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I’ve registered for a 50K in February: the Cheaha 50K. To that end, I’ve started running on the trails and will do a few long runs on the race course itself. I’m excited about this race and trail running. Anything new and different adds excitement, and trail running culture seems kinda cool after spending so much time marathoning. And I’m convinced, from watching the example of others, that trail running can make me a better and stronger road runner.
When I saw the local Xterra race came online, I registered immediately. It seemed like a fun thing to do in the first two weeks following CIM.
This race is organized by Dirty Spokes Productions, a local southeastern group that puts on trail races and mtn bike races. Very well put on. Great organization, nice and friendly people.
This was my fourth trail run ever, and only my third in the last few years. I ran a trail in California following CIM, ran on my local mountain bike/hiking trail last week, and ran this race at Coldwater Mountain today. I had planned to just take it easy, get some trail experience, and make it a fun trail run. But then the race started! I started out at a nice clip, fell behind people of similar pace, and just ran. This is why I can’t do a lot of races as “training runs” because I hear the gun, and the gun means RACE!
The first mile or so is a gentle uphill grade until you hit mile 2 then you start a 2 mile climb. My training for CIM, and running Mountain Street (see earlier posts), left me with some good hill fitness and I passed a number of people on the way up. Passing in a trail race is a delicate thing. Single track trails require some etiquette and deference and patience. If you pass too quickly you might fall off the mountain or trip on a rock, or knock the person down. Or become known as the “jerk who passes too rudely.”
This “watching where you run” stuff is new to me. I had to wear my glasses so I could tell rocks from leaves. I never wear my glasses on the road, I can see well enough there to run, but the trail requires less Mr Magoo and more 20/20 vision.
Bottom line is I had a blast. I need to learn the foot strike of the trail runner though. Shorter choppier steps as opposed to smooth easy strides, I think.
I finished the 9.6 mile race in 1;30:32. Was 9th in my AG. And fell in love with trail running.
I love “Dirty Girl” Gaiters and Brooks Cascadia 7s -
I’m in the heart of my marathon taper, and besides feeling incredibly fat and lazy, I also realize that taper is a necessary and vital part of marathon training. As important as the weekend long run, taper is the time where all that hard work from the last few weeks sets in and pays off on race day.
That said, it isn’t fun. My body is used to running an average of 76 miles a week, 84 at my peak week, and now that I’m running a fraction of that my mind and body are fidgety and unsettled. My view of taper has changed since my first marathon in 2009. And these rules reflect my growth as a marathoner and are gleaned from my experiences and those of others.
1)”Taper is not a vacation!” This one was hard to learn. In my first marathon cycle in 2008-2009 I treated taper as a two week easy running, lets-be-lazy break. And I paid for it in the race. In late 2009, when Megan started training me, it was a culture shock, since she had learned quite some time ago that while miles are reduced, intensity is not. Taper is a time to hone what we’ve gained in training, to keep the body sharp, while also allowing it to recover and grow from the training cycle. But we work hard during taper. Taper may, in fact, be some of the hardest mental training you will undergo in a marathon cycle.
2)You WILL feel poopy. Yes, I still struggle with this. Conventional wisdom dictates that as we reduce miles and get more rest we should feel super when we run. But the body is recovering and repairing itself and not all taper runs are going to feel great. Chances are if you feel like superman early in taper, then you might not have a great race because you peaked too soon. Also, while I believe that I can totally feel fat molecules accumulating to my body with every week of reduced mileage, and I walk around all day like fat Albert, saying: “Hey Hey Hey!!!” I am not getting fatter. I just feel that way. So believe that unless you are feasting every night, you will not get fat during taper.
3)Do NOT test your fitness. Trust your training. Taper is not a time to sneak in extra miles, to see if you have the speed you need, or to go crazy and race all your runs before your race. If you have dome your work in the training cycle, if you have followed thru on your workouts and not cheated yourself, then you will be fine. Trust your training and resist the urge to “test” your fitness.
