Building some speed

Good track session tonight, my first one in about 6 weeks.  Trying to build some speed and leg-turnover, so I did 200s and 400s.  The workout was 6 sets of 2 x 200 + 1 x 400 with 200 recovery and 400 recovery between sets. 

200 / 200 / 400
:34 / :37 / 1:14
:36 / :36 / 1:13
:35 / :34 / 1:13
:35 / :34 / 1:12
:34 / :35 / 1:10
:33 / :33 / 1:11

Today: 10M including 6 sets of 2 x 200 + 1 x 400
Tues: 8.3M easy
Mon: 8.2M easy

16-22 Nov

The aerobic fitness is coming back quickly.  This week I put in at least an hour long of running each day.   All runs were at an easy pace with a few strides and a fast-finish to get some turnover in the legs. 

16-22 Nov

Mon: 8M @ 7:03 pace
Tues: 9M including 10 x :30 w/ 1' easy
Wed: 9M @ 6:53 pace
Thur: 9M @ 7:03 pace
Fri: 9M @ 6:50 pace; last 10' at half-marathon effort
Sat: 8M @ 6:57 pace w/ 6 strides
Sun: 14.5M @ 6:55 pace

Weekly Total: 66.5 miles

Just Running

After taking a couple weeks off (okay, not quite a full two weeks, but it felt like it), I'm back to my normal self donning the Asics 2140's and hitting the trails for some easy runs.  No hard workouts or races planned yet, just easy running to establish a good base. 

9-15 Nov

Mon: DNR
Tues: 7M easy
Wed: 8M easy
Thur: 9M easy
Fri: 8M easy
Sat: 8M easy
Sun: 13M easy

Weekly Total: 53 miles

Taking it easy

I tried to take 2 complete weeks off from running, but that was easier said than done.  However, I did make it to 10 consecutive days of no running.  On days 11-14 I got in 20-30 minutes of very easy running.   With the exception of some tightness and a knotty feeling in the right hamstring, the legs and body feel great.  The plan for now is to slowly build my base. 

Here are some race photos.

Marine Corps Marathon - Race Report

In case you're wondering or if you haven't checked the results yet, I ran a 2:41:33 at the Marine Corps Marathon and Armed Forces Marathon Championship.  Army took 3rd Place.  Air Force (1st) and Navy (2nd) both put together a very strong team.  Air Force had their top 4 runners all under 2:30 (team results here) and Navy had the overall race winner of 2:21. 

It's true when they say the marathon is 2 races, a 20 mile run and then a 10k race.  I put in a good first 20 miles and then just fell apart big time in the last 10K.  I'm not sure what really happened.  The wheels just fell off after I hit the 20M mark.  I never cramped up in the last 10K, but my legs did feel like I was carrying 10 pound leg weights.  It could be either that the few up and downhills early in the race took the legs out, or my body and legs just wasn't fully recovered from Berlin.  Probably a combination of both. 

My race plan was to go out slightly slower than Berlin for the 1st half, about 5:54-5:56 pace, and then slightly increase the pace later in the race if I was feeling good.  I did exactly that.  I reached 10K in 36:54 (5:56 pace), 15K in 55:05 (5:55 pace) and the halfway mark in 1:17:16 (5:54 pace).  I think what went wrong for me is that I increased the pace a little too much following the halfway mark.  I ran miles 14-18 at 5:56, 5:52, 5:46, 5:51, and 5:50 pace.  At 20 miles, my time was 1:57:57 (5:54 pace and on track for a 2:34 marathon).  Not long after I hit the 20M marker, the legs started to feel like bricks.  No more sub-6:00 pace for me.  I ran 6:10-6:35 pace for miles 21-23.  I told myself that if I can just hold 6:30 pace for the last 3 miles than I could still salvage a decent marathon.  Of course that didn't happen.  I struggled through the last 3.2 miles in 24.15 (7:35 pace) and finished with my slowest time since 2005 (not including Grandmas which I did as a long run).  I'm still very happy with my overall race despite the substandard time. 

It's now time to rest and fully recover from 4 marathons in a year's period (Oct '08 - Oct '09).  No running for at least a full week, maybe two. 

Amsterdam Marathon (19Oct08) 2:35:37
Hamburg Marathon (26Apr09) 2:34:33
Berlin Marathon (20Sep09) 2:34:06
Marine Corps Marathon (25Oct09) 2:41:33

1 Week till MCM

A week from today I'll be running in the Marine Corps Marathon.  It will be my 2nd marathon within a 5-week period.  The number of weeks between marathons is not something I found easy to deal with.  In fact, 5 weeks is barely enough to get in a complete marathon recovery and then get ready for the next marathon.  If I was running the 2nd marathon just to finish, then I'd say 5 weeks is certainly enough.  However, I'm not putting on an Army singlet to stroll through the streets of our capital.  I'm going to give everything I got on raceday, just like I did in Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, etc.....

The week of training/tapering has gone okay for the most part.  After Tuesday night's track session, I started to feel a little pain on the outside of my right knee.  I initially thought I was coming up with an Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS), which I experienced back in Spring '06.  I took Wednesday off to give it some rest and then tried running on Thursday.  It turned out that the slight pain was actually just below and outside of the knee on the top of Peroneus Longus muscle, mainly some tightness.  I took the rest of the week easy knowing that there's not much fitness I can gain from here on out. 

12-18 Oct

Mon: 4M very easy
Tues: 9M including 6 x 800 (2:33, 2:30, 2:30, 2:31, 2:27, 2:27) + 1 x 400 (1:11)
Wed: DNR
Thur: 5M @ 7:15 pace
Fri: 5M @ 7:12 pace with 5 x strides
Sat: 5M @ 7:00 pace with last mile slightly faster than MP; 5 x strides
Sun: 13M @ 6:53 pace

Weekly Total: 41 miles

Think positive

If Sammy Wanjiru can still be happy after running 1:41 slower in the 2nd half of the Chicago Marathon, then there's no reason for me not to be happy with my 1:26 positive split in Berlin.  But again, he has all the reasons to be happy.  At the age of 22, the guy has ran 4 marathons, won all 4 of them, ran a record in each of them (3 course records and olympic games record), and received $100,000 bonus for one second.  Impressive! 

Speaking of impressive, my Dutch female friend Inge Van Bergen ran an impressive race at the Eindhoven Marathon on Sunday.  She ran a personal best of 2:44:07 placing 4th overall and was the 1st female Dutch runner.  It was a huge PR for her and great acheivement considering she was injured most of the Spring season.  Looks like my fellow Dutch training partners and I are going to have some cake and coffee from Inge after tomorrow night's track workout.  Oops, I actually still have to bring my share for acheiving a PR in Berlin. 

Today: 4M very easy