17:29.1 - that would be 1 second slower than my PR.
Pre-Race - Definately could not be described as in the "Zone". I had been fighting a bug all week - still running - but unable to put in anything but easy running. Even though I had set this race as a goal race in my 2008 goals - specifically - I wanted to win my age group - as it is THE local race of the year in my little suburb and I thought originally it would be neat to have a good performance on my home turf - but I really was not very psych'd up about the race with the bug and curriously it just seems like whatever the outcome - the recent marathon overshadowed the race so much - it just became not very important.
Ok - enough of the excuses/justifications etc.
During the warm-up before the race - I happened to notice a local competitor in my age group. Neat guy with story much like mine - ex high school runner who recently got back into running in his 40s and now is at or near the front in most races - focuses on shorter races up to 1/2 marathon and runs them faster than me - at about the predicted times I should run based on my recent Marathon - however I have yet to demonstrate that in a shorter race. He is not really so local - maybe 20 miles across town in another suburb. I finished 2nd to him in several races the prior year over in his neighborhood and I was a bit surprised to see him venture into mine - it seemed clear the master's title was not to be mine before the race even began - maybe I'd get lucky.
So I ran the race - I thought I'd start out with the lead group and see how their pace felt and let the race develop from there. When I glanced at my Garmin after about 1/2 mile and noticed sub5 minute pace - I knew I was a bit outclassed by this group - the local high school cross-country team, in its entirety, decided to run the race - and there are at least 1/2 dozen runner on the team that are pretty good. Anyway - the other guy I mentioned tried to stick with them and I decided to hit the breaks a little and try a more realistic pace.
Ended up running 5:26/5:45/5:49 miles - I could tell in the 2nd/3rd miles I wasn't running "hungry" - just to get it done - not passing or getting passed - just sorta cruzing. I had someone in front of me for the last 1/2 mile or so tempting me to take him down - but I just couldn't find the desire to do it. One guy did try to challenge me from behind and I ended up sprinting in to keep him back or he would have caught me.
Looking at the Garmin data - I'm not even sure I can call it a good VO2 max workout. Other 5k's I've run I've spent a solid 2 miles at >95% max heartrate - for this race - I didn't even get that high the whole race - indicator I didn't put down the hammer on this race. What I find particularly amazing was my final 1.5 miles of the marathon was a 5:30 pace - FASTER than this 5k performance.
Anyway - I did pull down the 2nd place master from the race. The other guy had a great race sticking within about 30 seconds of the lead at the finish - a 10 second PR for him (16:28 I think - faster than even my marathon time predicts I should do a 5k) which he clearly put everything into to get as he had to immediately get oxygen at the ambulance parked by the finish - even with the best performance I could dream of pulling out I couldn't have beat him - so the day was meant to be 2nd no matter my motivation. And I just cannot see pushing a 5k hard enough to end up need oxygen - maybe a marathon - but a 5k just doesn't mean that much to me (he was fine after a few minutes btw).
The race a good workout to kickstart the training cycle going to Boston. Time to start running hard again. 11 weeks to go!!
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Progressive Runs
December I started running progresive runs - I had not done them before so thought it would be a good replacement for some interval work I had on the schedule. I've found the data from these runs to be an interesting way to track my progress. The way I run these is starting with a 10 minute warm-up followed by 5 minutes incremental steps stretching from a recovery pace to a tempo pace. The increments and steps are all programmed into a Garmin Workout so it is done exactly the same each time with alarms telling me continually if I am too fast/slow for the zone I'm supposed to be in. The distance covered in the run is typically just short of 10 miles and the last couple miles are pretty challenging (It's a good workout).
From the chart you can see three pre-marathon progressive runs each showing slightly faster than the prior. Then the Marathon mph vs heartrate data plotted - significantly below the results seen in the progressive runs (for this I credit the Carb Depleat/Load strategy).
Since the race the speed has not yet returned to what is was in any of the progressive runs as can be seen by the partial progressive run about a week after the marathon and the MP miles done 2 weeks after.
Not that that concerns me except it makes a PR 5k this weekend (<5:38 pace) perhaps unlikely until the speed returns - but it is interesting to see how long it takes to recover from a marathon - 3-4 weeks seems needed to get back to pre-race to then start building extra speed. Supports the idea I should not run too many marathons as it will likely just slow me down over the long hall.
fwiw - I thought the data was interesting.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Reflections on Houston
Some time has passed since the race and I am still a bit stunned and a bit perplexed by what happen at the Houston Marathon.
16 minute PR from NYCM to Houston – where did it come from?
Here is my breakdown:
2 minutes – Houston is flatter than NYCM (McMillan calculator for hills).
0 minutes – slowed by crowded start/weather differences etc – I don’t think these much different.
1 minutes – Sandbag difference Houston I think I had 3 more minutes in me vs NYCM I think I had 4, maybe 5 – for NYC some was bad pacing - too fast first 5k.
6 minutes – Marathon pace Improvement from 10 weeks training between marathons (I could measure 10-15 seconds/mile extra speed in my training runs).
