I put my 10th half marathon in the books yesterday---the Brooklyn Half which took me for two loops around Prospect Park and then down Ocean Parkway to the Coney Island boardwalk. For the short of it, it was not a goal race and I went in with few expectations slightly less than a month after running the New Jersey Marahton and I finished respectably in 1:25:59, two minutes off my personal best set in the Manhattan Half in January but still my second best of my ten half marathons.
After arriving at Prospect Park a little less than an hour before the race with one of my running club teammates, we walked around the bathroom, baggage, and start area and realized pretty much immediately that this race was likely going to be a huge zoo. In past years the Brooklyn Half had about 5,000 people in it and this year there were over 11,000 registered. Just looking at the porta potty situation and the narrow start area I was already pretty concerned that the NYRR was not really prepared to handle a field this size for this race. As far as I could recall, they only put on two races all year that are bigger or of similar size, the marathon and what was formerly known as the Nike NYC Half Marathon held for the past three years in July or August through Central Park and down through Times Square and the West Side Highway. The marathon is obviously a huge event in the city and three times the size of either the NYC Half or yesterday's Brooklyn Half and it is very well put on and NYRR has had years of practice at it and the city basically shuts down for the day. The NYC Half is also produced as a marquee event in which registration closes quickly and where one has the sense of high organization/preparedness and that everything is shut down for runners that morning. The big key is that with 10,000 runners in Central Park that the park loop is closed to other users.
After a short warm up jog around some of the woody trails in Prospect Park I lined up near the front of the first corral with my teammate and we were eventually joined by three other teammates who were going to run with us. Standing at the start it was immediately obvious how narrow it was and how many people were going to be lined up. It's at moments like these that I am very thankful to be on the fast side and in the front corral because even back in the second or third corral there was going to be major congestion and the race could be a bit of a crap shoot. My other observation was that it was extremely sunny and warm standing there before the race and I do not run very well in the heat as a general matter. We seemed to stand around forever as the race start was delayed by a good 10-15 minutes as they finished clearing traffic on the course---a reminder of how the New Jersey Marathon had been delayed in similar fashion by 30 minutes four weekends ago. The extra time did allow me to meet up with three runnersworld forumites, DCV, Troutpan, and Got2GetUnder3, though I wish I could have spent more time getting to know them.
Standing at the start with my teammates we came up with a plan to all run together as a pack through Prospect Park and try to help if we could one guy on our team who wanted to automatically qualify for the NYC Marathon by running under 1:23:00. I thought that might be a little fast for me but I figured that was also my "A" goal for this race so I might as well go for it. Normally with the uncertainty I had coming off the marathon I would have played things conservatively for the opening miles but this race really had no purpose for me in terms of time and I didn't mind blowing up a little if I could be to someone else's benefit. Also, even though I belong to a running club, I'm pretty much a solo runner when it comes to races and training most of the time as I tend to just function off my own effort level with my own goals, but I thought it would be pretty cool to kind of go back to my high school cross country days and run as a team in a big pack to a common goal.
Mile 1 (6:17)
When the horn finally sounded, that team plan we had come up with all seemed to go out the window as two of the five guys took off at 6 minute pace, one of them was faster and had just agreed to run with us but the other guy was of similar ability to the other four of us and I didn't quite understand why we weren't sticking to what we had just talked about. Anyway I ended up in no man's land as the two of them went out faster than I was willing to go and the other two guys, including the guy trying to qualify for the NYC marathon, who I had thought had been right behind me faded a bit further back. So I was basically in no-man's land. That was fine with me as I'm used to running alone anyway, but I had gone out faster than I would have otherwise as I followed the two teammates in front of me for the first quarter mile.
Mile 2-4 (6:36, 6:17, 6:18)
I kind of locked into my own race for mile two as I battled the uphill mile and somewhere in there realized for certain that the two teammates who had taken off in front of me had no intention of coming back and running as a pack and that there was no way I was going to try and catch them at this point. So I gave a look behind me and slowed down a bit for the other two guys to catch up as I figured I might as well try to help this guy get under 1:23 for as long as I could even though I didn't really think I was going to be able to hold onto that myself. We settled into a nice rhythm together.
Mile 5-7 (6:39, 6:38, 6:18)
This is where the fun really began. I had been right about the poor course design and my fears about lapping slower runners on their first lap came true, only even worse than anticipated. Since the two loops of Prospect Park were not quite identical and runners on the second lap had to go an extra half mile to mile before rejoining where they were on the first loop, I figured that I would catch the slowest runners somewhere around mile 5 or 5.5 and just have to deal with lapping people for about a mile before I exited the park. Wrong! Because the start had been so packed and narrow there were throngs of people just entering the main loop for the first time, hardly a half mile into the race, by the time we rejoined the loop around mile 4.5. This made for a mess. There were designated lanes for each lap, with the faster runners forced to the outer lane but this only worked slightly. For one I'm sure people on their second lap ended up running much further than the course was measured for. Secondly, many slower runners and walkers drifted out into the outer lane (and vice versa as I'm sure many of the faster runners went inside trying to avoid taking a much longer route around the park, even though I'm not sure how that would work very well trying to go around slower runners but some tried nonetheless). Thirdly, water was out of the question, because it was on the inner part of the loop where the slower runners were. Given that there had only been one water stop in the first 4 miles that was a bit annoying. Finally, the biggest problem was that in the outer lane we were sharing it a lot of the time with the general users of Prospect Park, including cyclists---not a good or totally safe combination. As I said before the park needed to be closed to other users as Central Park is with the NYC Half for this race to work. In any case I was just waiting to get out of the park and onto Ocean Parkway where there would be free space. My hamstrings were also bothering me and I could feel the fatigue from all of the hills in my legs which were still worn down from the marathon.
