Training 12/14-12/20

Last week was a tough training week.  On Tuesday, I did 5 x 1200m and progressed each lap, hitting 74, 73, 72 for 3:39 on each one.  The thing that has been building my confidence in doing these workouts is that there are only a few days between them.  On Thursday, Conrad and I met in a cold rain to do a 5 mile progression.  Conditions were absolutely miserable, and we were delighted that both of us showed up to make it less miserable...or at least be miserable together.  I wanted to start out comfortably around 5:20 pace and progress to 5:00 pace, and we did nearly just that, hitting 25:55 total time.  On Saturday, I did 8 x 800m before heading up to NJ with Beth for my cousin's wedding.  I had just enough time to squeeze in a 2nd run on the treadmill at the hotel before the wedding.  I ran on the treadmill and clipped along at 6:15 pace, then got ready.  Then Beth and I danced at the wedding.  Sunday, I got up as early as I could to get a nice 2 hour long run in NJ-to get back in time for brunch.  I was exhausted after the weekend, to say the least.  I don't know how I do it sometimes.

I saw Terrel on Monday-our last couple of sessions have been breakthroughs for my body and mind.  I have begun to learn how to access the parasympathetic state, which is allowing my body to receive the massage and no longer resist it.  I am experiencing much more effectiveness from it this way, and my body feels more whole from the work.  There are muscles that are extremely tight, and others more loose.  With continuous work eventually I think all those muscles can become more loose, and I will feel as close to perfect as a runner can feel.  That is what I feel I am achieving-near perfection of the body.  To get every single little piece, the details, all together is what enables a runner to run completely up to that line, and push towards limits.  

Below is my training from 12/14-12/20.      

Monday: AM: 5 miles/PM: 5 miles

Tuesday: 5 x 1200m w/ 400m jog between: 3:39, 3:39, 3:39, 3:39, 3:39

Wednesday: AM: 15 miles/PM: 6 miles

Thursday: AM: 5 mile progression with Conrad: 25:55: splits 5;17, 5:14, 5:13, 5:06, 5:03

PM: 4 miles

Friday: Drills + 3 x 300m sprints @ 95% (48 seconds each)

Saturday: AM: 8 x 800m w/ 400m jog between: 2:28, 2:25, 2:24, 2:23, 2:23, 2:23, 2:23, 2:22

PM: 7 miles

Sunday: 18 miles

Total: 96 Miles

Training the Body + Mind

After the 12K Championship on 11/15, my coach and I sat down and talked about where to go from there.  Things are always interesting with my running, I'll say that.  I have a solid built up foundation of marathon training from the late summer/fall, and one thing I have noticed is that it has made me even tougher/stronger physically than before.  The amount of workouts I have been able to do during the week now are something I never could have done years ago.  It's like the marathon training just makes me super strong-and I have the foundation to handle the amount of intensity later on.  While my volume isn't crazy high right now, it doesn't need to be.  But I've still been coasting around 95-100/week-I'm pretty comfortable with that combined with hard speed work.  My long runs aren't very fast right now, but they don't really need to be either.  The track work, threshold, even sprinting and other sharpening stuff is what I am working on now.  We'll continue to work on my racing sharpness all the way towards April.  We're basically in quality phase now, after the base from the fall.

Training the Body and Mind

I have begun working with Terrel Hale(http://www.georgetownsportsmassage.com/), who is a fantastic sports massage therapist and who also specializes in Active Release Techniques and Active Isolated Stretching.  Terrel knows the level of running I am at and am trying to get towards.  He is working with me on practicing breathing and the parasympathetic state.  The parasympathetic state is where the body is letting the massage do the work-which is hard for me to do!  It takes time.  I am learning more methods of training myself to relax my body, and to focus on my breathing.  I am also taking this focus towards mentally visualizing what a certain pace might feel like, and visualizing achieving my goals.  My coach and I have talked about this too.  Days after I see Terrel, I feel so much more fluid and more efficient on my runs.  The reason I would recommend Terrel is that he cares about your goals.  He knows what I am trying to achieve and because I am serious, so is he.  Ultimately, I know the combination of hard training, my coach, massage, diligence, and mental training can help me achieve my ultimate potential as a runner.  I am approaching the highest level of dedication the athlete needs in order to get the most out of everything.  I now have all the pieces that I must begin to use to put together.  If you are a serious athlete who is serious about achieving goals-and your potential, contact Terrel.  Please check out his website: http://www.georgetownsportsmassage.com/.    