That leaves about 7 minutes I really have no logical explanation and came completely unexpected on race-day and I can only attribute to the benefits of the taper to Houston vs the taper to NYCM.
So Reflections fall into four categories:
1) Cutting the Sandbag factor from 3 minutes to 2 minutes – mental factor of the race.
2) 10 weeks of training to deliver 6 minutes faster running.
3) Taper differences that give 7 minutes.
4) Using a heartrate monitor to deliver the unanticipated on race day.
1) The Mental Factor – Although I’m only crediting 1 minute to this – I actually consider this a KEY ingredient to this race. I think the mental battle was also big in helping me accept the surprise speed I had on raceday. There were two principles that rang out in my head from Fitzgerald's book "Brain Training".
- Embrace the Pain - A mindset to welcome pain as an indication I'm doing something right. It's supposed to hurt.
- Run in the Zone
Pre-race - this getting in the Zone started for me days before the race - I would avoid thoughts of contingency plans - I would set goals that fired me up. I found certain words didn’t work in my thinking – like “Conservative” I would have to change to “Controlled” – I can get energized by take it to the edge in a controlled way – but conservative – not so much. I would avoid even thinking the negative side. I even corrected people around me that would start something like "if things don't go as planned" - I didn't what to hear what followed this start.
Race - This is forcing a concentration during the race, knowing I’m running at the edge of capability yet also know I can do it – I’m trained for it, staying in the moment – I was very strict on my mind to only focus one mile at a time – not think about mile 25 or 26 while I’m running mile 20 – just focus on staying strong to the next milemarker. Also I found it very helpful to eliminating distracting thinking like working out math problems or worrying about photo shots or whatever else distracts the mind from concentrating on the race.
2) 10 weeks of training to deliver 6 minutes faster running.
Although this may seem remarkable – it is about in line with the improvement pace I’ve had all year which has been roughly 4.5 second per mile per month of training. That plus getting back a little of the speed I had a month or so prior to New York to me pretty well closes the gap.
I don’t think my training was particularly remarkable or unique from what others do although there were a couple things I’ll mention:
- Focused on improving my form – I really think I have developed a more efficient stride by eliminating a bad habit of overstriding. I’d credit the use of things from “Brain Training” by Fitzgerald around using mental cues while running. Its hard to say how much benefit I’ve got from that in going faster. I do credit the running form change with the elimination of my Plantar Fasciitis pain which I’ve struggled with in both feed since Boston and now has completely disappeared, also I didn’t loose toe-nails at Houston (first time for a marathon) – I think - but am not sure yet - that both of those issues came from overstriding.
- I shifted my focus away from 5k paced track workouts to Marathon Paced workouts. I had overemphasized the 5k workouts going to NYC somewhat inadvertently by blending Daniels Elite training and Pfitz 18/70 plans together without noticing the 5k speed work is in different times. My race times showed better results in shorter races than long so I figured I was good on speed anyway and needed to focus on Strength and Endurance so Longer runs and Faster running was where I decided to focus and not on the track workouts. I was a bit unstructured in my workouts for the 10 weeks sometimes making up the workout as I drive out but generally tried to get 3 hard workout in per week a Longrun weekly (18-23) with 5 MP miles at the end, a Tempo or Progressive run in usually ~10 miles and a Medium longrun around 13-15 with 5 MP miles at the end.
- I do like to use the HRM to check my paces especially for MP pace and Tempo Pace and complicated workouts like Progressives. Someone asked me what paces I use once and I posted so rather than repeating I’ll just link to it:
Heart Rate Targets
3) Taper differences that give 7 minutes.
This one still just makes no sense to me at all. I am just hoping someone else or a few others can repeat this and get similar results to convince me for sure the apparent magical benefits of this. If this is truly from the taper than I cannot expect to have this for tune-up races unless I do similar - I was kinda hoping to break 17 minute 5k next weekend as my Marathon time suggest I should be able to do but if this turbo-charge only comes from the taper - I won't have it because I'm not doing all this for a 5k.
Houston I followed the low end of a plan fat-pumpkin posted as his typical taper and found similar results on weight loss and difficult to maintain MP pace the second week:
Here's my [fat-pumpkin’s] usual "last 2-weeks"
Su - 8-12 medium
Mo - 8-12 easy
Tu - 8-10 easy w/ 4-5 @ MP
We - 8-10 easy w/ 6-10 easy double
Th - 8-12 easy w/ 4-5 @ MP
Fr - 8-12 easy
Sa - 8 mi w/ 7 at MP
------tot 55-70 mi
Su - 7 mi w/ 6 at MP
Mo - 6 mi w/ 5 at MP
Tu - 6 mi w/ 4 at MP
We - 5 mi w/ 3 at MP
Th - 4 mi w/ 2 at MP
Fr - off
Sa - 2-3 easy
------tot 30 mi
Su - RACE
I usually follow the old-school depletion/load scheme & actually deplete for ~10- days before the 3-day load. I can usually lose 4-5 lbs net before the race. That makes it really hard to run some of the MP so I play it by ear and adjust to make sure I don't work it too hard = MP EFFORT rather than absolute pace.
