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After a hard 12+ mile effort last night, this morning called for an easy 6-mile recovery run. Nathan and I had planned to meet at the Edwin Warner Nature Center, but due to lightening we were forced to move indoors to the dreadmill. It was great to have good company, but I HATE running on a dreadmill. I told Nathan that if the dreadmill were my only option, there is no way I would be a runner.

Regardless of those feelings, it was good to get in the miles this morning. IF I am able to get in all of my planned miles this week, I should hit exactly 60 which would be my second biggest week ever. 

Beast Mode….ON!

Last Tuesday I posted about my frustration with pace on recent tempo runs. Well, today everything finally felt right. I would always prefer my tempo runs to be around goal marathon pace (7:26), and today I completed 12.25 miles with an overall average pace of….7:26….and it felt smooth and under control the whole time. This average included two slower miles at the start as I was still warming up (8:51, 8:10). After mile 4, every mile was well under goal pace, with 2 miles under 7:00.

When I finished I easily felt like I could have gone further and faster. This is the best I have felt on a run in quite a while, and it is a HUGE confidence boost heading into NOLA. It didn’t hurt that the temps were in the low 60s, but I’ll take it!

Beast Mode….ON!

January Recap

Even though I had a bad cold that has now turned into a sinus infection (yuck), and have struggled with Small Fiber Sensory Neuropathy symptoms for the past couple of weeks, I only missed two scheduled training runs and finished January with my most mileage ever for a single month – 210. I did have a bit of a lull in the middle of the month where runs were more of a struggle, but over the past week or so things have really been coming together.

February will hold a few more challenges in NOLA training. I have a 22-miler scheduled for Saturday, followed by a tune-up half marathon the following weekend. Two weekends out from NOLA, I hope to complete my final long run of 24-miles before beginning my taper.

Today was another great marathon workout put together by the illustrious Dan Ashmead. These bi-weekly workouts have become a staple of our group, and have really kicked my training up a few notches over the past 2+ years. We switch between interval marathon workouts and long easy runs on alternating weekends.

Today’s workout was in Percy Warner Park, and featured plenty of hills. As with my workouts earlier this year, I tried to push them much faster than goal marathon pace (7:26) in my never-ending quest to increase overall speed. The workout contained approximately 8-miles of marathon pace (or sub) intervals with hill repeats directly in the middle. The hill repeats are designed to rapidly tire out your legs, simulating the feeling at the end of a marathon for the remainder of the workout. The following is what we did today along with my splits:

• 15-minute warmup
• 2-miles at goal marathon pace (13:57)
• 1-mile under goal marathon pace (6:38)
• 1-mile under goal marathon pace (6:41)
• 4 x 30 sec hill repeats
• 2-miles at goal marathon pace (13:59)
• 1.9-miles at goal marathon pace (13:15 – 6:58 pace)
• 1.75-mile cooldown

Earlier this week I posted about my frustration with recent tempo runs not exactly being up to pace. Well today everything felt like it came together. All of my intervals were completed at sub 7:00 min pace, and I was able to maintain my consistency through to the end. All morning I felt like I had an extra gear that had been missing the last couple of weeks.

This morning also featured a humorous barrage of “constructive” criticism thrown my direction. During our second interval (1-mile), I heard the following within a few seconds of each other:

• Dan Ashmead – “Tim, you’re starting this one off too fast.”
• Marc Dedman – “Tim, you need to work harder on running the tangents.”
• Paul Scalisi – “Tim, you need to get up on your toes more.”

Feeling like this clearly wasn’t enough, I asked John Thorpe if he had anything else to offer. He smiled and responded with “You look really silly in those clothes.”

We all had a good laugh about this later in the run. I really love our group!

Even though I’m still in the midst of my worst Small Fiber Sensory Neuropathy flare-up in several years, and in spite of a heavy downpour, tonight’s track workout was fantastic. The neuropathy causes some strange and uncomfortable sensations in my legs and feet, but overall I felt very strong tonight. 

