Almost Half Way There

2013 has been a very strange year for me. I did not start running again until April of this year. I spent April and May jogging and doing core work. 4 mile runs at 10 minutes per mile just to get my body back into dealing with the stress of running. I spent the next couple of months losing the 10 extra pounds that I gained wallowing around all winter with a feed bag attached to my head. As July came my legs started to feel like being a runner again and the 7:30 miles started to comfortably come from me again. August came and went. I spent the month just head down running through the hot and humid days and night. September, Now September always surprises me like a bi polar girl friend. The first crisp and cool days of September come and my body wants to go fast. Mile repeats start at sub 5k pace for the first time all year, 400 meter sprints feel effortless and then... You have an awful shitty run and you lose all confidence in your training. I should be aware of this cycle by now, but even though I know that this is what motivates me to work harder, I still crash hard every single time I string together a couple of bad days. Am I ready? Exactly one month from now I will run my first race since my Chicago marathon debacle. I have spent many months doing physical therapy, and slowly, carefully, and methodically I have been getting myself back into shape. I am still not 100% injury free, and I'm about 2 months, 5 long runs and 8 track work outs away from being back in half way decent shape. My mind has played tricks on me since last October and I seriously have contemplated calling it quits after this year buying a new mountain bike and just letting go of these insane ideas of being a runner. The funny thing about this is that no matter what I do, and how damaged and broken I feel I can not let go. Last Wednesday night I did a mile time trial on the track at the end of a 1600/800/400/400 meter workout and started to feel the snappiness that fills my soul with hope. I have good days and I have bad days. Last night after 7 long, tight and crooked miles I wanted to light my shoes on fire and just give up. Tonight, I am sure I will feel the same, but I am willing to push through. Is it all about just pushing through the low points? We will find out soon.

Insanity

Its officially marathon training season and my body is finally ready to face this challenge head on. To make matters a little bit more interesting I have also started an Insanity circuit to supplement for the missing core work in my life. After months of physical therapy I have learned that my core being weak is one of the main reasons I wind up injuring myself. The past two weeks have been brutal. I am finding that the Insanity program needed to be tweaked just a little bit so that I do not destroy my legs overworking muscles already taxed by running. As of right now I feel stronger. So far.. So good. I will report back.

The Hope of Getting It Right Just One Time

What a long slow and boring climb it has been for the last few months. Since April I have taken the time to rebuild my fitness, work out some imbalances and re learn how to listen to my body. I am convinced that the life of an athlete is 1 part work and 9 parts maintenance. 7 days a week I spend running, 3 days a week I spend doing physical therapy, it seems like I am eating all the time, and doing strength and flexibility drills in between meals. I am just your average runner who puts in the time and energy to be ready on race day. There are no prizes given for effort, only for winning. I am the man in the middle who puts one foot in front of the other because I still can. 16 weeks from now I turn 40. 16 weeks from now I toe the line of another marathon in hopes of getting it right just one time. What getting it right means is beyond me, but for now, for the next 3.5 months I will continue to chase my great white whale, in hopes of finding some sort of meaning to all this. Let the games begin.

The Long Run

Just ended my second full week of my 21 week marathon cycle. My long runs are easy and only 13 miles, but they are such a perfect way to gauge my fitness. My mind and body have become weak during my 2 month break with no running. I can not focus on my breath, my thoughts run wild as I labor towards the end of my 2 hour easy runs. Its a game, a practice and something we learn to perfect over the course of 21 weeks. I know this, so with all my weakness, I continue on without fretting too much over this. My stamina runs are my simple mp/hm pace 1.5 or 2 mile runs. Nothing of real substance yet, but this will change as July moves in. My form is atrocious and I need to get back on the track in a couple of weeks to correct this. Nothing much else is going on. I am just taking my time and trying to stay healthy.