Other Factors:
Fueling Pre-Race and during race was not remarkably different except that I carried 24 oz Accelerade with me at NYC vs just mainly used Gu and water at Houston.
Mileage for NYC was pretty much the 18/70 Pfitz taper mileage – a 3 week taper vs fat-pumpkin’s 2 week.
Both NYC and Houston I did 3 days carb loading prior to race – not remarkably different.
4) Using a heartrate monitor to deliver the unanticipated on race day.
For Marathon Pace – I have combined my experience in prior marathons, Daniel’s Running Formula and data from other runners off MotionBased to set my target at 164 and I still think I can maintain that, or near that if I run without sandbagging.
- For my experience – I was able to maintain 165 average thru ~23 miles in San Diego last year than crashed the last 5k – so figured that might be just a little too high. At Boston I averaged between 161-162 and finished remarkably strong – figured that might be a little too low – so answer between 162 and 165.
-From Daniel’s table 2.2 I can create a formula [0.822+0.09*(VDOT-30)/55] which works well in my vdot range so figuring my vdot potential was around 60 I calc 87% * 187 maxhr = ~163 – same ballpark.
- On MotionBased I filtered to races I knew to be good conditions and sorted out the runners that would post there heartrate data and found several strong race performances in the 87-88% max heartrate range.
- All that together – and me being an aggressive sort – I rounded up to 164 as the target heartrate – I may give 163 a try next race. Each 1bpm for me seems to represent ~3 seconds per mile pace difference so it’s worth nearly 1.5 minutes off the MP pace to me to run one faster if it can be sustained.
- Heat and Humidity factors are the big and not well understood wildcard to me. It should be conservative to use same targets for warm races but I don’t really know how much to adjust up and still be able to hold the distance.
- I’ve heard several talk about the heartrate drifting up at the end of the race – caused by dehydration – I have never been able to demonstrate this in a marathon – not sure why – but for whatever reason my heartrate does not seem to drift up even to the end of the race.
That's it for my reflections today. I'd really like to see someone repeat that fat-pumpkin taper plan and get a similar step change. If someone does it please let me know.
16 minute PR from NYCM to Houston – where did it come from?
Here is my breakdown:
2 minutes – Houston is flatter than NYCM (McMillan calculator for hills).
0 minutes – slowed by crowded start/weather differences etc – I don’t think these much different.
1 minutes – Sandbag difference Houston I think I had 3 more minutes in me vs NYCM I think I had 4, maybe 5 – for NYC some was bad pacing - too fast first 5k.
6 minutes – Marathon pace Improvement from 10 weeks training between marathons (I could measure 10-15 seconds/mile extra speed in my training runs).
That leaves about 7 minutes I really have no logical explanation and came completely unexpected on race-day and I can only attribute to the benefits of the taper to Houston vs the taper to NYCM.
So Reflections fall into four categories:
1) Cutting the Sandbag factor from 3 minutes to 2 minutes – mental factor of the race.
2) 10 weeks of training to deliver 6 minutes faster running.
3) Taper differences that give 7 minutes.
4) Using a heartrate monitor to deliver the unanticipated on race day.
1) The Mental Factor – Although I’m only crediting 1 minute to this – I actually consider this a KEY ingredient to this race. I think the mental battle was also big in helping me accept the surprise speed I had on raceday. There were two principles that rang out in my head from Fitzgerald's book "Brain Training".
- Embrace the Pain - A mindset to welcome pain as an indication I'm doing something right. It's supposed to hurt.
- Run in the Zone
Pre-race - this getting in the Zone started for me days before the race - I would avoid thoughts of contingency plans - I would set goals that fired me up. I found certain words didn’t work in my thinking – like “Conservative” I would have to change to “Controlled” – I can get energized by take it to the edge in a controlled way – but conservative – not so much. I would avoid even thinking the negative side. I even corrected people around me that would start something like "if things don't go as planned" - I didn't what to hear what followed this start.
Race - This is forcing a concentration during the race, knowing I’m running at the edge of capability yet also know I can do it – I’m trained for it, staying in the moment – I was very strict on my mind to only focus one mile at a time – not think about mile 25 or 26 while I’m running mile 20 – just focus on staying strong to the next milemarker. Also I found it very helpful to eliminating distracting thinking like working out math problems or worrying about photo shots or whatever else distracts the mind from concentrating on the race.
2) 10 weeks of training to deliver 6 minutes faster running.
Although this may seem remarkable – it is about in line with the improvement pace I’ve had all year which has been roughly 4.5 second per mile per month of training. That plus getting back a little of the speed I had a month or so prior to New York to me pretty well closes the gap.
I don’t think my training was particularly remarkable or unique from what others do although there were a couple things I’ll mention:
- Focused on improving my form – I really think I have developed a more efficient stride by eliminating a bad habit of overstriding. I’d credit the use of things from “Brain Training” by Fitzgerald around using mental cues while running. Its hard to say how much benefit I’ve got from that in going faster. I do credit the running form change with the elimination of my Plantar Fasciitis pain which I’ve struggled with in both feed since Boston and now has completely disappeared, also I didn’t loose toe-nails at Houston (first time for a marathon) – I think - but am not sure yet - that both of those issues came from overstriding.