I don’t remember ever doing a workout exactly like this before, but I really enjoyed it, and was able run hard and consistent throughout. Here are the details.

• ~3-Mile Warmup (including 6 x 100m strides)
• 4 x 250m (150m) – Continuous [400m recovery]
• 800m (400m recovery)
• 4 x 200m (100m) – Continuous [400m recovery]
• 800m (400m recovery)
• 4 x 200m (50m) – Continuous [~1 mile cool down)

Total was 8.2-miles

After my mediocre tempo runs the past couple of weeks, it is reassuring to get in a good track workout tonight. Little confidence boost towards NOLA training.

Tuesdays are my normal tempo run days during the week, and my schedule usually calls for adding one mile to these runs each week leading up to the marathon taper. For pace, I try to shoot for something in the vicinity of marathon pace (7:26 for my 3:15 goal).

However, for the last two Tuesday mornings my tempo runs have not had nearly the “Tempo” I would like. Just running below 8:00 minute pace feels very hard. It is interesting because two Saturday’s ago, I ran for approximately an hour just under 7:00 minute pace and felt fairly comfortable. What happened between that Saturday and the following Tuesday? Am I training too hard? Am I not training hard enough?

Anyway, I guess this is all part of the learning process. I have to keep reminding myself that even though I’ve done 10 marathons, it has only been 3 years. I’ve obviously still got a LOT to learn.

While training for my 10 marathons over the past 3 years, I have completed a LOT of 20+ mile training runs which incorporated the 16.5-mile loop in Percy and Edwin Warner Parks. This loop makes for a challenging long run because of the 2,300 ft. of elevation gain from start to finish.

This morning, our group was again scheduled to run the 16.5 as part of training for the Rock N’ Roll New Orleans Marathon / Half Marathon. My plan called for 20 today, so John and I decided to start 30 minutes early from our normal post-run breakfast spot, Bread & Company, to add the additional 3.5-miles before and after the group run.

Even though I still feel crummy (can’t seem to shake this cold I came down with on Tuesday), today’s run was the best I’ve ever felt on a 20-miler in the parks. The hills were challenging as always, but my legs felt good all the way to the end, and I felt like I could have easily kept going if needed. Weird thing about how good this run felt is how bad I’ve felt the rest of the day (my cold, not my legs). By far the best I’ve felt all day was during this 20-mile run, which is a weird thing to say.

Anyway, it is good to have this first 20-miler of NOLA training in the books. My schedule calls for two more 20+ runs over the next 4 weeks, and I hope I continue to feel this good during those efforts.

Thursday night is usually one of the highlight’s of my running week since it is when the Jim Spivey Running Club (JSRC) has their weekly track workout. However, I expected tonight’s workout to be extremely difficult for me for two reasons:

1. Since last Friday night I have been dealing with my biggest Small Fiber Sensory Neuropathy flare-up in the past two years. The peak of this was on Monday (I didn’t run at all on Mon), but I’m still dealing with it today. For those of you unfamiliar with this disorder, you can read about it in one of my initial posts on this blog entitled “Why I Run…”
2. On Tuesday I started coming down with a bad cold (possibly the reason for #1 since it is an auto-immune disorder) which has been at its worst today. All day I’ve had muscle aches, chills, and even felt shaky. I was unsure whether or not I was even going to track.

Well, with those things going on I was just hoping to survive tonight and get in the miles. I ran an easy 3-mile warmup, and then we began the workout which was:

• 1000 M (400 recovery)
• 800 M (300 recovery)
• 600 M (300 recovery)
• 400 M (3 min recovery)
• 800 M (300 recovery)
• 1000 M (1.5-mile cool-down)

I ran very conservative, but still did all the intervals at faster than 1/2 marathon pace. What was amazing to me was that once the workout began I suddenly started feeling great. I’ve said for a long time that running is the best drug on earth and tonight it literally felt like a drug. Once I started felling better, there was a great deal of temptation to pick up the pace, but I just tried to stay steady and finish the workout.