Mile 8-11 (6:28, 6:32, 6:31, 6:37)
Finally we got out of the park and onto a nice downhill on the entrance to Ocean Parkway, which was then of course followed by another uphill even though I thought I had seen that last of those in Prospect Park. At this point I was starting to suffer from a side stitch on my right side. I don't know why it happens to me so frequently, particularly at the half marathon distance, but I really wish I could figure why I get these side stitches and why they are so incredibly painful. I have tried everything with pushing into them, deep breathing etc. but when they come on I just always end up in worsening pain which is only alleviated by easing off the pace. I honestly think it is more than a simple side stitch because they don't go away completely after the race and I can still feel the muscle soreness and spasm there after the race when I breathe deeply and sometimes there is some lingering soreness in my diaphragm for several days after the race. Anyway so that was what happened to me yet again, so even though my legs were feeling better to be rid of the hills and I was ready to push the pace I couldn't really do it. On a different day maybe I would have battled through it more, but I really wasn't prepared to embrace the pain and push through it today since it wasn't a goal race and it was just between all my hard marathon training and the short-distance training I was getting ready to embark on. So I struggled through these miles, for awhile with my one remaining teammate who I was still with until he faded behind (the guy going for sub 1:23 fortunately had forged ahead of me just as we left the park).
Mile 11-13 (6:37, 6:54, 7:08)
When I hit mile 11 I tried to put in the surge that I had been holding back on because of the side stitch but the pain just intensified and I didn't really have much left at this point anyway as I think the marathon from a month ago or the heat of the day had really caught up with me. So about mile 11.5 I more or less called it a day as I was passed by a friend from my office who always seems to pass me late in these longer races. I looked at my watch and figured I just wanted to break 1:26 and I didn't really have to push much at all to do that and if I didn't do it I didn't really care a whole lot. As we entered the Coney Island boardwalk for the last half mile, a lot of people passed me but I really just didn't care. As I finally hit the last 100 or 200 meters I could see the clock and saw it was going to be very close with 1:26 so I picked it up just because I hate finishing in one or two seconds over anything and 1:25 just had a better ring to it, so I crossed the line in 1:25:59, with one very sore right side and a pretty blistered up left foot.
Post-Race
While I sincerely hope that NYRR makes adjustments to this race for the future because the situation in Prospect Park was pretty bad, I did really like ending at Coney Island. I'm usually not one to care and hang around the post-race festivities but I did for awhile yesterday and it was pretty fun. First I met up with some people from my team and others I knew and we chatted. The guy shooting for sub 1:23 had made it by four or five seconds so I hope the one cup of water I handed him and the four miles I ran with him in Prospect Park may have made some bit of difference but I'm sure he could have done it without me. I also met up with Morissey from runnersworld, who turned out to be a friend of a friend I know from the real non-internet world. So after going to stick my feet in the ocean (which was pretty painful walking around barefoot with blisters!) and buying a smoothie and chicken taco on the boardwalk I headed home! It was a good day and an OK race, about what I expected. Thinking back on it, the race was a lot like the Bronx Half in February when I was coming off a great time in the Manhattan Half two weeks earlier and still felt a little beat up and didn't really have a goal and care a whole lot about my time and kind of just went for it anyway a bit in the early miles to see what would happen and then suffered a good bit at the end. Only this time I was a minute and a half faster so maybe it means I was in better shape than in February even post-marathon. Whatever the case, I don't really need to be in long distance shape for awhile as I embark upon my fun-filled summer of shorter races (maybe even next weekend if I feel up to it but probably not). I don't really like training for shorter races, but I do like racing a lot and the races themselves. More than anything you just get to race more often and don't feel as beat up the day or two after and can get right back into training. Also there are no side stitch death marches for 3-4 miles which right now feels like a huge plus! The change of pace should be good in any case, before I hit up the NYC Half in August, the Queens Half in September, and the Staten Island Half in October and then probably embarking upon the NYC Marathon again! 3 out of 5 borough halfs now complete!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Half Marathon History Lesson
So as I said before when I have an upcoming race I like to go back and review my past races and training. Since I'm running the Brooklyn Half on Saturday, I figured it was time to give myself a history lesson on my past halfs. Saturday will be the 10th half marathon I've run (it really seems like so many more but that's it). The previous 9 have all been in New York City: I've run the Staten Island half twice, Brooklyn twice, the Bronx twice, the New York City Half in Central Park and Times Square twice, and the Manhattan Half once. My times have looked like this:
Staten Island October 2005: 1:33
Brooklyn April 2006: 1:29
Bronx July 2006: 1:31
NYC Half August 2006: 1:26
Brooklyn April 2008: 1:27
NYC Half July 2008: 1:27
Staten Island October 2008: 1:28
Manhattan January 2009: 1:23:52 (PR)
Bronx February 2009: 1:27
I'm not sure what that all means but of those races I am most proud of NYC 2006, Manhattan 2009, and Staten Island 2005 in that order. The most disappointing of those races was Staten Island 2008. NYC 2006 was one of the most unexpected PRs I have ever had in running and not only did I significantly negative split the race but it was one of the easiest races I have ever run. It was really the first half I ran where I had the benefit of some marathon training in my legs and where covering 13 miles was no longer a long run for me anymore. I was also very relaxed in that race and wasn't really planning on running it that hard until I felt so great since I had raced a 5K and 5 miler hard the previous two weekends. If I could go back and re-create the feeling I had running that race that day in every race I ran I would do so gladly, I think I have only come close once in a longer race, which was the 15K PR (56:53) that I ran this past March, but even that felt like more of struggle. I gained a lot of confidence from that half (in retrospect probably a little too much for the marathon that followed that November) and I think I learned a lot about running in that race and what kind of training works best for me, even if it wasn't something I fully realized at the time. When I decided to focus on training for the Manhattan Half this past January, I looked back at what I had done leading up to the NYC 2006 race and followed some similar principles with doing a few 14-18 mile runs in the six weeks or so leading up to it and racing a hard shorter race two weekends before. As I set a nearly three minute PR in the Manhattan Half (despite, or perhaps given my penchant for cold weather racing on account of, about 8-12 degree temperatures). I was very pleased with that race but it definitely wasn't unexpected in the way NYC 2006 was. My third most proud half marathon moment was my first just because I had no idea what to expect and it was the first time I had even run 13.1 miles and perhaps (I didn't keep a running log then) the first time I had ever run more than 10 miles. Given that, the 1:33 I ran in October 2005 may have been the most impressive time of all the halfs I have run.
