... because I felt like it! A step in the right direction.
Also, wanted to go further on Lakeshore Dr. South, but Obama's people wouldn't let me pass.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Season's Over
I started this blog as a training tool to keep me motivated during my mileage build-up for the marathon. I always thought there would be a grand recap after I finished-akin to my Alcatraz blog in May. I'm not motivated to write this blog because, quite frankly, I'm not satisfied with my marathon. My girlfriend gave me crap about not blogging for the last three weeks, and I figured I owe it to my reader(s?) to get this out there. In all seriousness, this is long overdue and I should have written it sooner.
I used to think finishing a marathon was no big deal. I still do. Anyone who puts in the miles can will his body 26.2 miles. Every year hundreds of thousands of people in America prove me right. When I started training, I had a very ambitious goal in mind--to break 2:30. I did not accomplish that goal. My goal for this blog is to reflect on why I fell short of my goal, and I what I could have done better to prepare.
The worst thing I ever did leading up to the marathon was race the Chicago Half Marathon. I had myself convinced that I would run the marathon at a modest pace, no faster than 1:15 a the halfway mark, and then do what I could coming home. I showed up at the CHM four weeks earlier with a PR of 1:13, and left with a PR of 1:10:45. My head immediately started wandering to "what that translates to" and I figured around 2:26-2:27. What that translates to, is a 1:10:45 half marathon (5:24 per mile), and what it means for a full marathon, is precisely shit.
My training following the half marathon was not great. I came down with bronchitis a week later, and it never really went away until about 4 days before the marathon. I didn't miss much time from running, but my mileage fell a bit more than I would have liked and I was jogging the miles a little slower than before. The last four weeks of training were: 50, 45, 42, 35. As the mileage got lower, I started getting antsy, but this really had a minimal effect on my running.
Still, I felt great on race day, and lining up, had no aches, pains, or concerns (except the heat, 65 degrees at the start, it would get up to 75 by the time I finished).
I really don't remember every detail of the race but here goes: my goal for the day was to run 17:30-17:40's for 5k as long as I could. I figured the excitement of the day would keep me going. That strategy might have worked really well, except I averaged about 17:15 for the first 20k, and came through two minutes faster than I wanted to. I took a power gel at the hour mark, seemingly without issues at the time. I hit the half marathon at 1:13:02, made it another 5k at that pace, and then fell apart. At mile 16, I had to pull over and hop in a port-o-let for about seconds. Over the next 8 miles I averaged about 6:30-7:00 minute miles, and my body basically shut down on me. I would stop periodically at water stations to make sure I took in sufficient fluids to battle dehydration. With two to go, I made one last stop at the John, and then calculated the pace I would need to run to break 2:40. Fortunately, I was able to will myself home at 6:00 pace over the last two miles to finish in 2:38:53. At the time, I was happy just to cross the line, because I was having serious thoughts of dropping out due to my stomach issues and dehydration.
My friends were phenomenal and really picked me up after the race. The support and congrats provide the emotional boost I needed. The truth is, I am not remotely happy with the last 10 miles of that race, and wish I had a mulligan. 2:38 is a very good time for a marathon, but doesn't satisfy me. That's a completely arrogant statement, but it's true. It's disappointing to not accomplish your goals, even if the results still seem amazing to everyone else. Goals are personal, and regardless of how high or low you set the bar, at the end of the day, all that matters is you did everything you could to accomplish them. That's my comfort. I did everything I could possibly do to get myself ready to break 2:30 for a marathon, but it just didn't happen for me on that day. I have to own that it just wasn't my day. I had some bad luck with weather, got a little over-excited with pace, went for it, and missed. There might be another day.
I haven't run much in the past 2+ weeks, hence the lack of blogs. I'm scheduled to run a 15k in 10 days, but I'm not sure if I will line up. For now, my goal is just to enjoy this wonderful time in my life that is business school, and recharge my batteries. At some point, I will be inspired and motivated to train for something again, but right now, I'm just completely burnt out from running and being "on" for the better part of 2010. My first priority right now is to do great in school, and get an internship for next summer. I'll probably blog sporadically for a bit, but once recharged, I'll be back.
I can say that it's been a phenomenal year. Starting with a 1:13 1/2 marathon in February, to 15:20 at Carlsbad, to a great showing at Alcatraz, winning two gold medals at the Allianz Games, and finishing my first marathon. What a great season! The only race I have left to cross off my bucket list is the Ironman Triathlon... someday.
