I know this is supposed to be a running blog but.. 1:46 PM

Does it get much cuter than this? Seriously!

Week 2 Post Eugene 2:47 PM

Mon 5.0 @ 8:04

Tue 5.0 @ 7:39

Wed OFF

Thu 7.0 @ 7:09

Fri 6.0 @ 7:46

Sat warmup 2.0 @ 7:06

Sat 10K RACE in 37:48 (6:05mpm)

Sat cooldown 2.0 @ 7:40

Total: 33

Pretty blasé week for me. Like I said in my last post, I had planned on jogging a half marathon on Saturday but after my legs were still completely toasted on Monday (8 days after Eugene!) I decided to bump it down to the 10K. The race totally sucked and I packed it in big time after I lost 3^rd place (took 4^th overall). I’m not even counting it as the mild 7 second PR that it may be because my Garmin measured the course at 5.99 miles. There is no way it should be that far off.

My legs are really coming around this week and I might throw in a set of 400s with 400 recovery jogs on Thursday. As I’ve never done a 400/400 workout before how many sets do you guys think I should start with? 6? 8? 10? Also, I’m also ordering a pair of Hyperspeed 3’s from road runner sports today to wear in the big sub-5 challenge.

Recovery and Future Plans 1:20 PM

So far recovery has been "intense". I took an entire week off following the marathon out of necessity. I really kicked back on this off week and cut out all lifting/core work as well. I did swim 3 times. I also ate like crap, and managed to put on a couple pounds, which was actually quite enjoyable.

I believe I have minor strains in the soleus muscles of both left and right calves. I remember my calves starting to go about 15 miles into the marathon and I guess this is what finally came of it. This may be the one and only time I really don't mind dealing with a minor injury. I've been icing/stretching/foam rolling it daily.

Monday: 8 days post marathon
I went for a 5 mile run on Monday and was absolutely amazed how shredded my legs still felt. My calves were VERY sore and to my surprise my quads were still toasted. Amazing!

Tuesday: 9 days post marathon
Despite the rough go at it Tuesday I felt better on Wednesday and stepped out for another 5 miler. This run went much better although my calves were still a bit tender. This really got me to thinking about recovery runs being beneficial to recovery vs. full rest. I'm still on the fence on this issue.

Wednesday: 10 days post marathon
Swam 2400!! yards today. I'm trying to be really conservative here folks. I felt like I could easily go out and run today but I reeled in my desires and went for a swim. My swimming is feeling really strong lately. Kind of makes me want to try a triathlon sometime.

Rest of the week:
I'd like to end with 30+ miles this week. I'll probably try for 7 on Thursday and 6 on Friday. Then, depending on how everything is feeling, I might run the Famous Potato Half Marathon. I don't have a ton of great things to say about this race but it looks like a decent course this year and I like to support the YMCA. We'll see..

Future Plans:
As much I tried to skirt around the issue of Boston the week after Eugene I could not get it out of my head. Everyone was constantly asking about it and I kept saying "I'm not thinking about it yet. We'll have to see." What a crock of shit. You've all heard the reasons before in countless other blogs of those who are trying to BQ or those who have BQ'd so I won't list them again. I'm in for Boston 2010. I've been scrounging around the web for deals on hotels, looking at the course profile, thinking about how to emulate that in my training. Basically the whole gambit.

As a small sidebar, I still adamantly maintain that I did not get into marathoning to get super fast or to BQ. I got into it simply because I love that feeling about 5 miles in when you are just floating. And I love teaching my body to do things that I *really* used to think were completely crazy. Oh. And I love eating.

Now that is over with, I'd like to take a crack at sub-2:50 in the fall. Currently, I would be too nervous to try this at Boston because I feel that Boston is not a PR course. After getting injured last summer and having to pull out of Portland I have some unfinished business there.

Finally, I did not fold nearly enough races into my buildup leading to Eugene. I plan on hitting at least a couple extra races this summer to flush out some stale PRs.