As I hit my 10th half marathon this weekend I guess I'm becoming a bit more of a veteran at this distance (though I know many people have run that many in a single year or 10 or 20 times that many in their lifetimes) but more so than ever I feel uncertain about what is going to happen in this race on Saturday and how my body will respond. For starters, I have never raced this soon after a marathon before, much less a race this long. I've been a bit tired on my runs but my larger concern is that my left hip has been feeling a bit too stiff for my liking (yes that old injury that always causes problems one way or another) and that I tried to do some speedwork in the form of 1 minute hard intervals (stupidly I might add) last week and the middle of my right hamstring has been a little tight ever since and has seemed to fatigue when I hit the end of my runs---that has been getting better with each run since my silly speedwork adventure last week though I'm not sure I can say the same for my hip. I'm so used to my hip being stiff though at various times that I have to admit that I think it won't be much of a problem in the race (hopefully not famous last words), it's just going to be a matter of soreness afterwards and having to be a little carfeul in the upcoming weeks. I don't know that I've ever gone into a race before where the # 1 overall goal on my mind was to come out as healthy as possible but that's kind of how I feel about Saturday, though I don't think the thought will cross my mind if I end up having a good, better than expected day, it will just be if I am struggling that I will probably opt to coast in. The reason I feel this way is because I would be annoyed at myself that I have pushed a little too hard post-marathon and this race kind of falls into no man's land since I'm not going to be in better shape than I was when I ran the marathon a month ago or in the weeks leading up to it and I'm about to embark on training for shorter races, so this race isn't really a goal race nor is it a measuring stick or building block for my next training cycle. It's kind of just there--- in a way the end of my marathon cycle but also removed from it at the same time---and that's why I don't really have a goal for it other than to come out healthy.
Having said all that I'm going to go to the line with the idea of racing it in mind, I'm just not sure at all how things will unfold. In the six half marathons I have run since I got serious about them, I've felt strong and done well in two of them (NYC 2006, Manhattan 2009) and felt dead and beaten up and just coasted in or struggled at the end of four them, in three of those four I came in with almost identical times between 1:27:27 and 1:27:32 and the other (Staten Island 2008) I had one of the most miserable side stitches and three mile finishes to a race I can ever imagine and ended up in 1:28:12 when I was on sub 1:26 pace for about 10 miles. So you throw that all together and I feel like there is a good chance I will end up running in the mid 1:27s again on Saturday, but as I said I really have no idea what to expect. On the flip side, I don't think it's totally impossible that I could have a good day and squeak in a PR. I ran a 1:23:52 in January in ice bowl conditions and I was clearly in better shape than that by March and April, and my 15K and 10 miles time projected to a 1:21 half or so. I feel a bit beat up and tired right now without a question and I may feel the effects of my hamstring or hip out there (in which case I will probably slow down) or just a general feeling of not having recovered from the marathon but if I was actually in 1:21 shape in mid-April, how much of that fitness and freshness could I have lost? Possibly a lot since I did run a freaking marathon, but maybe I have held onto just enough so that I can still nab a slight PR or a sub 1:23. The three times I have PR'ed at the half marathon in the past have all been a little unexpected and by almost 3 minutes. I don't think a 1:20 is in the cards by any means, but I guess we shall see. It could be ugly, it could be pretty, but it will most likely just be "blah" and I'll try not to hurt anything in the process so that I can re-focus things for the summer. Stay tuned....
Staten Island October 2005: 1:33
Brooklyn April 2006: 1:29
Bronx July 2006: 1:31
NYC Half August 2006: 1:26
Brooklyn April 2008: 1:27
NYC Half July 2008: 1:27
Staten Island October 2008: 1:28
Manhattan January 2009: 1:23:52 (PR)
Bronx February 2009: 1:27
I'm not sure what that all means but of those races I am most proud of NYC 2006, Manhattan 2009, and Staten Island 2005 in that order. The most disappointing of those races was Staten Island 2008. NYC 2006 was one of the most unexpected PRs I have ever had in running and not only did I significantly negative split the race but it was one of the easiest races I have ever run. It was really the first half I ran where I had the benefit of some marathon training in my legs and where covering 13 miles was no longer a long run for me anymore. I was also very relaxed in that race and wasn't really planning on running it that hard until I felt so great since I had raced a 5K and 5 miler hard the previous two weekends. If I could go back and re-create the feeling I had running that race that day in every race I ran I would do so gladly, I think I have only come close once in a longer race, which was the 15K PR (56:53) that I ran this past March, but even that felt like more of struggle. I gained a lot of confidence from that half (in retrospect probably a little too much for the marathon that followed that November) and I think I learned a lot about running in that race and what kind of training works best for me, even if it wasn't something I fully realized at the time. When I decided to focus on training for the Manhattan Half this past January, I looked back at what I had done leading up to the NYC 2006 race and followed some similar principles with doing a few 14-18 mile runs in the six weeks or so leading up to it and racing a hard shorter race two weekends before. As I set a nearly three minute PR in the Manhattan Half (despite, or perhaps given my penchant for cold weather racing on account of, about 8-12 degree temperatures). I was very pleased with that race but it definitely wasn't unexpected in the way NYC 2006 was. My third most proud half marathon moment was my first just because I had no idea what to expect and it was the first time I had even run 13.1 miles and perhaps (I didn't keep a running log then) the first time I had ever run more than 10 miles. Given that, the 1:33 I ran in October 2005 may have been the most impressive time of all the halfs I have run.
As I hit my 10th half marathon this weekend I guess I'm becoming a bit more of a veteran at this distance (though I know many people have run that many in a single year or 10 or 20 times that many in their lifetimes) but more so than ever I feel uncertain about what is going to happen in this race on Saturday and how my body will respond. For starters, I have never raced this soon after a marathon before, much less a race this long. I've been a bit tired on my runs but my larger concern is that my left hip has been feeling a bit too stiff for my liking (yes that old injury that always causes problems one way or another) and that I tried to do some speedwork in the form of 1 minute hard intervals (stupidly I might add) last week and the middle of my right hamstring has been a little tight ever since and has seemed to fatigue when I hit the end of my runs---that has been getting better with each run since my silly speedwork adventure last week though I'm not sure I can say the same for my hip. I'm so used to my hip being stiff though at various times that I have to admit that I think it won't be much of a problem in the race (hopefully not famous last words), it's just going to be a matter of soreness afterwards and having to be a little carfeul in the upcoming weeks. I don't know that I've ever gone into a race before where the # 1 overall goal on my mind was to come out as healthy as possible but that's kind of how I feel about Saturday, though I don't think the thought will cross my mind if I end up having a good, better than expected day, it will just be if I am struggling that I will probably opt to coast in. The reason I feel this way is because I would be annoyed at myself that I have pushed a little too hard post-marathon and this race kind of falls into no man's land since I'm not going to be in better shape than I was when I ran the marathon a month ago or in the weeks leading up to it and I'm about to embark on training for shorter races, so this race isn't really a goal race nor is it a measuring stick or building block for my next training cycle. It's kind of just there--- in a way the end of my marathon cycle but also removed from it at the same time---and that's why I don't really have a goal for it other than to come out healthy.