When you don’t feel good, it is hard to get in the miles, and even harder to maintain confidence in yourself and your training. Tonight was a good confidence boost towards the New Orleans Marathon in the midst of what was otherwise a crummy week.

Today was our group’s second marathon interval workout as part of training for the Rock n’ Roll New Orleans Marathon or Half Marathon. The workout consisted of:

• 2-mile warmup
• 2 x 12 minutes at goal pace* with three minute recovery run in between
• 20 minute easy run
• 2 x 15 minutes at goal pace* with three minute recovery run in between
• 1.5-mile cooldown

*While my goal marathon pace for 3:15 would be 7:26 per mile (or 7:16 for BQ pace), I decided to do these intervals around half marathon pace to better prepare my body to go fast.

I ended up with just over 14-miles and felt FANTASTIC today. I ran the intervals pretty hard, but felt very smooth and comfortable at sub-7:00 min pace. My last 15 minute interval was at 6:46 pace, and I felt like I could have gone farther or done more intervals when we finished (that’s the goal). Very positive day today.

Quest for 3:15 – It will be chilly, but otherwise a good-looking forecast for the Rocket City Marathon on Saturday.

My training log posts for the Rocket City Marathon (December 10) have been few and far between, and my training in general has been less than ideal. There are several reasons for this:

1. In October and November I have competed in 5 races…

   *Shelby Bottoms Boogie 15k – Oct 2
   *Bank of American Chicago Marathon – Oct 10
   *Murfreesboro Middle Half Marathon – Oct 16
   *196-Mile Ragnar Relay – Nov 4-5
   *Boulevard Bolt 5-Miler – Nov 24

   While all of these races have gone pretty well, they have left me tired, and not allowed for a normal training schedule for Rocket City

2. I missed 5 days of training due to being sick, and it took another 5 days to get my energy back once I was able to run again. Due to fatigue from racing, and from getting sick, I was not able to get in a 20-mile run until last Saturday which is only 2-weeks from race day (That 20-miler felt pretty good though). I had originally planned on doing one 20-miler and one 22-miler before Rocket City. I have also been very limited in my ability to get in good tempo or track workouts.
3. Just as I was getting over being sick I hurt my back (re-aggravated an old injury). This did not prevent me from running, but did impact the quality of my runs for several days.

So….all of this has added up to me not feeling like 3:15 is going to be a realistic goal for Rocket City. On our 9-mile tempo run today, 7:30 pace felt pretty fast. I’m not really expecting that between now and next Saturday 7:26 is magically going to feel great again.

Even though I think it is a long shot, I’m not going to make my final decision about whether or not to go for it until closer to game time. This race does have a 3:15 pace group, so that does have me thinking about going for it anyway. Is this crazy?

Tuesday (Nov 1)

Running: (FAIL) My schedule called for 10-miles this morning, but I overslept and missed my opportunity. I am SO MAD at myself, and have felt out-of-sorts all day long. I don’t ever recall being this upset before about a missed run. I’ve got to remember this feeling so that the next time I reach for the snooze button I’ll have a little extra motivation to get out on my feet.

Saturday (Oct 29)

Running: (18-Mile Long Run) Our group had planned to run the 11.2-mile main drive in Percy Warner Park at 6am, but my schedule called for an 18-mile long run. To get in the extra miles, I started just after 5am with some easy miles around Belle Meade. This was by far the coldest morning since last winter with a starting temp of 28 degrees.

My goal today was to maximize the amount of time spent running in the aerobic zone as I work toward at least a 3 hour 15 minute run in preparation for Rocket City. With this in mind I kept the pace very easy all day (9:00min average)

Nathan and Paxton joined me around 5:25am, and then we joined the larger group in the park at 6:00am. One loop in the park has over 1,200’ of elevation gain so this was also a run that helped to build leg strength. I was surprised at how well I felt on the hills, and even pushed the pace up most of the more significant inclines. The group decided to take an alternate route during mile 4 down “Shell Road,” which is a beautiful but difficult section. This also reduced the total distance in the park slightly.