So here is the long term plan in all its glory:

Sawtooth Relay - June 13 - This is purely for fun, especially because my wife and I can run on the same team. We did this in 2007 and had a blast. This year should be especially interesting as we are sponsored by runningskirts.com so expect some product reviews as well as lots of interesting pictures come June 13th.

Main Street Mile - June 26 - I'm stoked about this one. We have a little sub-5 minute challenge going on at RWOL. A 4:59 is a HUGE stretch for me. I'd like to get some mile training in but Portland training starts May 31st. If I do get any in it will be minimal.

Missoula Half Marathon - July 13 - The logistics of making the drive from Boise to Missoula might be tough on this one. I had a great experience last year and would like to come and support the race as well. I'd also like to take a shot at sub-1:20.

San Francisco 1st Half Marathon - July 29 - Very tentative. I'd like to go down and visit my sister and run this race with her. Again, work and money might be the deciding factor here.

Portland Marathon - Oct 4 - Main goal for the fall. Gunning for a sub-2:50

114th Boston Marathon - April 19 - Uh yeah. Boston.

Eugene Pics 7:49 PM

Eugene Marathon RR - It hurts so good. 7:38 PM

Eugene Marathon Race Report

Training summary

I've uploaded my training xls log here for anyone interested.

The 18 weeks leading up to Eugene have been my strongest training period to date. I averaged around 73 mpw and peaked at 83 mpw. I had several minor injuries pop up and caught a nasty head cold, but I played it smart. I took most Sunday’s off.

I dealt with a crippling SI joint injury this summer when I came off the Missoula marathon too aggressively. (Note to self: don’t be a dumbass. Take a couple days off). Not running for nearly a month sucked. However, it forced me to focus on a 10k and a couple half marathons this fall in a relaxed training cycle. I was very anxious to get back into the long easy miles of marathon training again.

I took slightly steeper than normal taper coming into Eugene. It was nothing unheard of. But I let it get to me. I lost so much confidence that I almost just wrote off the race. Just another case of taper asshat-ery. I also did not drink coffee the last week of taper hoping a cup on race morning would give me an extra boost. Perhaps it helped a little, but it contributed to feeling very run down the week before the race.

Pre Race

I do not have much to add here other than we flew into Portland Friday afternoon and stayed with a friend. Saturday at noon we caught a ride down with a friend to Eugene and stayed at the host hotel. The weather forecast looked bad. We were going to get wet.

My wife and I hit the expo, and then chilled in the hotel room for a bit. We then headed down to a Q&A session with Ritz and Brad Hudson. This was freaking rad. Actually meeting Ritz and hearing about their training first hand was really cool. And man, Eugene knows running.

Trying to be as awesome as Ritz

I slept about 6 hours the night before the race, which is excellent. I got up 2.5 hours before the race and hit a bagel with peanut butter, 32 oz Gatorade, and 1.5 cups coffee. Next time I need to eat earlier.

We were a little late getting down to the bus partly because the ominous looking weather was not exactly enticing. I started getting nervous while I was waiting to get on the bus with 40 minutes to race start. Everything ended up working out fine. We got to the start with about 25 minutes to spare. I checked my stuff, made my way to the most colossal line of porta-johns ever assembled at the start, and dropped one last nervous deuce. I made my way to the start line and waited about five feet back.

I should mention, about 20 minutes before the race the weather turned PERFECT. It was probably around 50 with a very light (almost non existent) rain and overcast skies. As all marathoners know, this is a big deal.

Miles 1-5

I spent a lot of time getting passed these first two miles. I went out by feel on my first mile. My tentative plan was to try and hit 6:45 min/mile for the first five miles and then work my way down to 6:40s. If at any point it felt too difficult I was just going to dial it down and run comfortably as possible for the first half. I was very pleased when my first mile clicked off at 6:42. The pace felt fast but my legs were comfortable and my breathing was very controlled. I decided to briefly walk through aid stations in order to get enough fluids down (we’re talking 2 or 3 steps to grab the Gatorade or water and chug it). This strategy worked very well for me in these early miles.