Having said all that I'm going to go to the line with the idea of racing it in mind, I'm just not sure at all how things will unfold. In the six half marathons I have run since I got serious about them, I've felt strong and done well in two of them (NYC 2006, Manhattan 2009) and felt dead and beaten up and just coasted in or struggled at the end of four them, in three of those four I came in with almost identical times between 1:27:27 and 1:27:32 and the other (Staten Island 2008) I had one of the most miserable side stitches and three mile finishes to a race I can ever imagine and ended up in 1:28:12 when I was on sub 1:26 pace for about 10 miles. So you throw that all together and I feel like there is a good chance I will end up running in the mid 1:27s again on Saturday, but as I said I really have no idea what to expect. On the flip side, I don't think it's totally impossible that I could have a good day and squeak in a PR. I ran a 1:23:52 in January in ice bowl conditions and I was clearly in better shape than that by March and April, and my 15K and 10 miles time projected to a 1:21 half or so. I feel a bit beat up and tired right now without a question and I may feel the effects of my hamstring or hip out there (in which case I will probably slow down) or just a general feeling of not having recovered from the marathon but if I was actually in 1:21 shape in mid-April, how much of that fitness and freshness could I have lost? Possibly a lot since I did run a freaking marathon, but maybe I have held onto just enough so that I can still nab a slight PR or a sub 1:23. The three times I have PR'ed at the half marathon in the past have all been a little unexpected and by almost 3 minutes. I don't think a 1:20 is in the cards by any means, but I guess we shall see. It could be ugly, it could be pretty, but it will most likely just be "blah" and I'll try not to hurt anything in the process so that I can re-focus things for the summer. Stay tuned....
Friday, May 22, 2009
The City Spoileth Me
I'm out of the city for a day or two in a rural/suburban area of upstate NY. Every time I go somewhere like this I wonder how so many of you are able to keep up your running the way you do. Seriously, the roads here have no shoulders and there are enough cars going by to make it unpleasant and concerning if you're trying to run anyway that you are either going to have hop into a ditch or risk getting mowed down. And somewhere along the run there is destined to be a big dog chasing you, and I worry about the little poodles with their owners nearby in Central Park. People always assume there must be nice running when you're out in the "country" but seriously I am so spoiled to have New York City to run in. I really don't know if I would be a runner if I had grown up somewhere else. So I'm in awe of all of you who have to deal with some of these problems on your daily run and still manage to log consistent high mileage and speed workouts. Carry on.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Looking to the Past
As I said in my first post, I created this blog in part so that I could look back six months, or a year, or ten years from now, and see what my training was like and what I was thinking about running and life. But sometimes I wonder if I/we can become too fixated on my/our running past. I have a computer training log in which I have tracked at the very least the distance (and sometimes the pace, feel, injury sensations, purpose, conditions as well) of every run and the time of every form of cardiovascular cross training I have done since November of 2005.
Despite adhering to my "just keep running" philosophy I think I have probably looked back over my log over the years more than a lot of people do. Whenever I embark on a new marathon training period I give things a check and as I get closer to race day (and am bored while tapering usually) I have a tendency to stastically analyze training "plans" past and compare them to what I have been doing more recently. Since I haven't followed a set training plan for anything for almost three years now, I guess it's my way of trying to impress on myself some sort of conscious or perhaps sub-conscious reminder of what kind of "training" I should consider. Sometimes though I think I just do it to try and give myself a confidence boost before a big race. For example before NYC 2008, I had averaged much less total mileage than before NYC 2006 but when I went back and looked at my log I saw that I had done 6 rather than 3 20+ mile runs in the 18 weeks leading up to the marathon and that I had also done more 15+ mile runs the second time around. As it turned out I didn't beat my 06 NYCM time in the 08 NYCM but I did get pretty close given how many fewer total miles I had run and how poor my times were at shorter distances compared to two years before, so in a way my little research experiment proved correct and I was in fact in better marathon shape the second time around than a generic equivalent running calculator might have indicated.
In the weeks leading up to the New Jersey Marathon this past spring I played a similar researach game with myself, though this time it wasn't so much to provide me with a needed confidence boost but to see and understand what had worked for me since I had had so much success in my tune up races and throughout my training cycle. Basically as I looked things over, my weekly mileage in the 18 week buildup was slightly higher than it had ever been before but the real difference was in three factors:
1. it was the first time I ever came off another marathon into a second marathon training cycle and thus I had a level of consistency, particularly with long runs, that I had never had in the past (statistically in the 40 or so weeks prior to Jersey 09 I had done 13 20+ mile runs compared to 3 leading up to NYC 06, and 6 leading up to NYC 08---that in itself had to have made a huge difference).
2. I really started making the mid-week long run a part of my normal routine. In NYC 08 I hadn't used them at all. In NYC 06, I often concidentally got in one or two 11 mile days during the week just on account of long interval workouts I did and the warm ups and cool downs that came with them. But for Jersey 09 I purposefully focussed on those longer midweek runs and made them more like 13-14 miles rather than 10-11. Statistically: I ran 13+ miles 24 times in the 18 weeks leading up to NJM 09, compared to just 15 times for NYC 06 and 13 times for NYC 08.