4)REST! For me, taper means I no longer have to wake at 3:50 AM in order to get 10-12 miles before work. I can sleep a little later. This is vital to race performance. Your body repairs itself while you sleep. Sleep more!
5) The Hay is in the barn. At this point in my training, there is nothing I can do to get faster or stronger than to rest and have a smart taper. The hay is in the barn, and the most important thing to do is make sure the hay stays safe. That the kids from down the road don’t sneak up into the hay loft and smoke cigarettes and fool around in your hay, and maybe accidentally start a fire. And then there goes your hay up in flames. So protect the hay with a smart taper and tell those kids to get off your lawn!
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This is my opinion. Mine only. I have no stake in this decision whether they hold the race or not. But we are faced with an ethical and moral dilemma. Does the race go on and show, as Mary Wittenberg has tweeted, “the vitality & spirit of NYC”? Or does the NYRR focus on assisting recovery by helping with recovery and not holding the race, which will require public safety personnel and strain an already decimated transportation infrastructure? Will the thousands of volunteers be able to get to their posts? Will runners be able to get to the start line, much less get flights into the city? Will thousands of runners running through the city hamper with recovery? Or will this be, as Wittenberg asserts, and I am sure hopes, a glorious moment that will show New York resilient and strong?
What is the right decision? No one will know until it takes place. But we all have opinions and we all will second guess whether it is run or not.
I have friends running this race and I suspect my position is not one they will agree with. I hope they do have a good time. I want to run this marathon one day. I think it would be an absolute blast. But I disagree with the decision to hold this race. And I hope they will not begrudge me for saying so.
This is what I wish the NYRR would have done instead of trying to have the race in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
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Dear Runners:
The NY marathon IS New York. It celebrates the diverse nature of our city and it brings thousands upon thousands of runners from all over the world to our streets for 26.2 of the most glorious and festive and interesting miles you could imagine. The race is among the most notable and celebrated in the world. Magic happens in our race every year and will continue to give us memories that we could never forget even if we tried.
But we will not run this year. Hurricane Sandy has wrought upon our city destruction and disconnection on a level that we could not have imagined. Hundreds of thousands are without power. Many lack food and basic life necessities. Still others are blocked from leaving their homes by flooding and dangerous conditions.
Instead of holding our wonderful marathon we will serve our city. We ask the following of our runners and our volunteers, and ourselves:
–Volunteers please instead of serving our race, serve your neighborhoods. Find someone in need and assist them. Find food and water if needed. Serve your fellow New Yorkers.
–Runners donate to Red Cross. Instead of spending money on race swag at the expo or eating in some of the greatest restaurants in the world, send a donation to Red Cross for relief.
–NYRR will distribute the hydration and nutrition we would have given runners during and after the race to those in our city who are hungry. We will use our generators to provide power to areas in need of charging phones or computers in order to stay connected to news from the Mayor’s office about recovery and transit schedules. We will give race clothing–sweatshirts, t-shirts, track pants, caps-to those who need a fresh pair of clothes. And as the year goes by those folks will be reminded of what we did to help them. And maybe they will take up running and run with use in years to come. We will use our resources to help those who have always supported the marathon from its earliest days.
There is no greater thing than to sacrifice in order to serve your fellow human, your fellow citizen. We are sacrificing our marathon for the greater good of our city. We are New York. We will be back next year. But our priority now is to repair and renew the greatest city on Earth. Please do all you can to help. We promise that we will do the same.
Thank you.
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As October comes to a close and I can now catch a glimpse of the beginning of the end of my 8th marathon training cycle, I want to celebrate my biggest running month since I started this crazy sport.
As I’ve written before, I am increasing my weekly mileage for CIM on the idea (well documented in running books, etc) that to really excel in a marathon one has to train at 70+ miles a week in order to build the sort of long distance endurance and strength needed to hold a speedy pace for the entire race.
That said, I’ve had a great month. October is my peak month for CIM training.
This month I ran 325.78 miles.
Not bad for a guy with 2 kids who play different sports, who has a full-time job, and who has to rise at 3:50 AM each day to get it all in!