- I shifted my focus away from 5k paced track workouts to Marathon Paced workouts. I had overemphasized the 5k workouts going to NYC somewhat inadvertently by blending Daniels Elite training and Pfitz 18/70 plans together without noticing the 5k speed work is in different times. My race times showed better results in shorter races than long so I figured I was good on speed anyway and needed to focus on Strength and Endurance so Longer runs and Faster running was where I decided to focus and not on the track workouts. I was a bit unstructured in my workouts for the 10 weeks sometimes making up the workout as I drive out but generally tried to get 3 hard workout in per week a Longrun weekly (18-23) with 5 MP miles at the end, a Tempo or Progressive run in usually ~10 miles and a Medium longrun around 13-15 with 5 MP miles at the end.
- I do like to use the HRM to check my paces especially for MP pace and Tempo Pace and complicated workouts like Progressives. Someone asked me what paces I use once and I posted so rather than repeating I’ll just link to it:
Heart Rate Targets
3) Taper differences that give 7 minutes.
This one still just makes no sense to me at all. I am just hoping someone else or a few others can repeat this and get similar results to convince me for sure the apparent magical benefits of this. If this is truly from the taper than I cannot expect to have this for tune-up races unless I do similar - I was kinda hoping to break 17 minute 5k next weekend as my Marathon time suggest I should be able to do but if this turbo-charge only comes from the taper - I won't have it because I'm not doing all this for a 5k.
Houston I followed the low end of a plan fat-pumpkin posted as his typical taper and found similar results on weight loss and difficult to maintain MP pace the second week:
Here's my [fat-pumpkin’s] usual "last 2-weeks"
Su - 8-12 medium
Mo - 8-12 easy
Tu - 8-10 easy w/ 4-5 @ MP
We - 8-10 easy w/ 6-10 easy double
Th - 8-12 easy w/ 4-5 @ MP
Fr - 8-12 easy
Sa - 8 mi w/ 7 at MP
------tot 55-70 mi
Su - 7 mi w/ 6 at MP
Mo - 6 mi w/ 5 at MP
Tu - 6 mi w/ 4 at MP
We - 5 mi w/ 3 at MP
Th - 4 mi w/ 2 at MP
Fr - off
Sa - 2-3 easy
------tot 30 mi
Su - RACE
I usually follow the old-school depletion/load scheme & actually deplete for ~10- days before the 3-day load. I can usually lose 4-5 lbs net before the race. That makes it really hard to run some of the MP so I play it by ear and adjust to make sure I don't work it too hard = MP EFFORT rather than absolute pace.
Other Factors:
Fueling Pre-Race and during race was not remarkably different except that I carried 24 oz Accelerade with me at NYC vs just mainly used Gu and water at Houston.
Mileage for NYC was pretty much the 18/70 Pfitz taper mileage – a 3 week taper vs fat-pumpkin’s 2 week.
Both NYC and Houston I did 3 days carb loading prior to race – not remarkably different.
4) Using a heartrate monitor to deliver the unanticipated on race day.
For Marathon Pace – I have combined my experience in prior marathons, Daniel’s Running Formula and data from other runners off MotionBased to set my target at 164 and I still think I can maintain that, or near that if I run without sandbagging.
- For my experience – I was able to maintain 165 average thru ~23 miles in San Diego last year than crashed the last 5k – so figured that might be just a little too high. At Boston I averaged between 161-162 and finished remarkably strong – figured that might be a little too low – so answer between 162 and 165.
-From Daniel’s table 2.2 I can create a formula [0.822+0.09*(VDOT-30)/55] which works well in my vdot range so figuring my vdot potential was around 60 I calc 87% * 187 maxhr = ~163 – same ballpark.
- On MotionBased I filtered to races I knew to be good conditions and sorted out the runners that would post there heartrate data and found several strong race performances in the 87-88% max heartrate range.
- All that together – and me being an aggressive sort – I rounded up to 164 as the target heartrate – I may give 163 a try next race. Each 1bpm for me seems to represent ~3 seconds per mile pace difference so it’s worth nearly 1.5 minutes off the MP pace to me to run one faster if it can be sustained.
- Heat and Humidity factors are the big and not well understood wildcard to me. It should be conservative to use same targets for warm races but I don’t really know how much to adjust up and still be able to hold the distance.
- I’ve heard several talk about the heartrate drifting up at the end of the race – caused by dehydration – I have never been able to demonstrate this in a marathon – not sure why – but for whatever reason my heartrate does not seem to drift up even to the end of the race.
That's it for my reflections today. I'd really like to see someone repeat that fat-pumpkin taper plan and get a similar step change. If someone does it please let me know.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Boston is Next
In searching for the answer to the "What's Next" question. I grappled for a bit and finally just settled for - something would preset itself.
Within what seemed like just a few hours - something presented itself:
Press Release 1/17/2008:
Boston, Mass. – Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion, has entered the 2008 Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association announced today. Armstrong qualified for the Boston Marathon with a 2:46:43 finish at the 2007 ING New York City Marathon. The Boston Marathon qualifying time for Armstrong's 35-39-year-old age group is 3 hours, 15 minutes.