When I finished in the part, I had completed around 15.25-miles, so Paxton and I ran another 2.75 miles through Belle Meade to finish. I felt really good throughout most of this run, but began to feel some fatigue after mile 16. Paxton pushed the pace a bit for the final 1.5-miles, but I held back and just tried to finish smoothly.

Overall I’m very pleased with this run, especially considering the difficulty of the route and the cold temperatures. My total time spent running was just over 2 hours 42 minutes which is right around what I was looking for today.

Sunday (Oct 30)

Today was my normally scheduled rest day, which is good because it was a busy day. We had morning worship service, followed by Sunday School where I teach the “Young Married’s” class on the book of Philippians. After brunch, I then had 4-hours of practice for a drama production of Joshua and the Wall of Jericho for evening service and Trunk or Treat. After completing the drama and evening service, we then had Trunk or Treat in the parking lot with almost 1,000 kids from the community.

Monday (Oct 31)

Running: (7-Mile Recovery Run) This morning I did a solo recovery run using a modified version of our normal “Nature Center” loop in Edwin Warner Park. My legs felt very lethargic for most of the run, and I kept the pace pretty easy for the first 5-miles (9:00 min). For the last 2-miles, I tried to pickup the pace and finish on a positive note. Mile 6 was 8:15, followed by mile 7 at 7:39.

I hope that my legs come back before the Ragnar Relay this coming weekend. I had a dream last night that I blew my segments of the relay and couldn’t push the pace any faster than 9:00 min miles (my goal is to do them all below 7:00 min pace).

Thursday (Oct 27)

Running: (7.5-Mile Track Workout) Tonight I finally felt some jump come back into my legs, and felt good throughout the workout. After a 1.5-mile warmup and 6 x 100m stride-outs, we did:

• 3 x 200m f (100) [400]
• 600m f+ (300)
• 3 x 200m f (100) [400]
• 800m Straights & Curves (300)
• 600m f+ (300)
• 800m Straights & Curves (300)
• 1000m f (400)

With an additional .75 mile warmdown, the total mileage came out to 7.5-miles. Paxton looked especially strong tonight, and even though I felt good he clearly had an extra gear. I’m really pleased with the workout, and am getting my confidence back.

Cross-Training: Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X, and I followed that with a couple of sets of chest exercises.

Friday (Oct 28)

Running: (4-Mile “Barefoot” Recovery Run) Paxton, Nathan and I did an easy recovery run through Bellevue this AM in the pouring rain. Even though it was cold and rainy, the run was still a lot of fun, and it was good to have the Bellevue Trio together on a Friday morning. While the Hattoris offer no protection from water, they do drain extremely well which was good today.

My log posts are waaaay behind due to our family vacation to Disney World, and getting engrossed in the new “Steve Jobs” biography by Walter Isaacson. So this will be a long catch-up post.

Wednesday (Oct 19)

Running: (5.4-Mile Easy Run) Paxton and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center for an easy run on our standard “Nature Center” loop. This was a very easy run with every mile over 9:00 pace. My legs are still toast from 3 consecutive races, and I’m also having a little trouble with my right ankle.  I’m thinking about running tomorrow and then shutting it down while we are at Disney World Fri to Mon.

Thursday (Oct 20)

Running: (4.5-Mile Trail Run) Paxton, Nathan and I met for an easy run on the red trail this AM in PW Park. The run was enjoyable, but my legs just had no jump at all. Also, my ankle turned out to be a big problem with the uneven surface, so I’m glad we kept it to 4.5 miles. Since we are leaving at noon today for Disney World, I’m firmly decided that I’m not running at all while we are gone. Not even taken my shoes. I’ve got to work on getting the jump back in my legs and healing this ankle.

Friday (Oct 21) to Monday (Oct 24)

I took four days off from running and cross training while my family and I were in Disney World. Of course these were not truly “days off” since we did a TON of walking, and my feet HURT!!