The past few weeks of my training are below:


11/30-12/6:

Mon: AM: 5 miles /PM: 3.5 miles
Tues: 2 mile warm up, 4 x 1600m w/ 400m jog between: 5:20, 5:07, 5:00, 4:59, 2.5 mile cool down
Wed: 16 miles
Thurs: AM: 2.5 mile warm up, 3 mile tempo: 15:24, 2 mile cool down /PM: 7 miles
Fri: AM: 6.5 miles /PM: 2.5 mile warm up, 8 x 100m sprints @ 95%, 2.5 mile cool down
Sat: AM: 2 mile warm up, 16 x 400m w/ 400m jog between: 
72, 72, 70, 70, 71, 70, 71, 71, 72, 70, 71, 70, 70, 70, 70, 71. + 1.5 mile cool down
PM:  7miles
Sun: 20 miles

Total: 100 Miles

12/7-12/13:

Mon: AM: 5 miles /PM: 4 miles
Tues: AM: 1.5 mile warm up, 8 x 800m w/ 400m jog between: 2:27, 2:27, 2:26, 2:26, 2:26, 2:25, 2:27, 2:26, 2 mile cool down
PM: 3.5 miles
Wed: 15 miles
Thurs: AM: 2 mile warm up, 5 mile tempo: 26:04, /PM: 7.5 miles
Fri: PM: 4 mile warm up, 4 x 200m sprints @ 95%, 31, 31, 31, 30, 3 mile cool down
Sat: AM: 4 miles
PM: 2.5 mile warm up, 11 x 600m w/ 400m jog between: 1:48, 1:47, 1:46, 1:46, 1:46, 1:46, 1:46, 1:46, 1:48, 1:47, 1:47, + 2 mile cool down
Sun: 20 miles

Total: 95 Miles

USATF 12K Championship: Fuel in the Fire

USATF 12K Championships

Alexandria, VA

Place: 25th

Time: 37:37

Pace: 5:02

It came back.  That hunger.  That fuel.  The zone.

The US 12K Championship went better than expected.  I think if it was 15K it would have gone even better.  I wasn't sharp enough to go faster but I was able to maintain a solid 5:02 pace for 7.5 miles.  It was a good effort that broke me free of the long marathon training just behind me, and I felt like I could improve on that 5:00 pace range I was running, under 5:00 pace with a little more sharpness.  I also knew this was something the marathon training had produced-a newer form of myself, hungry to run fast now with the long running to back me up-even with an unfinished marathon-the training was still completed.  I was also happy about the place.  To snag 25th in a championship race is really solid and I am proud of the way I competed.  I noticed I felt hungry for more after.  I felt a yearning to work on my zone.  15 kilometer, 10 mile, 13.1 mile racing.  My sweet spot.  I immediately began to feel like I could build a lot off this race.  And I was enjoying it.

It's time to get in my zone.  I talked to Roland over the phone over how good I felt during this race, and how I feel like this spring I am ready to do some serious damage in the 15K-13.1 racing zone.  I feel strong, recovered from the defeat in Chicago, and rejuvenated with a spirit full of fuel.  I feel it inside.  I have it.  I just need to go out there and use it! 

We talked over my racing schedule, and I contacted a man named Richard Clark Fannin, thanks to my good friend Jerry Greenlaw.  Richard is the director of the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon, and on January 3rd, 2016 he has put together an Olympic Trials Qualifying Project-a shot for US athletes to achieve the grueling 1:05:00 standard.  Just because he's simply awesome, he has a pacer, top US runner Tyler Pennel, who will run the sub 1:05:00(4:57 pace) standard, and so many great runners are running this.  It's too epic to pass up, so I decided the hell with it and go for it.  I do not have super high expectations-1:05:00-the Olympic Trials mark is a tall task.  I ran 1:07:29 2 years ago this coming January.  BUT, with numerous 1:06 guys in the race, there is no doubt there is a chance I could PR...and I do have a shot.  Hell, if I feel good running 1:05 pace, of course I'll go for it.  But my ultimate goal is to get the most out every race and my training-whatever that ends up being.  There will be some differences from last year.  There will be no concentration on 5K PRs next spring, unlike last year when I got into the 14:40's for the first time.  That was good last year but change is good.  You have to change things up to continue to develop.  There are 4 major races between January and April I am now looking at.  The outlook on the schedule is below.