Post Injury

May 29th. I am back. After months of nursing myself back to to good health my body is ready to cooperate. I was about 3 weeks away from calling it a year and packing in my ideas of racing this year. My secret weapon was to obsessively focus on rolling out my I.T. bands 3 times a day. Like magic, it worked. I am 100% knee pain free, and my strange hamstring soreness has pretty much disappeared completely. I just completed my first full week of training with a good 13 mile long run thrown in for good measure. I can not tell you how good it feels to be able to say that. I'm ready to get back at it. So relieved and excited to be able to race again. I was sure I was going to the glue factory this time. I am in a perfect place to start my marathon journey. Its 21 weeks away from my goal race, i am out of racing shape, have a few extra pounds on my frame, but well aware of how much time I have to rebuild myself into a marathonin machine. Oh and for those extra pounds I have some really fun workouts planned for the next 5 months. I have given myself the entire month of June to re-condition myself back up to 40 plus mile weeks where I will begin my 16 week marathon plan. This is the first time in years that I will not be grinding myself away this spring and summer racing 5 and 10ks before starting a marathon build up. I am hoping, that what I lose speed wise will translate better into good strong limbs and a hot stoked fire of an endurance monster. I keep on reminding myself that I have a billion sustainable steps to go until October 20th. I am re charged, but will continue to hold the reins tight until the final 13 weeks of all out training. During my Chicago training last year I made a few mistakes. The intensity of my speed work was too high, and the frequency of my finish faster long runs were too many. This year I am going to be precise about things. I will not be running 5:30 mile repeats on the track. My track sessions will be plentiful but not of the same intensity of the last few years. My long runs will be longer, slower and more precise. When its time to throw in a 10k pace last 3 miles of a 20 mile run it will be planned. Just because I felt like it is no longer a game plan. Like a surgeon I will be precise. Keys to this year will be more long slow fat burning long runs at an easy pace. My body needs to learn how to properly and efficiently burn fat without turning into a wet puddle. My long runs are going to be at the core of all my training. The 3:15 long run will be the staple of my endurance training. All summer we will practice running for 3 hours and 15 minutes at an easy pace. I will not be using gels or any other supplemental carbohydrate drinks until the last 6 weeks of training. I must make my body into an efficient machine. I plan on hitting higher mileage than last year, and perhaps seeing a 4 hour effort in there at some point. We will see how things go. My marathon pace runs will be starting in July at around 8 miles and building to about 25k. My tempo runs will be good short effort of lactic acid building delights. I have many ideas to work out before July, but without getting too far ahead of myself I will just stop here.

Target 40

Its the end of May and I am just now allowing myself to believe that I can be back in shape and healthy by October. I am a doubter, obsessive about the injuries that have hobbled me in the last 6 month, but this past week has given me hope. I have been able to put together a 6 day training week without locking up or limping home. I am aggressively stretching and rolling out my legs, have started to eat like an athlete again, and am laying of the endless pints of beer. Last night I ran my first hard workout in months. Today I will do an easy warm up / cool down and then shut down this circus for 2 days and allow my body to recover. Im going to try to do a 7 day cycle this year followed by a full day off and an easy day of mountain biking. This seemed to work for me last year. The one thing that I am going to modify is the frequency of my long runs towards the end of my training cycle. Weekly 20 plus milers left me depleted by the end of September last year. I am going to try to do more 20 milers this year but space them out with at least 10 days apart. I am getting ahead of myself here, but I feel like its time to turn the ocd back on and just go for it. June is my last month of basic conditioning so i will be adding a few extra easy miles to my weeks next month. When July comes I will being my climb back up the mountain mileage wise. I plan on peaking at 75 miles this year and not running to many sub 6:30 miles during speed work sessions. The endless 5:45 mile repeats last year were over kill. For marathon training I think more 6:20 mile repeats will be better than burning out with 5:40s. We shall see.

9 the hard way

We have had quite a bit of snow in the last week making training outside miserable. I missed my 2 easy runs last week, but I feel I made up for that today. Too much snow to do my 10 mile run outdoors so I moved inside for one heck of a workout. I get very creative with my workouts when I run indoors. I can't easily disappear into the zen of the run surrounded by other people and running on a machine. This progressive workout helps me deal with efficiently processing lactic acid and becoming more gritty when I am tired. I should name this beast sometime. After a 9 minute mile warm up I turned up the heat and progressively ran The next 4 miles in 7:53, 7:47, 7:37 and 7:22. From here I took a 5 minute break to stretch and hydrate and then moved on to a 2 miler at 7:18 and 7:07 pace. Took another break Then did a mile @ 6:47 pace. I finished the workout with 4x400 meter repeats @ 5:55 pace with 1 minute rest between them. A very satisfying run indeed. Got in some good mileage but also was able to make a strong workout out of it. up 1 mile 4 miles progressive 5 min between 2 miles half marathon pace 5 minutes between 1 mile between 10k and half pace 5 minutes between 4x400 @ 5:55 w 1 minute rest between cool down