the desired paces I needed to hit, with rare exception. I’m especially encouraged by the fact that I was able to do the vast majority of planned hard runs, despite often being fatigued from the overall high mileage and other hard workouts during any given week.

By way of comparison, my average mileage for the spring race was 76mpw. Average for this one was 91 mpw. I was running around 95-100mpw most weeks, but the recovery weeks brought the average way down.

The upshot of all of this is that I’m now feeling pretty good about my chances of running a 3:10 or better in 11 days. I have a tremendous amount of aerobic fitness from the huge mileage base, I did the hill work I needed to do to prepare for Steamtown’s notorious downhills, and I did the requisite number of quality runs to get ready:

  • 4 races
  • 5 speed sessions
  • 5 hill sessions
  • 8 tempo runs
  • 9 marathon pace runs
  • 21 general aerobic (easy) runs
  • 16 14+ mile runs
  • 12 20+ mile runs

I think I’m ready as I’ll ever be. Now I just need to hold out hope that the weather will be in my favor.

Filed under: racing, training | 2 Comments »

Fall Training: Weeks 18 and 19

Posted on September 28, 2008 by threlkeld

I skipped last week’s training report on account of being up in CT enjoying the company of both familiar and newly discovered family members. So this is another twofer.

I’ve documented some of the ups and downs of the past couple of weeks in individual posts, so I won’t repeat those here. Suffice it to say that this season’s training really wore me down. So much so that I’m considering moving to a 10-day schedule (instead of a weekly one). I found it difficult to do three hard workouts per week over such a long stretch of months. Some of that may have had to do with the difficulty of training in heat and humidity. I’ll see what happens over the winter, I guess.

With rare exception, I did all the planned workouts, but looking back on my diary entries, I realize that I never felt recovered and ready for the hard days. As a result, I rarely hit the paces I wanted, and this has done a real number on me mentally. When I compare this season’s training to last, the number of hard workouts each week was never an issue. The obvious difference this time around was the mileage: an average of 91 mpw compared to 76 mpw. If I’m going to do higher mileage training, I think I need to accept that a woman of my rapidly advancing years needs more recovery time in order to make those harder runs really sparkle.

A look back at training week 18:

  • Monday: 6.8 miles recovery pace (AM); 7.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Tuesday: 4.7 miles recovery pace (AM)
  • Wednesday: 14.1 mile long run (steady pace) (AM); 4.8 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 8.1 miles recovery pace
  • Friday: 5.9 miles recovery pace (AM); 7 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Saturday: 22.1 miles with some at marathon pace (meh)
  • Sunday: 6.9 miles recovery pace

Total mileage: 87.4 miles

And training week 19:

  • Monday: Off
  • Tuesday: Off
  • Wednesday: 3 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Thursday: 6.2 miles recovery pace
  • Friday: 10 miles with 5 at tempo effort
  • Saturday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.5 miles recovery pace (PM)
  • Sunday: 18.5 mile long run (steady pace)

Total mileage: 53.9 miles

Paces these past two weeks:

  • Recovery: 8:50 – 10:40
  • Tempo: Hard to tell on the treadmill; ran at 89-91% max heart rate
  • Marathon pace (sort of): 7:30-7:45
  • Long: 8:16 – 8:46

I was so exhausted during week 18 that it wasn’t even funny. So much so that I couldn’t even run my marathon pace run at marathon effort. I was averaging 82-83% heart rate, so I never hit my times. I just couldn’t go any faster.

I thought taking time off on Monday and Tuesday of this week would help, but I still felt awful on Wednesday. So I cut back the mileage much more than expected and hoped I’d feel better toward the end of the week. Last season I had roughly equal mileage in the first and second weeks of my taper (although owing to injury rather than exhaustion) and it didn’t seem to be a problem come race day.

I felt good enough to do a decent tempo run Friday morning (although since I had to do it inside on our unreliably calibrated treadmill, I have no clue how fast I was running); I broke that run up into two 2.5 mile segments, with a half mile easy pace inbetween. That went pretty well. But I must say that I’m very rattled by the fact that I still have no idea how fast I should be running in two weeks.

Today’s long run was quite the adventure. We had temps in the 70s and 93% humidity. I got about 12 miles into the run and felt a sprinkle. My top was soaked anyway due to the heat and humidity. But then the sprinkle turned into a steady downpour. By mile 15 I was completely soaked. In a way, it’s liberating to just accept the rain and try to appreciate its cooling effect. I also had the running path pretty much to myself once the rain really got going. Thanks, Hurricane Kyle!

I wore a newer pair of shoes this morning: the Asics Speedstar. I’ve been looking for a racing alternative to the Saucony Fastwitch, at least for the marathon. The Fastwitch is perfect for the half distance and below and feels good until about 20 miles. Beyond that point it feels like I’m running on two pieces of cardboard. Since the last 6 miles of the race are the most painful ones, it seems crazy to wear shoes that will only add to the pain. Jonathan’s worn the men’s version of the Speedstar for the marathon and says they held up well. They felt more substantial than the Sauconys on today’s run, and there were no hotspots (even when they were soaked), so I’m going to wear them for Steamtown in two weeks.

Coming up in Training Week 20: Running “doubles” is now behind me; it’s one run per day from here on out. Taper week two calls for equal mileage to taper week one, but with fewer hard miles. I’ve got a short speed session on Wednesday (mile repeats at 5K-10K race pace), and then a shorter long run (13 miles on Sunday). After that, it’s just one week until showtime.

Filed under: clothes and gear, training | 3 Comments »

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