January 3: Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon Olympic Trials Qualifying Race
Jacksonville, Florida

March 12: USATF 15 Kilometer Chamionships    
Jacksonville, Florida

April 3: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
Washington, DC

April 30: USATF Half Marathon Championships
Columbus, Ohio

After the spring will be a targeted endurance segment, followed by the return to marathon specific training for the fall towards Marine Corps-with the intention to win the damn race.

This week I am racing the Turkey Chase 10K as a workout.  I just want to run to win.  Then it's back to more workouts heading into 2016.

Dream on.  Train.  Find Your Strong.

-Sloane

Visualization

"It's the hardest thing in the world to believe in something." - Steve Prefontaine

October 25, 2015
Drum drum drum drum drum...  The drummers at the 14th street bridge played along as the leader in the distance came into sight.  I watched the leader, and eventual winner of the Marine Corps Marathon run by.  While I was out on a mission to cheer on my runners and clients I coach, I was also studying the course and the top runners in the race.  I rode my bike downtown and really studied the course, the hills, the ups and downs and flats.  Marine Corps is a fair course.  "Go Brian!", I cheered on my friend Brian Flynn.  He looked good-in shape.  He went on to grab 3rd place in 2:26-high, which impressively was actually more of a training run he was using for the California International Marathon, which he will race in early December.  The winner went on to run 2:24.  Brian and I have run identical races in almost every distance-we both have run in the 14:40's for 5K, 30:xx 10Ks, and 1:07 Half Marathons.  We go back and forth cheering each other on in various races throughout the year.  We are few of the Montgomery County runners left in our high school class of 2001 still training hard at this sport-he ran for Damascus, I ran for Quince Orchard.  We were never the state champions-we were good enough to make the all county teams.  Most of the other good runners(and runners that were better than we were) from our era stopped running after college, got injured, or got busy with life in general-kids, jobs, etc.  Brian and I weren't great runners in college(I was really not good at all), but we have gotten a lot better because we have stayed with the sport of running, continuing to train over the years, running 100+ mile weeks, for whatever reason.  You can call it addiction to competition, or training to find out one's limits.  Or passion to fulfill potential.  I think it makes us better people as a whole.  I always smile when I get a text from Brian if he is in town to go for a 20 miler together.  We'll run low 6's like we always do-and complain together about tough weather or whatever.  But we'll get it done.  No excuses, and that's why we keep getting better.  I think we motivate each other that way-we know we both are still at it and keep going, even though we don't run together that often.  I then saw Dickson Mercer, a GRC runner who ended up finishing a strong 16th.  Dickson has given me a lot of advice about the marathon and he has seen a lot of my improvement since 2009.  He is a very knowledgeable runner in the sport.  So, it was great to cheer on these guys.  It was a great day for spectating.  My runners did well, and my top marathoner, Marcus Jones, ran a PR of 2:50 to grab 53rd overall.

After a tough weekend in Chicago, I took a little bit of a break for 2 weeks.  I still did some light running and cross training(road biking), and it felt good to just relax and get my legs back underneath me.  This week, I began to feel more like myself.  Roland and I had a really lengthy conversation about the next steps and where I am in my overall fitness and development.  As I said in my last post, there is a lot of fitness gained from the training cycle despite the marathon not going as planned.  We agreed that doing a race like Marine Corps would give me a really good chance to win.  "If you start thinking about going into the race with the intention to win NOW, you will have the mental edge," he said.  He went on, "Let's work on winning the local race first, then move on to one of the big international races again.  Marine Corps is the perfect set up for you."

I think during the conversation, we found the answer perhaps to what I need to really do going forward, as explained below:

While the training cycle was a success, there are areas I need to improve in.  I need to run both faster AND slower.  "We need to get you to run faster on your quick runs, but ALSO slower on your longest runs."
Roland went on, "You got a little excited during that 26 mile run, and ran it a bit too quickly.  I think that cost you the race in Chicago."  Deep down, I knew he was right, but I also knew that I am getting this piece by piece.  Perhaps the only way of figuring this out was to push the envelope.  It's always been my style.  My first goal was to master the 26 mile run in training, and I accomplished that...it was just a bit too quick.  Roland understands that, too-sometimes it takes piece by piece.