3. I ran a lot more tune-up races and tempo runs. For NYC 06 I did a lot of fast running but it was mostly in bi-weekly interval workouts rather than tempos and I only raced four times in the 18 week build-up, three of which were on consecutive weekends more than 10 weeks out from the marathon, so the only race I did in the last 10 weeks was an 18 miler which was hardly an opportunity to really work on and gain confidence in pushing myself through faster running. In NYC 08 since I was coming off injury I was pretty limited and basically did no faster running in training or races until about 5 weeks before the race when I did an 18 miler and then 2 weeks later a half-marathon. For Jersey, I ran races from the beginning of the 18 week period right up to a month before race day and ran some pretty fast 4-6 mile tempos that weren't more than 10-20 seconds off race pace for those distances. I got into a consistent racing schedule and raced a 5 miler and two halfs at the beginning of the cycle, a 5K in the middle, and a 15K and 10 miler as my last two tune-ups. That made for 6 races in the period from 18 weeks to 4 weeks pre-marathon and at a range of distances that tested both my speed and endurance. Also in general I just like to race and so I think that kept me fresh and took away some of the pressure of having trained for one big goal race with everything riding on it.
So I think that's the good that comes out of my tendency to revisit my past training. From NYC 06 I came away with an understanding of the importance of long-term consistency, particularly as it pertained to long runs. I built on that for NYC 08 as much as injuries allowed me to do and from that training cycle I again took away the importance of a consistent mileage base but also the importance for me of running races and tempos in preparation to build the necessary speed. Even though I didn't follow a training "plan" persay for Jersey this past spring I definitely applied those lessons from my two previous training cycles into how I ended up training and for the most part it worked for me.
I also think that there is a bad that comes out of revisiting the past (beyond being a complete dork with all these statistical analyses of my past runs I've provided you with). It is very easy for all that attention on the past to get me distracted from my philosophy of "just keep running." I think this is particularly a risk now that I think that I have found some training principles that worked well for me. I think this spring worked for me because I listened to my body and did tempos, long runs, races, a lot of the time on the weeks and days when I felt most ready for them. If I try to more or less "copy" what I did for Jersey for my next marathon (probably NYC or Philly 09) I think I could end up in real trouble. On the one hand I'd like to think there are components I could add to my training that would help me get to the next level, on the other hand I believe that if I were just able to more or less repeat what I did that I would also improve significantly just from the consistency of it over a longer period.
I think the real problem of trying to "copy" what I did this past spring though will come on some week in September when I look at the training I have done since June and realize that I have run more races than I did in the winter or that I've done three or four fewer 15+ mile runs and I then try to change up my training as a result and end up forcing a midweek long run or so on myself just because that worked for me in the past. I have to be very wary of such a scenario because it will start to break me away from the idea of "just keep running" which is what I think has worked for me up to this point in my running life and it is also how I will lead myself down another injury path.
I'm already thinking this way even in my post-marathon recovery. I've looked back at the mistakes I made after NYC 2006 when I started to run again every day the Wednesday after the marathon even though my quads basically couldn't support me to run anything close to my natural running form. Three weeks later I was out injured for what would turn out to be a seemingly long, long time. I've also looked back to see what I did right after NYC 2008 that led me into the Jersey training cycle and see that I took the entire week off after the race and didn't go more than 6 or 7 miles until almost 3 weeks post-marathon and didn't try any kind of faster running. While I took 4 days totally off after Jersey, I kind of jumped back into things after that at least compared to what I did after NYC 08. I was doing 8 mile runs much of last week and did a 13 miler on Sunday and a tempo workout on the track yesterday. The thing is my legs as a whole feel a ton better than they did after either of my first two marathons and that was evident from the second I crossed the line when my quads didn't seize on me (though I could tell you doing the tempo yesterday that my legs definitely were not 100 percent yet). But there are aches and pains here and there, the same ones that would bother me now and again during training---my right knee/shin, the flexor of my right foot, and yes my chronic issue with my left hip. None of these things feel awful and they wouldn't stop me from training if I were in the middle of a marathon training cycle with the goal sight, but they do make me wonder if I should chill for awhile longer like I did post NYC 08 since that ended up working for me. But the mileage I put in for this marathon was so much greater, the training so much harder, and I felt so much better afterwards and in the process of training that I feel that I don't need to follow what my past history has taught me. Of course if I'm injured a month from now or if I feel beat up in October I'm going to look back on this blog post and kick myself for not listening to my past experiences much as I look back as what I did after NYC 06 as mistakes.
I guess history in all things, running and otherwise, can only tell you so much and you need to find a way to both learn from it but not depend on repeating it. That's why I ran 13 miles on Sunday and it's the same reason I'm taking today off. It's also probably why I am going to "taper" (from practically nothing to taper from) next week for the Brooklyn Half and take another couple days off. I don't think I just put into words anything here that I didn't already know, but at least I got to admit to the world (like everyone didn't know already) that I am a huge nerd and have gone back over my training log mutliple times to add up how many 13+, 15+, 17+, 20+, 22+ mile runs I did in various training periods leading up to past marathons.
Despite adhering to my "just keep running" philosophy I think I have probably looked back over my log over the years more than a lot of people do. Whenever I embark on a new marathon training period I give things a check and as I get closer to race day (and am bored while tapering usually) I have a tendency to stastically analyze training "plans" past and compare them to what I have been doing more recently. Since I haven't followed a set training plan for anything for almost three years now, I guess it's my way of trying to impress on myself some sort of conscious or perhaps sub-conscious reminder of what kind of "training" I should consider. Sometimes though I think I just do it to try and give myself a confidence boost before a big race. For example before NYC 2008, I had averaged much less total mileage than before NYC 2006 but when I went back and looked at my log I saw that I had done 6 rather than 3 20+ mile runs in the 18 weeks leading up to the marathon and that I had also done more 15+ mile runs the second time around. As it turned out I didn't beat my 06 NYCM time in the 08 NYCM but I did get pretty close given how many fewer total miles I had run and how poor my times were at shorter distances compared to two years before, so in a way my little research experiment proved correct and I was in fact in better marathon shape the second time around than a generic equivalent running calculator might have indicated.