I don't know what it is about Lance - he was a Target of mine at NYCM where he kicked my butt by 10 minutes. He was my Stretch virtual target at Houston - to get a sub-Lance time. And now he's going to Boston. It took me about 5 minutes after I saw this to decide - on 1/17/2008 - I signed up for the BOSTON MARATHON. With our qualifying times - we should both be lined up in corral 1 :).
I'm GOING TO BOSTON!!!! (look out Lance).
Within what seemed like just a few hours - something presented itself:
Press Release 1/17/2008:
Boston, Mass. – Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion, has entered the 2008 Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association announced today. Armstrong qualified for the Boston Marathon with a 2:46:43 finish at the 2007 ING New York City Marathon. The Boston Marathon qualifying time for Armstrong's 35-39-year-old age group is 3 hours, 15 minutes.
I don't know what it is about Lance - he was a Target of mine at NYCM where he kicked my butt by 10 minutes. He was my Stretch virtual target at Houston - to get a sub-Lance time. And now he's going to Boston. It took me about 5 minutes after I saw this to decide - on 1/17/2008 - I signed up for the BOSTON MARATHON. With our qualifying times - we should both be lined up in corral 1 :).
I'm GOING TO BOSTON!!!! (look out Lance).
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Houston Marathon Part 4 of 4: The Numbers
Ok - I had to go play with numbers - it's the engineer thing. First - the Race Results:
2:40:46 Chip Time
2:40:49 Gun
27th Overall of 5564
23st of 3477 men
1st of 575 AG (40-44)
79.6% Age Grade (>80% is considered Nationally Rated)
Masters Crown for 1st place 40+ - Prize $1,500.
Local Masters 1st place - Prize $250
Local Mens 4th Place - Prize money to top 3.
Invited Local Runner for Houston 2009 with 1st place in age group (this was one of my stretch goals for 2008 - essentiall it means it will be free next year, I get to line up in front of everyone and I get personal waterbottles placed for me around the course).
1st Place on the Mileage Game PR List (I little competition I play with a hundred or so other runners).
And best of all - I really think I could have gone faster - by my read looking at the HR/Pace data - I think I had about another 3 minutes in me.
I thought I'd benchmark my time against the active.com Running Rankings and see how I stack up against the database of what appear to be all the major US races.
For 2008 races to date I am 4th for my age group (3 faster runners ran at Arizona R&R) so far.
For 2007 race time 2:40:46 has
87 faster times recorded by a 40-44 year old Male (out of ~40,000 finishers - this is the largest and on average the fastest age group for 2007).
-22 of those were repeats by the same person
-18 of are from athletes from another country.
----
Would be 47th Place in US if it was in 2007
Sub 2:35 would be top 20
Sub 2:30 would be top 10
I'm fishing for my go forward goals and wanted to see how I stacked up.
The most frequently asked question of all:
What is Next?
I don't know. It probably sounds arrogant but I have a little bit of a sense of "I've concurred the marathon" which makes me lean to go find something else - I don't expect that sense will last long as I already seem to be focusing on the 50 or so Masters in my age group ahead of me. But I haven't signed up for another marathon yet. For now I'm just going to enjoy the moment - the next challenge will present itself. Ideas for new challenges are welcome.
To finish this race report - a single word - you must listen for it just after I leave the screen.....Bib 1564 hit "RIGHT" button to see marathoner coming in:
Finish Video
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Houston Marathon: Part 3 of 4: Kudos Questions and Answers
I find these comments to be hugely encouraging and know I will love looking back on these in the future to draw encouragement. Thanks to many for your contrubutions and encouragement both here and over the last year or so.
RT Threads
kayry putting down the hammer!
Houston Marathon Race Report
Comments on Kayry'se Training - Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Runango Thread
Houston Marathon Race Report
Letsrun Thread
HRM Training = 16-minute Marathon PR
RT Threads
kayry putting down the hammer!
Houston Marathon Race Report
Comments on Kayry'se Training - Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Runango Thread
Houston Marathon Race Report
Letsrun Thread
HRM Training = 16-minute Marathon PR
Monday, January 14, 2008
Houston Marathon Part 2 of 4 - FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions (some from others - some from myself).
What was the indication that you COULD run this fast?
I had no indication whatsoever from any race or any training that I could run as fast as I ran yesterday. The fastest any race calculator predicted was 2:47ish and near all my race times aligned to that - 5k, 10k and 30k race performances all predicted 2:47ish. I had programmed into my thinking 164 bpm was my marathon heartrate no mater what the pace. At New York I ran to 164 bpm for about 18 miles and averaged 6:30ish then gave into weakness to give up 5+ minutes in the rest of the race. I went out thinking I'm going to do the same as NYC and push thru that mile 18 weakness - but yesterday the 164 bpm was 6:0X pace - I figured from training I had got maybe 10-15 seconds faster since NYC but I didn't think 20-25 seconds was in the cards - that was not available in ANY of my training runs - it was ONLY there on race day. Only thing I can think of was the taper delivered - I did a 2 week taper - not huge reduction in mileage - still several quality runs - and I went on a 10 day crash diet (minimal carbs - Atkins style) followed by a 3 day carb loading. Netted about 4-5 lbs reduction in weight by the time I raced and I think that gave me the extra speed - I think the rule of thumb is 1 lb = 2 seconds/mile so that seems to be the only explanation that makes any sense to me.