But also....I need to run faster.  "You've gotten comfortable running 5:30's in training, we need to get you to run like, 5:15's for some of these quick 16-20 mile runs. And you'll have to really bust your ass on these runs, it won't be easy, but it will also stimulate to run the longer runs slower."  I've kind of gotten stuck in the 5:30 pace zone for the quick runs.  The other piece to this is lengthening the long runs to 28-30 miles, and that perhaps would help me to run the "shorter 16-20" runs faster as well.  Perhaps they both will help each other.

So the next step in training might be instead of running 5:50 pace for 26, would be to stick to low 6's for the distance, and whatever pace makes sense if I lengthen the longer runs up to 28-30 miles.  But then if I can run 5:15 pace for the quick 16-20 milers, the range extends from lets say 5:15 for the quick runs to 6:15 for the longest runs.....instead of what was 5:30-5:50 for this cycle.  The difference is 1:00/mile vs only 20 seconds/mile difference.  You see what's happening here though, Roland and I are starting to talk about paces and times that at one time seemed impossible or unrealistic-and now somehow this looks achievable to me.  Yes, I'll have to bust my ass.  Roland will raise my mileage 10 mi/week(which actually is only an 8% increase).  We'll shoot for 110-115 per week as opposed to 100-105 per week during the endurance segment over the winter, and 130 per week as opposed to 120 per week for the marathon peak.  The speed workout volume will increase as well.  This all seems doable.  "You're ready for it," he said.  "You are ready for the highest level in training."

The other thing that is happening, is that I am faster in all aspects of the shorter distance training and speed workouts.  I've done stuff like 3 x mile in 4:40 a piece or pace cut downs like 2:30/2:15 800 splits.  I am finding that 4:50's is becoming more tempo like effort now...which used to seem to be 5:00's.  Moving forward, Roland is giving me a sharpening 3 week period leading up to the US 12K Championships.  We talked over that it would make sense to do the race, since I have been feeling good this week.  This week, October 26-Nov 1, is the first week I felt really good in a while.  On Tuesday, I did 6 x 800m in 2:25, 2:25, 2:23, 2:24, 2:23, 2:23, with 400m jog recovery.  On Wednesday, I did a hilly 15 miler in Boyds.  It poured rain and I got soaked on my climb back up the arduous hills.  As I climbed the hills, I found myself visualizing winning Marine Corps.  On Thursday, I did a 3 mile tempo in 14:55 at the AU track.  Splits were 4:59, 4:59, 4:56.  Saturday will be 8 x 600m.

The trials of miles, miles of trials...

Adaptation & Development

April 2002, Lynchburg College
I was racing in the mens 10,000m track race at Lynchburg college, wearing my Virginia Tech uniform, struggling to maintain a 5:30/mile pace.  My goal was to crack 35:00.  My friend, who I still train with occasionally, Brian Flynn, ran the 5,000m earlier and was cheering me on.  At mile 4 though, I unfortunately dropped out.  I was unable to maintain the pace, and there was nothing I could do about it.  I angrily went over to the fence, and stupidly kicked it.  Brian and I still joke about that.  I thought to myself, Am I a runner? I can't even finish this race!  I cannot break 35:00 for the 10K, why do I keep trying?  A few years later, I rolled through the 10K split in 34:20 during a hilly half marathon in Williamsburg, VA.  I went on to finish in 1:13:13, a personal best in only my second half marathon, at a 5:35 pace.  This was 2005. That same year, I also ran my debut marathon in 2:38:48, at the same time my 5K PR was a sub-par 16:17.

Present Day

By 2014-2015, after years of hard work, I've been able to get my body to race 5K in 14:49, 10K in 30:43, 10 miles in 50:56, and the 13.1 distance(my current best race) in 1:07:29-a 5:08 per mile.  I've even gotten my 1 mile time down to 4:21, certainly not my event.  Hard work pays off.  Plain and simple.  There is a correlation in my recovery improving and the amount of mileage I've been able to handle year to year. I used to be able to not run much more than 2,000-2,500 miles/year.  In the year 2014, I ran 4,200 miles.   And this year, I am on pace for 4,500-4,700 miles, an overall average of 90 miles/week.  So, whenever someone questions my mileage, I just smile back.  There is no doubt the higher mileage correlates with my times dropping faster and my strength improving.  I am a big believer in high mileage if your body can handle it.  And it is clear my body can.  So why haven't I been able to master racing the 26.2 distance?