Run miles for October 2012 This is 86 more miles than last October.
Run miles for October 2011 What’s really cool about this is that my average HR for October 2012 is 6 beats per minute lower than the same time period last year.
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I’m running the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 2 this year. This will be my 8th marathon, and I’ve decided to push my weekly mileage a bit higher than usual. In marathon cycles past I’ve run 4 days a week and peaked at around 60 miles. This year, after a lengthy layoff from marathoning (it’ll be a year between races–and I needed the mental and physical break –> see this post) and a lot of time triathlon training, I am ramping up my weekly miles. Recovery week is 60 miles and a normal training week is around 70-75.
Remember in December when I ran all those days in a row in order to tally 2,500 miles for 2011? From December 21 thru the 31st, I ran 122 miles. Averaging 11 miles a day for 11 days straight proved to me that I was fit enough to handle a high mileage training cycle. Of course, those miles were all mellow zone 2 runs, but my body thrived on them and I missed it when the year was over and I transitioned to triathlon training (which will be vastly different in 2013–trust me). Of course, running more miles per week means a couple of things for me. First, I need to run 5 days a week and cross train on two others. I also need to get up earlier. Triathlon training was nice. Runs were typically 60-70 minutes. I could sleep until 5:30. LATE for me. But if I want high miles, I need to embrace the 4 AM wake up, and rise even earlier for my mid-week long runs.
So far, I’m out of the bed fairly easy at 4 am. I don’t miss runs unless I hear thunder or see lightning. I will run in a torrential down pour if I have to. So getting up has never been a problem. I don’t love it, let’s not be crazy, but I do it because I love running. We will get out of bed at obscene hours for the things that mean a lot to us; for those things to which we are committed and dedicated.
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Here’s the schedule that seems to be working great for me:
Monday: AM: sleep in, PM: bike or swim
Tuesday: AM Tempo run of 11 miles; PM swim or bike
Wednesday: AM early rise for 13-14 miles; PM double run day, 3-4 easy miles (daily total 16 or so)
Thursday: AM hill run of 9-11 miles; PM Double run day 3-4 easy miles (daily total of 13-15)
Friday: AM easy run/zone 2 of 11 miles; PM swim or bike
Saturday: Long bike
Sunday: Long run, with occasional double run later that day of 2-3 miles
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Mileage totals (starting the week of 9/9/12)
Week 1: 55
Week 2: 61
Week 3: 70
Week 4 (recovery): 61
Week 5: 75
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What I see every day on my runs. Stunning Man, I missed it. I missed long runs early in the morning. The crazy sleepy I have as I rise at 4:15 each day. The quiet dark and solitude of only me and the road as I start running. And the great feeling I have in doing 9-12 miles before 7 AM each day. The feeling I get as my head hits the pillow and I fall fast asleep just after 9 each night.
Don’t get me wrong. After racing 5 marathons in a 54 week period in 2010-2011, I needed a mental break. Trying to reach a time goal in each and the pressure that accompanied the prep for those races took a mental toll by last December when I last ran a 26.2. I needed spring and summer to scale back running, explore Triathlon, and rest the mind a bit.
But long runs and heavy legs, I missed you.
Here it is, Friday and I’ve just run 44 miles since Tuesday. I’ll run 16 or so on Sunday. A solid 60 mile week, which is higher than my early marathon cycle mileage total. I’m pushing my peak miles this cycle higher than ever. And I’m excited about this race, but especially the training. I love training for these things. I love it.
California International Marathon. Marathon #8. December 2. Here we go.
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Two years ago, I raced this tri, my first ever, on a whim and at the urging of my friend Megan. We were looking for something crazy that I could do to celebrate a year of weight loss from July 2009 to July 2010. Plus, I had been struggling with a nasty case of ITBS, and needed to find something to burn calories in order to maintain my sanity and to continue losing weight. I started swimming that July, and had been riding the bike for a few months before that. But the idea of a Tri never crossed my mind. Lets just say I was proud of what I did in 2010 but was glad it was over! I’d been in the pool for 0nly 5 weeks or so, and I rode a hybrid bike I borrowed from a work colleague. Fast forward 2 years and Triathlon is something I am serious about, along with my continued passion for distance running. If two years ago, you you had told me that between August 2010 and August 2012, I would have run 6 marathons and completed 4 Tris, I would have laughed at you.