What was my training strategy leading up to this?
I stole shamelessly from what fast runners have done. Several 2:4x marathoners shared minimal emphasis on Speed Work - especially near the race which was counter to what I had been doing following Pfitz who puts the Speed training in the last 6 weeks before the race - I had over emphasized it leading up to New York in November so I figured I'd cut it out completely in training to Houston. All my race performance showed I had better performance at the shorter distances so I figured speed was good - I needed to work on strength and endurance - meaning Tempo/MP and Long runs. Most longruns or medium longruns were ended with ~5 miles at Marathon Pace. Someone asked me what training program I was using between New York and Houston and this was my response:
------------ Training plan 11/25
Training plan to Houston - I am mixing and matching everything and making quite the mishmash of training. Started with the Pfitz multi-marathon training plan - 10 wks between marathons - ramped thru the 3 week recovery period MUCH faster than it advised - as my legs felt I could add mileage. Gave up the day off - typically - making Monday's "Optional" and will probably do mostly as an easy lunch time run. Tailored to add some races I really want to do - two 30k's on 12/1 & 12/9 (first mostly MP pace, second racing). Added a couple miles to the long runs to max at 22. Then adding some fine-tuning type things - no HR Monitor - learning to run by "feel", perceptive queue's from Matt Fitzgerald's book (I get a message/theme per week to focus on to help improve running form - next week is "pounding ground" which is supposed to help me spring off the ground into the next step). Then changing some of the Strides to 400 Repeats - also to help running form - and adding a couple MP miles at the end of every LR/MLR. Also adding "Power Triad" strength training a couple/few times per week. Get all that .
---------------
That was the "plan" but than a little later I learned that many of the faster runners didn't do speed work - or so it seemed - so decided to cut out all the track workouts and whenever I got to a day with one of those workouts in the plan - I replaced it with a Tempo Workout or a Progressive Workout or a Marathon Pace workout instead. I did work on my form a bit although not as diligent as I planned - I got to the point where I looked for a certain feeling in my feet from the impact on the ground - if I could feel any impact in the heal area than I knew I was over striding and I would tilt forward a little to get the impact feeling back to the front of the foot. I did not do the "Power Triad" except once or twice - just never developed the habit. So in summary - dropped the Speed Work completely and focused on Marathon Pace and Tempo Pace and fast long runs.
What was my nutrition/fueling strategy?
For Nutrition during the Taper - I followed what I perceived to be the fat-pumpkin plan posted in a Sub3 thread on tapering. Two week taper with 10 days of minimal Carbs followed by 3 days of minimal Fat/Protien. Night before I had Italian Dinner at 6ish and no solid foods from there to the race. I also took multi-vitamin almost daily and airborne for the last couple days and race morning to avoid the after race sickness I sometimes get.
For the Morning I followed what I'll call the jwd1113(Wally) plan which I learned from him before Boston last year and have been doing for most every race. Morning I woke at 3am (T-4hours) and started downing UltraFuel - I made it thru about 250 g of carbs in that by about 5:00(T-2hours) and I could take no more - the plan was for 300 g + 2 power bars but I just could do no more so stopped at what I got. I also had a cup of coffee about T-45 minutes.
For the race I decided to "live off the course" a line from Waterdog66 - all prior races I had carried fluid with me but none on this race. I had Gatorade or Water at every station which seemed like every couple miles - I think the first couple I took Gatorade then all the remaining were water to help with the Gu. I took a Gu shots at 5,10,15 and double espresso Gu at 20 - someone mentioned the caffeine impact late in the race is better if you don't have in too regular before so I for the last couple days of carb loading I avoided Caffeine except my morning coffee on race day. I planned to do an Electrolyte S-Caps every 5 miles but only ended up taking one just before the race and none during. I also took a couple ibuprofen before the race to help with whatever pain would be coming.
How did the Taper go?
I did a 2 week taper - Mileage dropped from mid 70s typical prior month to mid-50s first week to mid 20s pre-race week. For the whole taper up until last few days I was "depleting" i.e. minimal carbs - I really think of it as dieting Atkin's style (I allowed post run chocolate milk after the hard runs) - all my runs were single digits except one 10 miler which I felt pretty weak by the end. I did two progressive workouts the first week and planned a Marathon Paced run but I bailed on the MP run when I was struggling to maintain 7 mpm pace. I did 3 more short MP runs the last week - first two were at the end of the depleting and were 7 mpm pace - than one after a days carb loading and the pace dropped to where I was used to seeing marathon pace - 6:15ish. Overall I netted about 4-5 lbs reduction from this ending the depletion ~147 - by race time I think I was up to ~150 with the carb loading/hydrating.
How do you feel after the race?