Several days after my failed attempt at the Chicago Marathon last Sunday, I have had some time to analyze my struggle with the marathon but also my progression as a runner(as a whole, as explained above).  My experience with the race I believe has been more of an adaptation issue to race the distance at my capacity.  I think I almost had it this time around, because I felt closer than I ever have before to be able to race those final miles, but it just wasn't quite enough.  The adaptations are happening though, I feel them.  My body feels them.  5:30's do not really feel like hard running anymore.  They have become aerobic miles for me now.  I have been able to push the aerobic threshold higher, but at the same time, the adaptations haven't completely occurred yet.  What I need to continue doing is basically keep working at it, and not get too down when I cannot follow through completely in a race.  One of my friends, Dickson, mentioned to me I might be a bit more of like a Kenny Moore/Jeff Galloway/Charlie Spedding type of runner who benefits from doing over-distance training runs of 28-32 mile runs.  I feel like I am ready for that next time around.  This cycle I mastered being able to run 26 in training and that was part of my goal this season since last year I struggled with that.  A lot was accomplished during this cycle.

During dinner with my coach, we talked about the next steps.  "You still have another level to jump to."  he said.  I knew exactly what he meant.  He went on, "I haven't given you the whole thing yet, the training has another level.  Your body can take what few can."  What we talked about was increasing the amount of intensity(and therefore, volume) as well as the amount of overall volume(mileage) in general.  They go hand in hand.  We talked about the benefit of doing 28-32 mile runs in training, which we completely agree about doing.  This method of running longer than the race itself seems to have worked for me for other races too.  My best half marathons I have done brisk 20 milers in training-this is aerobic support.  It's all about the aerobic support.  This is what I studied when I coached myself, the methods of Brad Hudson's aerobic support training-I learned this and how to apply it to my own coaching.  It's what got me good.  The combination of Lydiard style and the knowledge of Hudson seems to becoming bread and butter for me.  I am a workhorse, and as I train and train, I eventually become bulletproof.  The marathon is a very hard event for me to master, but I think my body can figure it out, because I seem to respond to the training and it only makes sense that at some point I might be able to become bulletproof enough to run straight through the wall.  The real question is, when that happens, what is my potential?  I have yet to know this.  But first, for me, the challenge of the marathon for me is that it won't let me push through-yet-even though I want to.  Like Batman fighting tirelessly at Bane in Nolan's film, the marathon seems to always break me despite using all my strength.  But, there is a way.  I must become stronger than the distance itself.

To fully achieve potential, you have to push right up to your limits.  Right up to the edge.  You can't go past it though, because you'll step into the injury zone.  I have concluded that maybe somehow if I could have forced myself to finish that race Sunday, I am convinced I possibly would have injured something, very likely tearing a muscle since my legs were wrecked.  The reason I am so good at staying uninjured is because I learned how to avoid them, which I learned through A LOT of trial and error in college.  I had to learn when crossing that line was not a good idea.  On Sunday, the adaptations weren't there, and I knew it once my stride changed immediately and I was forced to stop.  While I push my body to the absolute limit, I also stay within those limits so it is not doing more harm than good.  Once the body is ready, we stay focused on the task at hand and push our limits.

After taking 3 days completely off this week, I felt "the itch" to run again and while my legs were a bit heavy, I felt good running easy on the trails of Cabin John for 51 minutes.  Then, at the end of the week, I headed out for a nice easy 10 miler on the gravel roads of Poolesville, MD.  It was one of those runs when your own thoughts came together.  I suddenly felt like I was on the right path....somehow, I knew, that things were headed in the right direction.  I thought about my racing schedule next year.  I sure am not doing Chicago again next year, that's for sure.  I thought about how much I love the Cherry Blossom race in DC, and got excited thinking about that next spring.  The DC races are awesome, I thought.  I always do well in the DC races.  I know the courses.  My pace quickened a bit.  Suddenly, I realized something.  Why do I keep flying out to Chicago each fall when the race is right here, right in my own backyard, waiting for me this whole time?  If the odds fell my way, this is a race I could possibly even win..  The Marine Corps Marathon.

-Sloane

The Unknown

I've run some awesome races in the 1 mile, 3k, 5k, 8k, 10k, 10 mile, 13.1 mile over the past 2 years.

If only I can run just one awesome race in the marathon.  I surely can coach others at the distance!  Why am I not performing well in the marathon too?