Tuesday (Oct 25)

Running: (9.3-Mile Tempo Run) Nathan, Paxton & I met at the Percy Warner main gates for a 9-mile tempo run through Belle Meade. I did not know how I would feel coming off of a vacation with lots of walking, but my goal was to do the last 4 miles at marathon pace. We started off with a pretty easy 8:45 mile before dropping the speed down to 8:00 pace and below. My legs felt pretty dead, and my feet hurt worse than I was expecting. Anything below 8:00 felt fairly fast.

By the time we got to the last 4 miles, I knew there was no way I could maintain marathon pace, so I just did the best that I could. With 2 miles to go, Nathan absolutely took off, dropping the pace well below 7:00. I picked it up as well, but nothing compared to what Nathan did. My last two miles were 7:41 and 7:01, and it felt good to finish strong.

Cross-Training: Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Legs and Back. Hoping I’m not as sore tomorrow and Thursday as I was after doing this workout last Tuesday.

Wednesday (Oct 26)

Running: (5-Mile Recovery Run) Paxton and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center for an easy run on our standard “Nature Center” loop. The weather was absolutely perfect, the conversation was fantastic, and it was a very enjoyable run. We kept it pretty easy the whole way, but did each mile faster than the previous. Our first was at 9:41 and our last was 8:33. Great recovery run.

On a side note, 18-years ago today was my first date with Olivia. We went to a little restaurant in the Green Hills Mall called the “Silver Spoon Cafe.” Today that location is a Brooks Brothers, and we often joke about taking a picnic dinner and eating in the bow-tie section (I’m partial to bow ties).

Monday (Oct 17)

Running: Today was supposed to be the kickoff of my training for Rocket City with a 6 to 7-mile trail run on the schedule. However, I woke up this morning with a weird catch in my upper back, and overall just felt really tired. I guess that doing 3 races in 3 consecutive weekends has finally caught up with me.

Since I didn’t feel great, I decided to skip the morning trail run, and instead did a 2-mile “barefoot” run with my daughter Kate after work in Edwin Warner Park. Even though she is only 6, she really wants to train to be able to run a 5K. So far we have worked up to 1.5 continuous miles. Today we did the first mile continuous, and then for the second mile I would let her run way out in front of me, and then I would run to catch up. We did this over and over again until we had returned back to our starting place. Very fun run with my daughter.

Cross-Training: Tonight my wife and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X, and then I did a set of P90X: Shoulders and Arms.

Tuesday (Oct 18)

Running: I met Nathan this morning at the entrance to Percy Warner Park for a planned 8-mile run through Belle Mead + the 5.8 loop in Percy Warner. Tuesdays are normally a tempo day for me, but with 3 races on the last 3 weekends, I’m fresh out of tempo right now.

We kept our pace very easy this morning with an overall average between 9:15 & 9:20. It had been a while since I’d run on hills, so it was good to get back in the park. However, during this run I could really tell that my energy levels were down and my legs are shot. I’m starting to really think about just shutting it down completely for our family vacation Thursday to Monday and give my body a rest. I’ve also got the Ragnar Relay coming up 2-weeks from Friday and I want to make sure I’m fresh for that race.

In spite of this, the run this morning was still very enjoyable. This was the first time since Chicago that Nathan and I had run together, so it was fun to talk through our race experiences after having a week to reflect. 

Cross-Training: My wife and I did P90X: Legs & Back tonight. I’m trying to get back into a strengthening phase for my legs which will include resistance training, trail runs, barefoot runs, etc.

Well….since I didn’t break 3:15 at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, the Quest for 3:15 continues. So, what’s next in the search for this elusive goal?

My next registered marathon is the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville Alabama on December 10, and my training program will begin on Monday. As long as I remain injury free, and the weather cooperates, I’m gonna give 3:15 another shot at this race. Being that it is in December, seems like there are better odds for cool weather. Also, it is supposed to be a relatively flat and fast course, with only two hills of any significance.