Other than shocked/amazed/in awe and all that. I actually feel surprisingly fresh. I ran 5 miles this morning and it was the easiest post marathon run I've ever had. After every previous marathon - if I ran the next day - it was more of a 2-3 mile shuffle - hardly could be called running - but today - I worked out a few sore spots on the Foam Roller then went for a run - went 5.4 miles at about 7:30 pace.
Do you feel like you gave it your all?
Actually I do not feel like I gave it my all. Around mile 16 I justified to myself a bit of a "settling" compromise. I had run the first 16 scary fast and even though I was looking at my heartrate and KNEW I had run at that EFFORT for at least that long at New York marathon - the pace I was flying scared me a little - although I resisted the temptation to think of a bombing at the end - it was still in the back of my mind. I had what felt like a slow mile (looking back it was 6:20) and after that "recovery" mile - a certain amount of strength returned. It helped a little that a couple people were bouncing ahead/behind/ahead/behind me as I was going thru the internal confusion of how fast to run (a lady going for her olympic qualify time and a guy pacing/helping her). Felling a little refreshed from the recovery mile - I started to push in a measured way - I didn't push it up to where I believed I could run (164 bpm) but settled for a Strong pace - if not Strongest - that mode pretty much continued for the last 10 miles - strong - but not strongest. So post race I look back on the last 10 miles a bit mixed - like I could have done better - a slight amount of regret at that - but combined with increased shock that I could do that well and still feel I had gas left in the tank. When I look at the data - in Boston my heartrate average was 162 and in Houston it was only 160 - I think I pushed harder for my 3:01:01 in Boston in April than I did for the 2:40:46 in Houston.
I've heard mixed reviews about using a heartrate monitor in a race - why did you?
I have not developed a good "feel" for the right pace to run. I still consider myself pretty new to the sport having only run my first marathon 2 years ago and basically got off the couch 30 lbs overweight just a few months prior to that. Every time I try to run by "feel" I find my tendency is to run slower - not believe I can run faster. The heartrate monitor reading gives me factual unbiased data that tells me - "yes you can run this fast". Without it - for me - when I try to "feel" - I seem to convince myself that a slower pace is the right pace for whatever reason.
That's all for now - Not sure what Part 3 will be but there will be one....
What was the indication that you COULD run this fast?
I had no indication whatsoever from any race or any training that I could run as fast as I ran yesterday. The fastest any race calculator predicted was 2:47ish and near all my race times aligned to that - 5k, 10k and 30k race performances all predicted 2:47ish. I had programmed into my thinking 164 bpm was my marathon heartrate no mater what the pace. At New York I ran to 164 bpm for about 18 miles and averaged 6:30ish then gave into weakness to give up 5+ minutes in the rest of the race. I went out thinking I'm going to do the same as NYC and push thru that mile 18 weakness - but yesterday the 164 bpm was 6:0X pace - I figured from training I had got maybe 10-15 seconds faster since NYC but I didn't think 20-25 seconds was in the cards - that was not available in ANY of my training runs - it was ONLY there on race day. Only thing I can think of was the taper delivered - I did a 2 week taper - not huge reduction in mileage - still several quality runs - and I went on a 10 day crash diet (minimal carbs - Atkins style) followed by a 3 day carb loading. Netted about 4-5 lbs reduction in weight by the time I raced and I think that gave me the extra speed - I think the rule of thumb is 1 lb = 2 seconds/mile so that seems to be the only explanation that makes any sense to me.
What was my training strategy leading up to this?
I stole shamelessly from what fast runners have done. Several 2:4x marathoners shared minimal emphasis on Speed Work - especially near the race which was counter to what I had been doing following Pfitz who puts the Speed training in the last 6 weeks before the race - I had over emphasized it leading up to New York in November so I figured I'd cut it out completely in training to Houston. All my race performance showed I had better performance at the shorter distances so I figured speed was good - I needed to work on strength and endurance - meaning Tempo/MP and Long runs. Most longruns or medium longruns were ended with ~5 miles at Marathon Pace. Someone asked me what training program I was using between New York and Houston and this was my response:
------------ Training plan 11/25
Training plan to Houston - I am mixing and matching everything and making quite the mishmash of training. Started with the Pfitz multi-marathon training plan - 10 wks between marathons - ramped thru the 3 week recovery period MUCH faster than it advised - as my legs felt I could add mileage. Gave up the day off - typically - making Monday's "Optional" and will probably do mostly as an easy lunch time run. Tailored to add some races I really want to do - two 30k's on 12/1 & 12/9 (first mostly MP pace, second racing). Added a couple miles to the long runs to max at 22. Then adding some fine-tuning type things - no HR Monitor - learning to run by "feel", perceptive queue's from Matt Fitzgerald's book (I get a message/theme per week to focus on to help improve running form - next week is "pounding ground" which is supposed to help me spring off the ground into the next step). Then changing some of the Strides to 400 Repeats - also to help running form - and adding a couple MP miles at the end of every LR/MLR. Also adding "Power Triad" strength training a couple/few times per week. Get all that .