In the weeks leading up to the New Jersey Marathon this past spring I played a similar researach game with myself, though this time it wasn't so much to provide me with a needed confidence boost but to see and understand what had worked for me since I had had so much success in my tune up races and throughout my training cycle. Basically as I looked things over, my weekly mileage in the 18 week buildup was slightly higher than it had ever been before but the real difference was in three factors:
1. it was the first time I ever came off another marathon into a second marathon training cycle and thus I had a level of consistency, particularly with long runs, that I had never had in the past (statistically in the 40 or so weeks prior to Jersey 09 I had done 13 20+ mile runs compared to 3 leading up to NYC 06, and 6 leading up to NYC 08---that in itself had to have made a huge difference).
2. I really started making the mid-week long run a part of my normal routine. In NYC 08 I hadn't used them at all. In NYC 06, I often concidentally got in one or two 11 mile days during the week just on account of long interval workouts I did and the warm ups and cool downs that came with them. But for Jersey 09 I purposefully focussed on those longer midweek runs and made them more like 13-14 miles rather than 10-11. Statistically: I ran 13+ miles 24 times in the 18 weeks leading up to NJM 09, compared to just 15 times for NYC 06 and 13 times for NYC 08.
3. I ran a lot more tune-up races and tempo runs. For NYC 06 I did a lot of fast running but it was mostly in bi-weekly interval workouts rather than tempos and I only raced four times in the 18 week build-up, three of which were on consecutive weekends more than 10 weeks out from the marathon, so the only race I did in the last 10 weeks was an 18 miler which was hardly an opportunity to really work on and gain confidence in pushing myself through faster running. In NYC 08 since I was coming off injury I was pretty limited and basically did no faster running in training or races until about 5 weeks before the race when I did an 18 miler and then 2 weeks later a half-marathon. For Jersey, I ran races from the beginning of the 18 week period right up to a month before race day and ran some pretty fast 4-6 mile tempos that weren't more than 10-20 seconds off race pace for those distances. I got into a consistent racing schedule and raced a 5 miler and two halfs at the beginning of the cycle, a 5K in the middle, and a 15K and 10 miler as my last two tune-ups. That made for 6 races in the period from 18 weeks to 4 weeks pre-marathon and at a range of distances that tested both my speed and endurance. Also in general I just like to race and so I think that kept me fresh and took away some of the pressure of having trained for one big goal race with everything riding on it.
So I think that's the good that comes out of my tendency to revisit my past training. From NYC 06 I came away with an understanding of the importance of long-term consistency, particularly as it pertained to long runs. I built on that for NYC 08 as much as injuries allowed me to do and from that training cycle I again took away the importance of a consistent mileage base but also the importance for me of running races and tempos in preparation to build the necessary speed. Even though I didn't follow a training "plan" persay for Jersey this past spring I definitely applied those lessons from my two previous training cycles into how I ended up training and for the most part it worked for me.
I also think that there is a bad that comes out of revisiting the past (beyond being a complete dork with all these statistical analyses of my past runs I've provided you with). It is very easy for all that attention on the past to get me distracted from my philosophy of "just keep running." I think this is particularly a risk now that I think that I have found some training principles that worked well for me. I think this spring worked for me because I listened to my body and did tempos, long runs, races, a lot of the time on the weeks and days when I felt most ready for them. If I try to more or less "copy" what I did for Jersey for my next marathon (probably NYC or Philly 09) I think I could end up in real trouble. On the one hand I'd like to think there are components I could add to my training that would help me get to the next level, on the other hand I believe that if I were just able to more or less repeat what I did that I would also improve significantly just from the consistency of it over a longer period.
I think the real problem of trying to "copy" what I did this past spring though will come on some week in September when I look at the training I have done since June and realize that I have run more races than I did in the winter or that I've done three or four fewer 15+ mile runs and I then try to change up my training as a result and end up forcing a midweek long run or so on myself just because that worked for me in the past. I have to be very wary of such a scenario because it will start to break me away from the idea of "just keep running" which is what I think has worked for me up to this point in my running life and it is also how I will lead myself down another injury path.
I'm already thinking this way even in my post-marathon recovery. I've looked back at the mistakes I made after NYC 2006 when I started to run again every day the Wednesday after the marathon even though my quads basically couldn't support me to run anything close to my natural running form. Three weeks later I was out injured for what would turn out to be a seemingly long, long time. I've also looked back to see what I did right after NYC 2008 that led me into the Jersey training cycle and see that I took the entire week off after the race and didn't go more than 6 or 7 miles until almost 3 weeks post-marathon and didn't try any kind of faster running. While I took 4 days totally off after Jersey, I kind of jumped back into things after that at least compared to what I did after NYC 08. I was doing 8 mile runs much of last week and did a 13 miler on Sunday and a tempo workout on the track yesterday. The thing is my legs as a whole feel a ton better than they did after either of my first two marathons and that was evident from the second I crossed the line when my quads didn't seize on me (though I could tell you doing the tempo yesterday that my legs definitely were not 100 percent yet). But there are aches and pains here and there, the same ones that would bother me now and again during training---my right knee/shin, the flexor of my right foot, and yes my chronic issue with my left hip. None of these things feel awful and they wouldn't stop me from training if I were in the middle of a marathon training cycle with the goal sight, but they do make me wonder if I should chill for awhile longer like I did post NYC 08 since that ended up working for me. But the mileage I put in for this marathon was so much greater, the training so much harder, and I felt so much better afterwards and in the process of training that I feel that I don't need to follow what my past history has taught me. Of course if I'm injured a month from now or if I feel beat up in October I'm going to look back on this blog post and kick myself for not listening to my past experiences much as I look back as what I did after NYC 06 as mistakes.
I guess history in all things, running and otherwise, can only tell you so much and you need to find a way to both learn from it but not depend on repeating it. That's why I ran 13 miles on Sunday and it's the same reason I'm taking today off. It's also probably why I am going to "taper" (from practically nothing to taper from) next week for the Brooklyn Half and take another couple days off. I don't think I just put into words anything here that I didn't already know, but at least I got to admit to the world (like everyone didn't know already) that I am a huge nerd and have gone back over my training log mutliple times to add up how many 13+, 15+, 17+, 20+, 22+ mile runs I did in various training periods leading up to past marathons.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Just Keep Running: 2:59 and Beyond
I love to run and I love to write. And I love to write about running.