Mile 1 6:41

Mile 2 6:37

Mile 3 6:38

Mile 4 6:40

Mile 5 6:47

Miles 6-10

After mile 6 I was done being passed. I had worked into a comfortable marathon pace and was rolling. During this portion of the race I was constantly evaluating how my legs were feeling and how I was feeling aerobically. I still didn’t have a ton of confidence that I could hold this pace for the duration of the race but I was here to lay it all out on the line. I spent too many Saturday mornings trudging through the snow with f’ing screws in the bottom of my shoes not too. (Although, I loved every second of it).

Around mile 7 I had a general feeling of tightness in my legs. I realize this sounds vague. It is a fairly common occurrence during my medium long runs and long runs. I usually walk for around 20 steps and “shake out” the tightness and then I can continue on. I was worried about this stupid phenomena showing up on race day. I tried to relax into my shoes (as ridiculous as that sounds) and it seemed to go away. I think my extremely brief walking periods through the aid stations helped this as well.

At mile 8 the South Eugene high school organized a cheering section that I could hear over a mile away. I’ve never actually run through a section this loud or energetic before. I had heard it about it, but really did not expect to get much of a rush. Wrong. These people were freaking the hell out! Everyone was absolutely going nuts shouting my name on both sides of the road. I shot out of that cheering section like a bullet. My garmin read 5:58 pace. I quickly reeled that in :)

I was surprised the course was more undulating than I had originally thought for the first 10 miles. The most notable hill was at mile 9 which and was about ½ mile long. This worked out to my advantage because my wife and I spent nearly all of our time training around our house in the foothills of Boise. My long run course nearly perfectly models the first 10 miles of Eugene. I easily reeled in 5-10 people going up the hill at mile 9.

Mile 6 6:35

Mile 7 6:35

Mile 8 6:31

Mile 9 6:42

Mile 10 6:34

Miles 11-15

During this section we finally separated from the half marathoners and things got a lot lonelier. I was hoping to have a pack to work with at this point but I did not. I started unconsciously reeling people in. I would spot a runner half a mile up and just assume they were stronger than me. But, every single time I would eventually reel them in, run with them for a bit, and then ease past. I certainly did not plan on executing this strategy this early in the race but it worked well.

I felt smooth during this entire stretch. The hills were over and it was time to get in some serious rhythm running. The gel at mile 10 sucked and my stomach bothered me for the remainder of the race. I just tried to put it out of my mind. I probably should have eaten breakfast earlier. I crossed the half at 1:26:39. As I ran past the clock 27 seconds over my half marathon PR it occurred to me again that I was really laying it out there, but that just pumped me up more.

I did the “salt-in-a-baggie” thing again just after the half. This is god damn stupid. I need to quit being lazy and experiment with some salt tabs that work. It took me forever to fish the bag out of my front pouch, forever to open it and the salt, as expected, nearly made me puke. Since it took so long to get the salt dumped on my palm I was literally lapping it up as I grabbed a water through the aid station. Man, I received some awesome looks for this one. Rightly so.

Mile 11 6:36

Mile 12 6:38

Mile 13 6:36

Mile 14 6:37

Mile 15 6:32

Miles 16-20

Right at the end of mile 15 we merged with the half marathoners again. This sucked. These were the people running around 8:30-9 mpm pace. I have nothing against that, but weaving in and out of them with a couple close calls blew. When they finally forked off to their finish it was a relief.

At mile 16.5 I realized my calves were starting to tighten. This was on my top 10 list of worries going into the race. The longest run I had done in my race shoes was 13 miles. I had done an 18 in the previous generation of the shoe and figured it would be fine. I absolutely will not do this again. While my calves degraded for the remained of the race they never cramped or stopped me in my tracks. This is a major rookie mistake and I got lucky here.