If there are frustrated milers, then there might as well be frustrated marathoners.  I consider myself one hell of a frustrated marathoner at this point.  It's got me quite perplexed after today, as to why I haven't been able to push past the wall in this race.  The frustrating thing today is that I feel like I've tried everything at this point....things like different nutrition during the race, drinking more water, starting out slower...yes I even tried starting out slow for once today.  Didn't work..

This sounds ironic, but perhaps not getting injured is my curse.  Every good marathoner I know has either had some major surgery etc.....because they push past the limits of their bodies.  But perhaps I don't....perhaps it's something I intend to avoid and I am able to run 120 mile weeks and not get hurt.  Wait, this doesn't make sense at all...  this also makes it appear like I could run the marathon well.  Appears so... But I hit the wall today, hard.  So hard in fact, that I couldn't even jog it in, because I was certainly on pace for a huge PR and thought "well try to run it in at least"....couldn't even do that.  It's not mental.  If someone put a gun to my head to keep running  I literally would have tried and failed miserably by falling over.

I even started off extra slow this time(though I never thought that was an issue in others that I have hit the wall in-I think at least today validated that).  I started off almost too slow.  I let hundreds of people pass me, and I gradually worked into my pace.  I felt comfortable, really comfortable.  I felt like I was just going for a run!  The thing that gets me about this race is how comfortable I felt today.  I felt great!  I passed A LOT of people during the race...and I never felt like I went over that red line.  Even when I hit the wall, my aerobic system was fine!  But suddenly it was my legs.  My legs quit on me at mile 21 and I had to walk.  As if a lightning bolt struck my legs all of a sudden just went to a shuffle and then just like that they were done....as if the workout was over.  No more stride, nothing.  You could have put a gun to my head and told me to keep racing and I would have been dead.  I tried to run again but it was no use.  It was over.

  I've used different nutrition during marathons too...I found the powerbar gel blasts work best for me now(at least in training during that 26 mile run I did...which was an AWESOME run!!!).  I've run some great races the past 2 years and have PR'd in distances 1 mile to the half marathon since 2014. But in the marathon, I'm stumped.  I got sick last year(whatever that meant...bad luck?).  I've thought of other things-maybe I am over-training?  Too much mileage but yet my body can handle it?  Maybe I am just not ready to race the marathon yet(I'm 32 though!-wtf!)?  Maybe I shouldn't do tune-up races(like va beach which was disastrous)?  This has happened to me before I started working with my coach, so it's been there before, this is very familiar to me.  I only have my coach to thank who has helped me reach new levels in workouts and PRs this past year, and I adjust things based on how I feel as well so we're on the same page.  It's a good team effort.

Is it tapering?  The last 4 weeks were 98, 100, 75, and this week was 70-ish.  My high mileage weeks were 120, so I felt pretty well rested from this taper.  Perhaps I need to pound the pavement more in workouts instead of hitting softer surfaces?  I did a hard 15 miler on the road, but I did an 18 and a 20 both fast on the towpath.  But I also run 50% of my weekly mileage on roads....but that's not hard running...

In all honesty I'm completely puzzled at this point.  I'd be interested if there is anyone out there(who has run well in the shorter distances) who has FAILED miserably at this distance 10+ times but then knocked one out of the park and what they think worked/didn't.  I know too many people who are unsatisfied with their shorter distance times but for some reason can just kill it in the marathon.  It's crazy to me some people I know can practically double their half marathon pace.  I also know a lot of good marathoners who run the race well tend to have gone through some very tough injuries.  I do not get injured...don't ask me why or how but I have figured it out somehow...but maybe I subconsciously am avoiding pushing my body past its limits so I can stay healthy?   But that doesn't make any sense...I am certainly pushing myself in training and other races.  Diet?  I try to eat as healthy as I can.  I think diet would contribute to all my races too, not just one.  And I feel healthy.  I don't know...you can see I'm searching for all kinds of explanations here....but maybe there is no explanation.  Or that it's just the way it goes.  If I run well in the shorter stuff, I won't run well in the marathon.  Maybe I need to wait until I start to get slow in the shorter stuff...because right now that sure ain't happening.  I have run a PR in the 1 MILE this year.  GEEZ!

I do know that I love the training for the marathon, and it does seem to help my other upcoming races afterwards.  I think even if I decided to not race marathons anymore, I would still do the training for them because it would benefit me to race well in the other events.