So as anyone who has had the misfortune (I mean privilege) of reading one of my long e-mails or online posts before knows, this blog is probably way overdue. It hasn't existed until now I suppose because I've been a little hesitant to throw myself out there for the world to read my thoughts---since I'm far from an elite or even great runner and my life story isn't that captivating either I've wondered why someone would want to read a blog where I chronicle my personal running thoughts and experiences. But I've decided to start this blog anyway because I have found myself recently reading and becoming more and more entertained and enlightened by the blogs of other runners like myself. More importantly, like most of us, I am starting this blog for me, so that I have a place to reflect back on all my of my running thoughts and experiences which are currently dispersed throughout cyberspace in internet forums and e-mail inboxes. I plan to keep this blog mostly about running, but the rest of my life and my philosophy on the world are so intertwined with running that this inevitably will reveal much more about my life and personality than I probably realize.
Warning: I am a notorious long-winded typist, but I will try to keep things as succinct as I can in this blog. But not in this first post. I want to get most of my running history out there so I don't have to keep repeating it and reveal it in bits and pieces.
If you want a quick summary here it is: I started running at the end of high school about 10 years ago and I was overweight and slow when I started but I improved a lot. In college I ran 8-10 miles a day for about two or three years and ran a bunch of shorter New York Road Runners (NYRR) races on the weekends. Then before I graduated I started training for the 2006 New York City Marathon and got a lot faster at shorter distances, a 23:54 4-miler in April 2006 was probably the highlight, then I joined a running club, upped my mileage, and speedwork like crazy and ran the marathon in 3:12, which was a bit of a disappointing race. Several weeks later I ended up with a hip injury that while not particularly painful threatened to end my marathon and competitive running career. I tried to get back on the right running track and cross trained like a maniac to stay in shape but I didn't find an approach to my injury and training that worked for me until almost a year and a half later. I ran the New York City Marathon again in 2008 in 3:15, but was much happier with it than the 3:12 given the circumstances and my expectations. After that I was able to introduce greater frequency, total mileage, and more speed back into my running this past winter/spring, which was highlighted by a sub 57 minute 15K and a sub 61 minute 10 mile race. Unfortunately I got sick the week before my spring marathon, the New Jersey Marathon on May 3, but I still ran the best I could on that day, which was a 3:02, still good for my first Boston Qualifying time and a 10 minute PR, so of my three marathons I was still most pleased with it even though my shorter races indicated that something more like a 2:55 could have been in the cards.
Now for the long version and an explanation for the title of this blog.
"Just keep running" is my running mantra. It's what I tell myself when I'm struggling at the end of a hard or long training run or race. It also pretty well sums up how I got to where I am today in running. Finally, it is the first piece of advice that I would probably offer to any runner, new or old. Let me explain.
First, however, I need to address the second part of the blog's title, "2:59 and beyond." Though my long-stated goal for the last year has been to break 3 hours in the marathon, this 2:59 actually also refers to 2 minutes and 59 seconds, the time it took me to run my very first running race, a 800 meters, as a sophomore in high school. I like to remind myself of how far I've come since then from the overweight and out of shape kid who finished dead last in almost every race that spring. That 2 minutes and 59 seconds will always stick with me and I hope it will continue to motivate me and remind me of what hard work and the power of a "just keep running" approach can lead me to.
After the slightly embarassing first track season I "just kept running" consistently every day over the summer, not really keeping track of how far or how fast I was going but doing more and more as my body and mind could handle it. By the fall I was good enough to run with the varsity team in cross country and by the time I graduated high school a year and a half later I had dropped my 800 time down to 2:19---nothing to write home about but still a significant improvement from where I had started. More importantly I had been hooked on the sport of running for life.
So as anyone who has had the misfortune (I mean privilege) of reading one of my long e-mails or online posts before knows, this blog is probably way overdue. It hasn't existed until now I suppose because I've been a little hesitant to throw myself out there for the world to read my thoughts---since I'm far from an elite or even great runner and my life story isn't that captivating either I've wondered why someone would want to read a blog where I chronicle my personal running thoughts and experiences. But I've decided to start this blog anyway because I have found myself recently reading and becoming more and more entertained and enlightened by the blogs of other runners like myself. More importantly, like most of us, I am starting this blog for me, so that I have a place to reflect back on all my of my running thoughts and experiences which are currently dispersed throughout cyberspace in internet forums and e-mail inboxes. I plan to keep this blog mostly about running, but the rest of my life and my philosophy on the world are so intertwined with running that this inevitably will reveal much more about my life and personality than I probably realize.
Warning: I am a notorious long-winded typist, but I will try to keep things as succinct as I can in this blog. But not in this first post. I want to get most of my running history out there so I don't have to keep repeating it and reveal it in bits and pieces.
If you want a quick summary here it is: I started running at the end of high school about 10 years ago and I was overweight and slow when I started but I improved a lot. In college I ran 8-10 miles a day for about two or three years and ran a bunch of shorter New York Road Runners (NYRR) races on the weekends. Then before I graduated I started training for the 2006 New York City Marathon and got a lot faster at shorter distances, a 23:54 4-miler in April 2006 was probably the highlight, then I joined a running club, upped my mileage, and speedwork like crazy and ran the marathon in 3:12, which was a bit of a disappointing race. Several weeks later I ended up with a hip injury that while not particularly painful threatened to end my marathon and competitive running career. I tried to get back on the right running track and cross trained like a maniac to stay in shape but I didn't find an approach to my injury and training that worked for me until almost a year and a half later. I ran the New York City Marathon again in 2008 in 3:15, but was much happier with it than the 3:12 given the circumstances and my expectations. After that I was able to introduce greater frequency, total mileage, and more speed back into my running this past winter/spring, which was highlighted by a sub 57 minute 15K and a sub 61 minute 10 mile race. Unfortunately I got sick the week before my spring marathon, the New Jersey Marathon on May 3, but I still ran the best I could on that day, which was a 3:02, still good for my first Boston Qualifying time and a 10 minute PR, so of my three marathons I was still most pleased with it even though my shorter races indicated that something more like a 2:55 could have been in the cards.
Now for the long version and an explanation for the title of this blog.
"Just keep running" is my running mantra. It's what I tell myself when I'm struggling at the end of a hard or long training run or race. It also pretty well sums up how I got to where I am today in running. Finally, it is the first piece of advice that I would probably offer to any runner, new or old. Let me explain.