In the middle portions of this section I kept hearing comments from spectators and aid station volunteers like “wow, look at this guy” or “this guy is looking really strong.” I’m not trying to sound pompous but at mile 17.5 that is a serious confidence boost. Not counting my calves, I got that marathoners-dreamed about second wind from 17-19.5.

Mile 16 6:31

Mile 17 6:37

Mile 18 6:26

Mile 19 6:37

Mile 20 6:39

Miles 21-26.2

Game time. It was time to see if I laid it a little to far out there. I knew it was going to hurt. I was prepared for it. I was fucking tired of people chastising me for running through the pain in training. Now nobody was telling me to stop except my legs.

My final gel at mile 20 was the most wretched thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. My stomach was turning. Suddenly around mile 21.5 my legs started to get very angry. Time to shed all the excess weight. Gloves and arm warmers on the pavement. Accelerating back to a run from my 2-step drink breaks suddenly sucked. Tiny 2 ft undulations in the path suddenly sucked. But I wasn’t slowing down. I was reeling guys in.

As much as they hurt, these miles were not nearly as daunting as my previous two marathons. I had done two 21s and one 22 in training. And 26.2 is just 4.2 past 22. I could sleep walk 4.2 miles. With 2 miles left I knew it was going to happen. I did some sub2:50 mental calculations in my head and was pretty relieved I wasn’t going to be close. I did not want to try any harder :).

That last mile could not have looked pretty. I was doing everything in my power to keep my rhythm. It hurt SO damn bad.

Mile 21 6:24

Mile 22 6:36

Mile 23 6:34

Mile 24 6:42

Mile 25 6:38

Mile 26 6:30

Last 0.2 0:10

2:51:55 Chip Time

2:52:00 Gun Time
39th Overall out of 1713

1:26:39 First Half
1:25:16 Second Half

Note: My splits were not exactly course accurate. I just let my Garmin auto split. Hence the short last 0.2. I think at some point it got confused under a bridge.

Post Race

I was not ok after the race. I pretty much stumbled around in the recovery area in a mixture of extreme nausea and amazement that I had just run a 2:51:55. I was VERY happy when I finally found my wife (and when I regained circulation in my fingers 45 minutes later).

I know this is my race report, but my wife had finished the half right before me in 2:12. I was pretty focused on my race but it helped me to think about her a couple times during. I am so unbelievably proud of her. I shit you guys not, the girl was running 12:45 min/mile in January and almost ran sub-10s during this half (she would have been under 10s but had a 2 minute potty break). Her rate of improvement was amazing. The coolest thing was I got to play coach. And she is hot.

Learnings

This section is for me as a set of notes for next time.

Carbo loading - while carbo loading I ate so much I just felt incredibly bloated and sick the entire time. I think I’m going to pump the brakes a bit next time and try and be reasonable about it instead of mowing down 8 waffles on the first day. I thought I had overdone it and jeopardized my performance. I also felt extra weird during taper week because I cut myself off of coffee, in hopes a cup on race morning would give me an extra boost. The jury is still out on the coffee.

Race shoes – Next time Run at least 1 18 miler and 1 20 miler in your race shoes.

Massage – I will not do a medium or long run the day after a massage again. I will instead follow it with at least 1 recovery run.

Being conservative about injury – A day off here and there didn’t hurt. Even the week I only ran 40 miles because of the head cold turned out ok.

Medium long runs – Dear Mid-Week Medium Long Runs, I hate you. But thanks for helping me run fast.

2000 ft elevation advantage – Boise = 2600ft Eugene = 450. I bet it bought my 5-10 seconds per mile

Brief Eugene Update 8:07 PM

Absolutely destroyed it in Eugene today.

2:51:55 Chip Time 2:52:00 Gun Time
39th Overall out of 1713

1:26:39 First Half
1:25:16 Second Half

Much more detailed report to come.