Two years later, this is my fourth Tri, including a 70.3 in May, and I am planning on doing an Ironman in the next two years. My how times change!
Swim (600 yds)
Had a good warm up pre-race, got my “oh crap” moment out of the way. (Don’t we all have one of those before the swim? I know I’m not alone.) My plan was to hit the water pretty hard for 100-200 yards and then settle into a rhythm for the rest of the swim. But I really never slowed down. The swim had a time trial start where you start based on an expected swim finish time. So each athlete starts about 3 seconds apart. I greatly prefer this to wave or all-in starts.
This part of lake Guntersville is pretty shallow and full of plant life and rocks. So you really have to swim right in the water or cut your feet. Not 30 strokes into the swim some plant crap lodged itself on my face and I just couldn’t get it off and I wasn’t going to stop to do so. So looking like a dude in an Alien movie, I kept swimming. Eventually, it fell away.
This was my best tri swim. I held a great line, did solid in sighting, passed a bunch of people, and stayed against the buoys the whole time, almost swimming into one! I held a pace that left me needing to breath every stroke after a while. I didn’t want to emerge from the water knowing I had more to give. I don’t know about you, but there’s a moment in every swim, no matter the distance, where I think: “Is this swim ever going to end?!”
When I emerged from the water I looked at my Garmin, eager to see how well I had done. 15 minutes!!!???? What? No way. No way I swam that segment, THAT slow. I’m not trying to be Mr. Conceited Tri Guy here. I’ve worked my butt off in the pool over the last 2 months and KNOW I did better than this! Of course, that occupied my mind for the first few miles of the bike! I knew I swam better than that. But after talking to a few people who are pros at this and comparing the swim times of AG winners, we think the swim was 50% longer, 900 yards. AG winners finished the swim in the 11:30s. They should be 3-4 minutes faster for 600 yds. It kills me not having a true swim time, but I know what I did and I am very happy with my swim. It was funny, after the race everyone was complaining about the swim length. Even the studs in the front row at transition. Was nice to know I wasn’t imagining this!
Bike (16.2 miles)
The plan for the bike was to split it in 4 mile segments, pushing the intensity higher in each. This is pretty much what I did. I’ve had a couple of good , tough bike sessions over the past few Saturday’s where I had to hold a nice intensity for a long time. I wanted to mimic that “my thighs are burning, and I’m breathing steady but I’ve got strength to give!” kind of feeling. This is a sprint tri, I told myself, don’t hold back. Don’t go crazy, either. Be smart, I told myself. Trust my training. This was the strongest bike segment I’ve ever had. Passing people, holding a solid cadence, strong in aero position. I felt, for lack of a better term, legit. The only people who passed me on the bike were some serious looking bike studs who were flying! Most of whom I would later pass on the run, or see struggling badly! finished the bike in 48:51, about a 19.9 MPH pace.
Run (3 miles)
Approaching the finish (I am NOT heel striking!) The run is my thing. Get me to the run and I’m home free. No drowning, no lake creatures, no flat tires or dropped chains. Just me and my feet! I wanted to average a sub-7:00 minute mile on this run. But early on, I realized I left sub-7 on my bike. I settled in at a pace of around 7:04, watched my form and cadence, and cruised. I felt strong. I was tired and my HR and breathing were elevated greatly, but my legs were doing fine and I was right where I wanted to be. I passed a ton of people on the run. Several people who had yo-yoed with me on the bike and swim were there at the run with me and I passed them all. This was a great feeling. It amazes me at a lot of tris how many people suffer on the run portion, even to the extent they have to walk. Not tying to sound all elitist here, but this is why we do bricks. Hard bricks in the heat. Nothing I did in this race was more intense than that which I did in training. This is the key. At least for me it is. Finished the run in 21:23. A minute faster than the 3 mile run at the June sprint tri I raced.