First, however, I need to address the second part of the blog's title, "2:59 and beyond." Though my long-stated goal for the last year has been to break 3 hours in the marathon, this 2:59 actually also refers to 2 minutes and 59 seconds, the time it took me to run my very first running race, a 800 meters, as a sophomore in high school. I like to remind myself of how far I've come since then from the overweight and out of shape kid who finished dead last in almost every race that spring. That 2 minutes and 59 seconds will always stick with me and I hope it will continue to motivate me and remind me of what hard work and the power of a "just keep running" approach can lead me to.
After the slightly embarassing first track season I "just kept running" consistently every day over the summer, not really keeping track of how far or how fast I was going but doing more and more as my body and mind could handle it. By the fall I was good enough to run with the varsity team in cross country and by the time I graduated high school a year and a half later I had dropped my 800 time down to 2:19---nothing to write home about but still a significant improvement from where I had started. More importantly I had been hooked on the sport of running for life.
For my first two or three years of college I ran six or seven days a week, usually for about 7-9 miles and my only form of speed work were one or two 4 or 5 mile NYRR races per month. I wasn't really training for anything but the fact that I "just kept running" was significant in itself and just from the consistency of it I did start to get slightly faster at the races I was running. Then I decided I wanted to run the 2006 New York City Marathon before I graduated so I started training more seriously and by the beginning of 2006 had upped my longest runs to 13-15 miles and as a result my race times at shorter distances started to improve noticeably from around a 6:30 per mile pace for 4 miles to just under 6. That summer I joined a local running club and started to train specifically for the marathon, doing speed workouts twice a week and maxing out my longest run at 24 miles and my highest mileage week at 76. In retrospect, I had jumped into things too quickly by increasing my mileage and intesnity from probably around 40 miles per week the year before with no faster running except for weekend races. As I focussed on one big goal race and tried to fast track my improvement and marathon fitness, I also got away from the idea of "just keep running," a philosophy I certainly hadn't sorted out in my mind yet at the time anyway, but which I had just been doing naturally before. When I ran a 3:12 in the marathon it was disappointing largely because my expectations were too high but moreso because I had really struggled through the entire race for some reason and just had a bad day from all the nerves and pressure I felt. Making matters worse I failed to qualify for the Boston Marathon (my backup goal) by less than a minute and a half.
And making matters much much worse I tried to jump back into heavy training too quickly afterwards and I ended up tearing the labrum in my hip and developing a stress fracture as well. Since the labrum is cartilage it basically can never heal and sugreries on it are still somewhat experimental. The good part of it is that a lot of us have tears in the cartilage and may never realize it and it is often the compensating tendons and muslces which actually end up causing much of the pain. The first doctor I saw about it told me to not run any more marathons ever. After the stress fracture healed and I went through some physical therapy I tried to carry on with my running anyway and get right back to where I was running 7 days a week, but even after taking 5 months off from running while cross training like a determined maniac to stay in shape, I was back on the sidelines about 6 months later from when I had started running again with similar hip problems. I finally found a new doctor that was much more positive about my running future and I saw a physical therapist that helped get me back on the right track. More importantly instead of trying to jump right back into training for a specific race or with a specific destination in mind (the narrow miss at a BQ had really haunted me for a year and I wanted to run a marathon and get it so badly but there was nothing I could do about it) I "just started running" again and listened to what my body could handle in terms of distance, speed, and frequency. I continued to do a lot of cross training and long slow runs when I did hit the road and made my way back to the New York City Marathon in 2008 for a 3:15 that was a million times more gratifying than the 3:12. As I look back on it, what got me through those two injury plagued years and back to the marathon was that I at first "just kept cross training" and then eventually I figured out how to "just keep running"again. My hip still got stiff now and then but it felt stronger and healthier than it had two years ago when I was hardly running at all so I decided to keep building on what I had been doing.
Finally, this past winter and spring I could tell my body was ready for some faster running again and I just started to gradually add more miles and more days on the road until I got back up to some 70 mile weeks this spring. Unlike my first serious attempt at the marathon, the only other marathon where I was really able to train how I wanted to (a luxury I didn't really have in the second one, NYC 2008) I didn't follow a set training plan but just ran miles and did tempo runs once or twice a week as I felt like it, the only real structure and set workouts I had were the tune-up races I ran and two or three long progression runs that I planned out. In the end it resulted in my most succesful string of races ever as I set PRs at every distance I attempted which included the 5K (just over 18), 5-Mile(sub 30), 15K (sub 57), 10 Mile (sub 61), and Half-Marathon (sub 1:24). I couldn't live up to the marathon time those shorter races indicated in large part because I got pretty sick the week of my race but on May 3 in the New Jersey Marathon I still ended up with a 3:02, a 10 minute PR, a Boston qualifier, and one of the smartest and relaxed races I have ever run, and far and away the best-paced and most intelligent of my marathon performances. It was also on that day that I really learned how the idea of "just keep running" really applied in a race situation. In the past I had been too reliant on shooting for a goal time or running to what my watch said, but on that day I really didn't know what to expect because of the illness and what my body would be capable of so I "just ran," basically on the principle of even effort and I kept telling myself "just run" and don't worry about what could have been or what's going on with the clock. If I had approached that race differently I think the potential to blow-up and crawl into the finish, missing another BQ in the process, would have been very likely.
So what does "just keep running" mean to me? It means to be patient and listen to my body and that the key to improvement and enjoyment in running is to be able to consistently run and do so injury-free, which in the long run will allow me to continually run further, more often, and faster (up to a certain age) if I am patient enough. There are so many approaches and plans for running, but at the end of the day that is the advice I would give to a struggling or clueless new runner and it's the same advice I would give to a more experienced and speedy veteran who may have hit a plateau or is suffering from an injury. If you are able to "just keep running" year after year it will get you much further than the alternative and sometimes when we try to get too analytical about this sport it can become counter-productive and in the process lose its joy---that is why I have addressed this in my first blog entry, so that when I am looking for guidance or am struggling from an injury or a bad race or training cycle that I will come back to this post first and remember to "just keep running" or to get myself healthy enough again so that I can do that.
That's all folks---I promise future posts will probably be shorter and in most cases a bit less serious and more entertaining to read. Happy running!
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