I used to think finishing a marathon was no big deal. I still do. Anyone who puts in the miles can will his body 26.2 miles. Every year hundreds of thousands of people in America prove me right. When I started training, I had a very ambitious goal in mind--to break 2:30. I did not accomplish that goal. My goal for this blog is to reflect on why I fell short of my goal, and I what I could have done better to prepare.
The worst thing I ever did leading up to the marathon was race the Chicago Half Marathon. I had myself convinced that I would run the marathon at a modest pace, no faster than 1:15 a the halfway mark, and then do what I could coming home. I showed up at the CHM four weeks earlier with a PR of 1:13, and left with a PR of 1:10:45. My head immediately started wandering to "what that translates to" and I figured around 2:26-2:27. What that translates to, is a 1:10:45 half marathon (5:24 per mile), and what it means for a full marathon, is precisely shit.
My training following the half marathon was not great. I came down with bronchitis a week later, and it never really went away until about 4 days before the marathon. I didn't miss much time from running, but my mileage fell a bit more than I would have liked and I was jogging the miles a little slower than before. The last four weeks of training were: 50, 45, 42, 35. As the mileage got lower, I started getting antsy, but this really had a minimal effect on my running.
Still, I felt great on race day, and lining up, had no aches, pains, or concerns (except the heat, 65 degrees at the start, it would get up to 75 by the time I finished).
I really don't remember every detail of the race but here goes: my goal for the day was to run 17:30-17:40's for 5k as long as I could. I figured the excitement of the day would keep me going. That strategy might have worked really well, except I averaged about 17:15 for the first 20k, and came through two minutes faster than I wanted to. I took a power gel at the hour mark, seemingly without issues at the time. I hit the half marathon at 1:13:02, made it another 5k at that pace, and then fell apart. At mile 16, I had to pull over and hop in a port-o-let for about seconds. Over the next 8 miles I averaged about 6:30-7:00 minute miles, and my body basically shut down on me. I would stop periodically at water stations to make sure I took in sufficient fluids to battle dehydration. With two to go, I made one last stop at the John, and then calculated the pace I would need to run to break 2:40. Fortunately, I was able to will myself home at 6:00 pace over the last two miles to finish in 2:38:53. At the time, I was happy just to cross the line, because I was having serious thoughts of dropping out due to my stomach issues and dehydration.
My friends were phenomenal and really picked me up after the race. The support and congrats provide the emotional boost I needed. The truth is, I am not remotely happy with the last 10 miles of that race, and wish I had a mulligan. 2:38 is a very good time for a marathon, but doesn't satisfy me. That's a completely arrogant statement, but it's true. It's disappointing to not accomplish your goals, even if the results still seem amazing to everyone else. Goals are personal, and regardless of how high or low you set the bar, at the end of the day, all that matters is you did everything you could to accomplish them. That's my comfort. I did everything I could possibly do to get myself ready to break 2:30 for a marathon, but it just didn't happen for me on that day. I have to own that it just wasn't my day. I had some bad luck with weather, got a little over-excited with pace, went for it, and missed. There might be another day.
I haven't run much in the past 2+ weeks, hence the lack of blogs. I'm scheduled to run a 15k in 10 days, but I'm not sure if I will line up. For now, my goal is just to enjoy this wonderful time in my life that is business school, and recharge my batteries. At some point, I will be inspired and motivated to train for something again, but right now, I'm just completely burnt out from running and being "on" for the better part of 2010. My first priority right now is to do great in school, and get an internship for next summer. I'll probably blog sporadically for a bit, but once recharged, I'll be back.
I can say that it's been a phenomenal year. Starting with a 1:13 1/2 marathon in February, to 15:20 at Carlsbad, to a great showing at Alcatraz, winning two gold medals at the Allianz Games, and finishing my first marathon. What a great season! The only race I have left to cross off my bucket list is the Ironman Triathlon... someday.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Go time!!
We're finally on the eve of race day and I can finally say I'm feeling great. I have had a really uncomfortable taper, between my "Booth" flu two weeks ago, and ongoing cough, but today I feel ready. I have been leaving the Garmin at home the last two weeks and doing pretty much only easy runs for time, not distance.
Starting Monday this week, I ran 42, 40, 39 (incl 3 x 2 min hard), 38, 30, and 30 minutes. Today I met Rob and Vanessa at 8 am and ran South along Lakeshore one last time. The bike path was bustling with marathoners, and even the elites were out prepping. Merga and Sammy W. were out doing strides on the grass. I've been trying to stride out more this week, hoping that my turnover is still there (it is!), and doing anything possible to get my legs fresh. Today has been a couch day and now Heather and I are going to the Social Network so I can stay off my feet.