I’m very pleased with my race. I did all I wanted to do (except the sub-7 on the run) and finished knowing I had given my best, raced smart, and smiled along the way.
In two years I’ve gone from a reluctant triathlete to someone who strongly believes in what the sport can do for me, and having so much fun with it.
Here’s a time comparison. Race distances remain the same as in 2010:
2010 Results
Overall 1:38:11 (86/103 AG)
Swim: 12:30
Bike: 57:21
Run: 25:55
2011 Results
Overall 1:29:28 (13/45 AG)
Swim: 15:06
Bike: 48:51
Run: 21:22
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It’s been a while. About two years, to be exact, since I finished a race or a workout and felt that moment of triumph, joy, relief, accomplishment, so much that I weep and sob.
I was in the middle of a 3-hour bike ride yesterday and listening to the end of Chrissie Welligton’s book A Life Without Limits as she shared the story of her last Kona victory, how she overcame injury, and strong challengers, to push beyond herself, win, and remain undefeated in IM. How as she approached the finish the cheers from the crowd propelled her forward and made her cry, just as it did in her first Kona victory a few years prior. How she felt a new level of accomplishment, having given her all, overcome obstacles, and done something even she wondered if she could accomplish. How she cried as she approached the finish and held that tape high over her head in victory.
I was weeping on the bike. Imagining that feeling. Oh, I want that feeling again. The last time I had it was at the end of a run in the Spring of 2010. I was just starting to see growth in my speed having lost some weight and transition to Vegan lifestyle. That day I ran 13 miles in under 2 hours. At that point in my running it was a hug milestone, given that the last 13.1 I had raced took me 2:49. I had achieved something that seemed so elusive, so unattainable. I stopped my Garmin at the end of the run and wept on a curb in an empty cul-de-sac. Before that I had wept at the completion of the Disney 26.2 in 2009, after accomplishing something I never would have imagined. That one most of you know about. Funny, i was mocked for it–still am. Weird thing is, we NEED these moments. We are human. Whether tears of triumph, or tears of sadness, they are cleansing, purifying. They allow one to release pent up anxieties and emotions that accumulate over a training season.
So there I was, on my bike in the Alabama heat, crying along with Chrissie Wellington, celebrating with her, yet envious of that moment. Needing that euphoric, cleansing, an emotional crescendo, of sorts. I imagined myself finishing an IM. How would I react? What would I do? Could I even lift my arms by that point? Do I have the courage to try?
How do I get it again? BQ? IM? Something I’ve yet to imagine?
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My baby boy is 11 today. Goodness where did the time go!? This is my baby. And now he is a PRETEEN!
Here’s the crazy and great and wonderful thing about Hudson. He is a tough-as-nails kid who will give you all he has. But he has a heart for other people, a heart for kindness, a heart for fairness. Here’s a classic story and one that really made us realize this kid is so special. Halloween 2008. We are at a friend’s house and the adults are socializing while the kids take turns handing out candy. Hudson’s turn and some bigger kid walks up and grabs a handful of candy out of the bowl instead of waiting for Hud to give him a piece. So now the candy is gone and Hudson is bothered. There are more kids coming, but no candy to give. So my son, who was 7 at the time, takes HIS OWN CANDY and gives it out until there is none left. Do you know what this does to a parent? To see a kid hand out his own candy–the equivalent of gold to adults–so other kids can have a happy halloween???
This is Hudson. Soft, sensitive, and loving. A kid who still sleeps with a stuffed animal, but when we wrestle he takes no prisoners and works so hard to beat me, and he is so close. The kid is relentless. Hard as nails exterior, mushy and loving heart on the inside. I’d like to be more like my son…
Happy Birthday my beautiful, beautiful boy!
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I got some grief for not adding “content” on this link. So, go read this link. It is cool.
Star NFL Player Arian Foster Goes on Vegan Diet, Calls Forks Over Knives a “Great Film”.
This Running Life 