---------------
That was the "plan" but than a little later I learned that many of the faster runners didn't do speed work - or so it seemed - so decided to cut out all the track workouts and whenever I got to a day with one of those workouts in the plan - I replaced it with a Tempo Workout or a Progressive Workout or a Marathon Pace workout instead. I did work on my form a bit although not as diligent as I planned - I got to the point where I looked for a certain feeling in my feet from the impact on the ground - if I could feel any impact in the heal area than I knew I was over striding and I would tilt forward a little to get the impact feeling back to the front of the foot. I did not do the "Power Triad" except once or twice - just never developed the habit. So in summary - dropped the Speed Work completely and focused on Marathon Pace and Tempo Pace and fast long runs.
What was my nutrition/fueling strategy?
For Nutrition during the Taper - I followed what I perceived to be the fat-pumpkin plan posted in a Sub3 thread on tapering. Two week taper with 10 days of minimal Carbs followed by 3 days of minimal Fat/Protien. Night before I had Italian Dinner at 6ish and no solid foods from there to the race. I also took multi-vitamin almost daily and airborne for the last couple days and race morning to avoid the after race sickness I sometimes get.
For the Morning I followed what I'll call the jwd1113(Wally) plan which I learned from him before Boston last year and have been doing for most every race. Morning I woke at 3am (T-4hours) and started downing UltraFuel - I made it thru about 250 g of carbs in that by about 5:00(T-2hours) and I could take no more - the plan was for 300 g + 2 power bars but I just could do no more so stopped at what I got. I also had a cup of coffee about T-45 minutes.
For the race I decided to "live off the course" a line from Waterdog66 - all prior races I had carried fluid with me but none on this race. I had Gatorade or Water at every station which seemed like every couple miles - I think the first couple I took Gatorade then all the remaining were water to help with the Gu. I took a Gu shots at 5,10,15 and double espresso Gu at 20 - someone mentioned the caffeine impact late in the race is better if you don't have in too regular before so I for the last couple days of carb loading I avoided Caffeine except my morning coffee on race day. I planned to do an Electrolyte S-Caps every 5 miles but only ended up taking one just before the race and none during. I also took a couple ibuprofen before the race to help with whatever pain would be coming.
How did the Taper go?
I did a 2 week taper - Mileage dropped from mid 70s typical prior month to mid-50s first week to mid 20s pre-race week. For the whole taper up until last few days I was "depleting" i.e. minimal carbs - I really think of it as dieting Atkin's style (I allowed post run chocolate milk after the hard runs) - all my runs were single digits except one 10 miler which I felt pretty weak by the end. I did two progressive workouts the first week and planned a Marathon Paced run but I bailed on the MP run when I was struggling to maintain 7 mpm pace. I did 3 more short MP runs the last week - first two were at the end of the depleting and were 7 mpm pace - than one after a days carb loading and the pace dropped to where I was used to seeing marathon pace - 6:15ish. Overall I netted about 4-5 lbs reduction from this ending the depletion ~147 - by race time I think I was up to ~150 with the carb loading/hydrating.
How do you feel after the race?
Other than shocked/amazed/in awe and all that. I actually feel surprisingly fresh. I ran 5 miles this morning and it was the easiest post marathon run I've ever had. After every previous marathon - if I ran the next day - it was more of a 2-3 mile shuffle - hardly could be called running - but today - I worked out a few sore spots on the Foam Roller then went for a run - went 5.4 miles at about 7:30 pace.
Do you feel like you gave it your all?
Actually I do not feel like I gave it my all. Around mile 16 I justified to myself a bit of a "settling" compromise. I had run the first 16 scary fast and even though I was looking at my heartrate and KNEW I had run at that EFFORT for at least that long at New York marathon - the pace I was flying scared me a little - although I resisted the temptation to think of a bombing at the end - it was still in the back of my mind. I had what felt like a slow mile (looking back it was 6:20) and after that "recovery" mile - a certain amount of strength returned. It helped a little that a couple people were bouncing ahead/behind/ahead/behind me as I was going thru the internal confusion of how fast to run (a lady going for her olympic qualify time and a guy pacing/helping her). Felling a little refreshed from the recovery mile - I started to push in a measured way - I didn't push it up to where I believed I could run (164 bpm) but settled for a Strong pace - if not Strongest - that mode pretty much continued for the last 10 miles - strong - but not strongest. So post race I look back on the last 10 miles a bit mixed - like I could have done better - a slight amount of regret at that - but combined with increased shock that I could do that well and still feel I had gas left in the tank. When I look at the data - in Boston my heartrate average was 162 and in Houston it was only 160 - I think I pushed harder for my 3:01:01 in Boston in April than I did for the 2:40:46 in Houston.
I've heard mixed reviews about using a heartrate monitor in a race - why did you?
I have not developed a good "feel" for the right pace to run. I still consider myself pretty new to the sport having only run my first marathon 2 years ago and basically got off the couch 30 lbs overweight just a few months prior to that. Every time I try to run by "feel" I find my tendency is to run slower - not believe I can run faster. The heartrate monitor reading gives me factual unbiased data that tells me - "yes you can run this fast". Without it - for me - when I try to "feel" - I seem to convince myself that a slower pace is the right pace for whatever reason.
That's all for now - Not sure what Part 3 will be but there will be one....
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