Yesterday, we went to the Marathon expo for a couple hours, which was very impressive. I have never actually seen such a big expo at any race event. We scanned all the booths and took free samples of energy bars before buying some marathon swag at the Nike expo. After a "mocktail" event at Booth, we went over to Betsy's (another Booth marathoner) place where she was hosting all the Booth runners for a pasta party! Just like old time.
Tonight, there is a lady in my building who is racing that is hosting a pasta party for runners in the building so we may stop there. Then probably stopping by the free country festival in Millennium Park, then early to bed and a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call. Very excited! 20 hours to go!
Starting Monday this week, I ran 42, 40, 39 (incl 3 x 2 min hard), 38, 30, and 30 minutes. Today I met Rob and Vanessa at 8 am and ran South along Lakeshore one last time. The bike path was bustling with marathoners, and even the elites were out prepping. Merga and Sammy W. were out doing strides on the grass. I've been trying to stride out more this week, hoping that my turnover is still there (it is!), and doing anything possible to get my legs fresh. Today has been a couch day and now Heather and I are going to the Social Network so I can stay off my feet.
Yesterday, we went to the Marathon expo for a couple hours, which was very impressive. I have never actually seen such a big expo at any race event. We scanned all the booths and took free samples of energy bars before buying some marathon swag at the Nike expo. After a "mocktail" event at Booth, we went over to Betsy's (another Booth marathoner) place where she was hosting all the Booth runners for a pasta party! Just like old time.
Tonight, there is a lady in my building who is racing that is hosting a pasta party for runners in the building so we may stop there. Then probably stopping by the free country festival in Millennium Park, then early to bed and a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call. Very excited! 20 hours to go!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Last Speed Workout
Two weeks is too long to go without getting any speed work in, especially since all my runs have slowed now that I'm deep into my taper. After four days of alternating 6,7 mile runs, I set out to do 3 x mile today in faster than race pace, but not threshold--no use in injuring myself. My left glute is still a little sore so I also didn't want to over extend there.
I jogged 2.5 miles south on Lakeshore, then after a few strides went right into mile 1. I hit a comfortably fast pace right off the bat and didn't want to push it too fast--finished the first mile in 5:08, then went into a 4 minute jog. After I was four miles from home, I flipped and went into mile 2 heading North. I managed to lift a little more and came through in 5:04, then had some stomach problems (not sure why) and stopped into a bathroom before #3. The third leg was going great until about 200m to go when my stomach cramped up on me again so I had to stop. My Garmin said I was 5:05 pace so I'll just call it that. After another pit stop, I jogged the remaining 1.6 miles home and stretched down.
I keep getting groupons and coupons in my mailbox for discounted good and services, so I clipped a massage coupon and got a final pre-race massage following my run for pretty cheap $. My glute is feeling much better and my cough is almost gone, hopefully by mid-next week I'll be 100%. Nice easy day: 2.5 miles warm up, 5:08, 5:04, 5:05, 1.6 miles cool down, 8 miles for the day, 34 for the week so far. Tomorrow is an off-day as I travel to D.C. for a wedding, then an easy 9-10 miles on Sunday and rest up to the marathon!
I jogged 2.5 miles south on Lakeshore, then after a few strides went right into mile 1. I hit a comfortably fast pace right off the bat and didn't want to push it too fast--finished the first mile in 5:08, then went into a 4 minute jog. After I was four miles from home, I flipped and went into mile 2 heading North. I managed to lift a little more and came through in 5:04, then had some stomach problems (not sure why) and stopped into a bathroom before #3. The third leg was going great until about 200m to go when my stomach cramped up on me again so I had to stop. My Garmin said I was 5:05 pace so I'll just call it that. After another pit stop, I jogged the remaining 1.6 miles home and stretched down.
I keep getting groupons and coupons in my mailbox for discounted good and services, so I clipped a massage coupon and got a final pre-race massage following my run for pretty cheap $. My glute is feeling much better and my cough is almost gone, hopefully by mid-next week I'll be 100%. Nice easy day: 2.5 miles warm up, 5:08, 5:04, 5:05, 1.6 miles cool down, 8 miles for the day, 34 for the week so far. Tomorrow is an off-day as I travel to D.C. for a wedding, then an easy 9-10 miles on Sunday and rest up to the marathon!
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