The next few weeks of training will be difficult as our family is going on vacation late next week, and then I’m part of a 12-person, 196-mile relay race in three weeks. Otherwise all systems are go for Rocket City!!

My thoughts on the 34th annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon…

Bank of America Chicago Marathon
October 9, 2011
www.chicagomarathon.com

My Run:  Overall, the 2011 Bank of American Chicago Marathon was my ninth full marathon. Chicago was also the site of my first marathon back in 2009. There was no secret that my goal coming into this race was to break 3:15 for the first time. I had set my current PR of 3:24 at the Rock n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon in November 2011. Just before this I tried to break 3:15 at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in October, and was able to hold that pace for 22-miles before hitting the wall hard and finishing with a 3:25.

Everything in my training program, which started on July 4th, was aimed at this goal. I reduced the amount of time I spent doing cardio-based cross training, and spent that time instead on putting in extra miles on the road or trails. I added trail running and barefoot running to my schedule to improve strength, and was diligent about doing tempo runs and marathon pace workouts around this goal pace. My training throughout the summer went extremely well, and I felt ready to break 3:15.

The one thing that I could not control was the weather. When I ran Chicago back in 2009, the temps were in the 30s and 40s during the race, but this year it was 65 at the start and nearing 80 when I finished (with full sun). While this is not oppressive heat when compared to what we run through in Tennessee during the summer, it is way higher than what is ideal for a race of this distance. Also, Middle Tennessee had seen morning temps in the 40s and 50s for the past two weeks, so this made it even more difficult to adapt.

We all knew what the temps were expected to be going into race day, but I decided I was still going to give 3:15 a shot. My plan was to run a slightly conservative pace for the first 15 to 18 miles, and then take inventory and see if I could push it the rest of the way.

On race morning, everything went according to plan. This included my pre-race meal, hydration, warmup, etc. My legs felt really good with no soreness or pains. I ran easy for just over a mile with Nathan and Paxton, and then did a few short bursts in the corral to get my heart ready for race pace.

IT KEEPS GETTING WORSE!!! High is now predicted to be 80 degrees!!

At least it looks most of the race will be in the upper 60s and low 70s.

Log for October 4, 5, & 6 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Tuesday

• 3-Mile Moderate Run – Nathan, Paxton, and I did a moderately paced 3-mile run using Paxton’s “figure 8” loop on the streets of Bellevue. The temps were cool, but felt good, and my legs felt fresh and strong. I picked up to goal marathon pace for the final 1/2 mile just to keep myself sharp, and to continue to ingrain that pace into my mind.
• Cross-Training – Tonight I did P90X: X-Stretch to work out any last minute kinks before Sunday. Even though stretching is not strenuous, it can cause muscle fatigue, so I wanted to make sure I gave my legs plenty of time to recover.

Wednesday

• Rest – With taper in full force, I took today off from running and cross-training and even slept in bit. I’ve been trying really hard this week to get extra rest, knowing this will help a lot come race day on Sunday.

Thursday

• 5.25-Mile Track Workout – Even though this was technically at track, the “workout” consisted of a 3-mile tempo run at goal race pace. Marc, Paxton, and I did most of the laps together, and finished with an average pace of 7:25 per mile. This is 1 second faster than my goal pace, but it felt very comfortable (even slow at times). I’m pleased with how good I felt, and feel ready to give 3:15 a shot on Sunday. My biggest concern at this point is the weather forecast. Ideally I would like to see race temps in the 40s or 50s, but it looks like it will be in the mid 60s at the start and rising into the 70s.
• Cross-Training – After track, I did P90X: Shoulders and Arms. I had not been able to do this workout recently due to my hand injury, but those wounds are getting much better.

We are now five days away from the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and my nerves are going CRAZY!

• Part of this is all the extra energy I have from the taper
• Part of it is seeing warmer temps in the weather forecast
• Part of it is knowing how hard it is going to be to hold a 7:26 pace for 26.2 miles*

*Last year at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon I held this pace for 22-miles before hitting the wall hard. It it hard to forget how painful that was.