But as a 1:07 half marathoner and someone who can handle 120 mile weeks and 26 mile training runs, I refuse to believe that I am not cut out for the marathon.  I just haven't been able to figure this damn race out.  I want to believe I can run and not hit that wall.

I guess the only way of knowing what you can achieve is to try.  Try to reach into the unknown and see what you can pull out of it.  I am determined to still master this race, because I think I can.  But I need to look into what it will take for me to run a good one.  

9/13: Marathon Training Run

Today validated that much of the hard work is paying off in my training.  I did the "distance" of the marathon today.  Last year, I attempted this run, and only I failed miserably at it.  The last 5-6 miles I really struggled.  So I really wanted to nail this run this time.  I knew it would give me confidence for the marathon race next month.  To actually race this distance, is quite a work of art.  A friend of mine did a similar training run, doing the distance in 2:34 one month before he raced a 2:24.  He believes it really helped him, and my coach also began training me this way last year when he started with me.  I think this year I have begun to adapt well to his training style, and the results are certainly showing.  I've had occasional "off" races, but I've had very good races and a consistent pattern to my training that is developing my running engine to a higher threshold.  Today, I woke up to a cool, crisp breeze and the weather was pleasantly not hot and humid.  After training in much of these arduous conditions, not to mention a terrible half marathon race last weekend in va beach that was completely full of humidity, I was pleasantly surprised by the cool and less humid weather.  The Va Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon last weekend was just plain awful.  I was a complete idiot for one thing-I went out wayyyyyy too fast and underestimated how humid it was.  After a 5:02 first mile, I went through 5K in 15:54, 10K in 32:24, 10M in 53:12, and I crawled home in 1:11.   It felt somewhat like a hard training run, so I tried to stay positive about it.  But I was pissed and bitter, the conditions were terrible.  Humidity is awful-I actually think I can handle heat pretty well though(just look at the rockville twilighter result when it was scorching that evening).  But I told myself that it was a lesson to start out slower especially in really bad conditions.  I think also though I was a bit tired from all the training I had been doing.  That week was a down week mileage wise-but I still did a 3 mile tempo earlier that week in 15:03, which I felt good about, but certainly I knew going into the race that I'm trying to run the marathon well here, not the half.  I had also done back to back 3 x 120 mile weeks in a row-the highest consistent volume I've done.  The mileage during the race week was 70, which felt really nice to recover a bit-it was a much needed break.  Going into this week I did easy runs until I felt a bit more "normal" again, according to my coach.  Then the attempt would be made on the 26 mile training run today.

I woke up this morning to pleasant weather-it finally cooled off(FINALLY!!), and there was a nice breeze in the air as the humidity cleared.  I drove out to Whites Ferry, to where my favorite 10 mile loop was.  I was to do 2 loops, and then add on an out and back 6 mile.  This was great because I could loop back to my car, grab water/fuel and keep things going.  I went alone.  I needed to do this alone.  I mentally visualized the way I should run a marathon race.   Patience, patience, patience.  Start out slow.  Build.

I started out gently, and gradually let my body naturally build into the pace.  I was able to start out mid to low 6's, and kept low 6's for the first 10 miles, coming through 61 min.  The second loop I started running faster, going through the 2nd 10 miles in 57 min, so it progressed really well.  I was amazed at how efficient I ran.  The last 6 I couldn't believe how strong I felt, and did an out and back along the rolling dirt road, finishing the run in 2:33.  I think the last 6 miles I felt somewhat like He-Man when he got his sword back(yes for those of you youngsters reading, this is cheezy, but hey, this was epic if you grew up in the 80s!):

2:33.  Shit, that's a new PR, isn't it?  I thought to myself.    The run came out to a bit over 26 actually, so I might have damn ran the exact 26.2 distance-at least as close as possible.  At any rate, I consider this an unofficial new marathon PR.  But I think this just tells me how now I am beginning to catch up.  Perhaps I can race a 2:22 next month.  I can't get caught up in the trials pace(2:18), I need to run my own race if I am going to conquer this.  I must start out slow that first mile.  The mental training is now what I must do.  The physical is mostly done at this point.  I have a quick 20 miler next weekend, and then the taper begins.  My coach has trained me well the last year.  Now I must mentally train myself to relax and run my own race.  This is the most important part of running, to enjoy it.  It truly is a journey.

-Sloane