A bit of a reason to be optimistic: 7 miles easy on Sunday and without effort I ran sub-7:30 miles. I tried to slow down, but the run felt very easy, almost effortless. The weather was nice and cool.

Then on Monday (Memorial Day) in hot weather (88 F), I ran 12 miles with trail and hills in Seneca park - the overall pace is meaningless, but I was strong at the end and finished with sub-7:30 splits. Also, this was my 8th day of running in a row.

Week of 5/25: 50 miles total. First time since last summer.

Long runs: 12 and 10 miles.
Easy runs: 4 x 7 miles.

I plan to run 7 easy today, and be ready for the long tomorrow.

10.6 miles today in 1:18:44. A bit speedy, but I ran without my Garmin (battery is behaving funny), so I didn't know I was so fast. I ran across the Ohio to Indiana though the newly open Big Four Bridge.

5.67 miles today with striders in the middle. It was again quite hard, because it was freaking 85 F. Ran in Altras. I'm now almost two miles behind my week's schedule.

Plan for October 25. I'm changing to Sunday based weeks, because the race is on a Saturday.

Base building:
Week -8, 05/18, 49 miles
Week -7, 05/25, 50 miles
Week -6, 06/01, 52 miles
Week -5, 06/08, 54 miles
Week -4, 06/15, 56 miles
Week -3, 06/22, 57 miles
Week -2, 06/29, 58 miles
Week -1, 07/06, 60 miles

Race training:
Week -14, 07/13, 50 miles
Week -13, 07/20, 54 miles
Week -12, 07/27, 58 miles
Week -11, 08/03, 58 miles
Week -10, 08/10, 62 miles
Week -09, 08/17, 66 miles
Week -08, 08/24, 62 miles
Week -07, 08/31, 68 miles
Week -06, 09/07, 72 miles
Week -05, 09/14, 70 miles
Week -04, 09/21, 62 miles
Week -03, 09/28, 64 miles
Week -02, 10/05, 60 miles
Week -01, 10/12, 54 miles
Race week, 10/19, 44 miles

I ran the Iroquois circle today with the full horse trail. It was 80 F and I had tired legs, so it was pretty hard, but not as hard as last time. My time was 1:30:18 - I didn't wear a Garmin so I'll have to guesstimate the mileage.

It seems like this will work. I ran 47 miles this week, and I'm quite satisfied with how I feel. Rest day is Sunday.

Next week is Week -8 of base training. Total of 49 miles with 12 and 9-mile long runs. That leaves 28 miles for 4 runs; 7 miles each. We can probably start with the 12-miler on Monday, unless I break my back building the brick walkway to the garage this weekend.

12 miles in the rain, 70 F, Inox-8. I ran it pretty hard, but I needed it.

It seems certain now that we will be running another installment of the LSC Half Marathon - this time renamed as Urban Bourbon HM, and will be held a bit earlier than usual: October 25. With my 15 week preparation, I would have to start specific training on July 12. Just perfect. The time I'm coming back to the USA.

I have 9 weeks till then to ramp up mileage. It would be nice to push over 50 mpw for a while, cut back for a week or two, then start specific training at 50. If I could get to 45 this week and 47 next week, I may be able to do this by following Base Training C by Pfitzinger. then I would go up to 60 mpw before cutting back to 50 for the start of training.

I ran 11.5 miles today in 88 F sunny weather. I usually have this "first really hot day of the year when I want to run something hard" that is bound to happen about once a year and ends very miserably, sometimes downright dangerously. At least it wasn't dangerous today. Also, I ran my Iroquois Park trail circle, which means there was some water on the course. Good thing. I did not bring any water myself.

I didn't really want to do such a long run, but I just love that trail, and got carried away. Of course at mile 4 at my second water break I still felt great. Really, the "only" problem was dehydration that didn't hit me hard until mile 8. And I did find more water (in bathroom of a car mechanic) at mile 9, but it was a bit too late by then.

Note to log: I ran in my Altras today, and in my Inox-8's yesterday.

The 40 mile week didn't happen until this one, but now I've hit 41. Hip pain is back on and off, but it's managable. I don't care. I run until I can't.

This week is basically all easy, but my last few miles today on my 6-milers were at 7:15-7:20 pace and it felt easy. So that's a good sign.

38 miles this week with a 10 mile long run and no hip pain. Great! It's pathetic how tired I got after just running 10 miles, but it was at the end of a week that counts as "big" now, and it was 83 F, probably the hottest so far this year.

Maybe for the first time next week I can try a specific goal: 40 miles. Let's try 5 x 6 miles during the week and 10 at the weekend. If it'll bee sufficiently dry weather, I could run the Clark park loop, with an extra lap by the creek - that should be about 6 miles.

It's been quite a while since my last post... and I haven't been training very hard over the winter. In fact I barely got out: mostly one or two runs a week, and those are only 4-5 miles. Keep in mind that we had the coldest winter in decades, e.g. we had a day when the high temperature was 1 F. We had snow and ice covered roads very often. It was quite brutal.

But my main reason of not training was the never healing hip. I basically gave up on it. But when I realized at the end of winter that I'm up to 160 lbs (in my peak I was 147), I decided that I had to train, even if just for fun, even if it ruins my hip. I just need this for my physical and mental health.

I've been regularly training for a few weeks now again. I ran 30-40 miles a week; not a whole lot, but more than all winter. My weight didn't budge yet, but that's quite normal. And actually my hip is a bit better since I've been training again.

I'm dreaming of a sub-3 hour marathon. I should do it before it's too late; before I won't be able to run any more.

Ever since my last post I did very little training... Two things: real life and injury. The injury is not "literal": I have a left hip that is bothering me constantly now. I can still run, most days I can even run fast, but by the end of most runs, I get some increasing pain. So I tried to use the excuse of too much work to rest up and get it healed, but it may be impossible. Sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse, but it is almost always there.

I'm still running the November 11th race, because I run it for a team, but I can't expect great times. Probably not even 1:30. I've just restarted after a longer break of almost a month, and I have no idea how I will fare.

So not much to report, but I thought I should update the blog so that not the shitty post is the one on the top. :)

Friday night I ran my first real measurable fast workout of this training cycle, though the circumstances were far from ideal. It was 5 x 800 meters intervals. It was late in the night (dark), and I intentionally didn't run during the day because it was so hot. Even after 10pm, when I left for the run, it was still 80 F. I ran at Waggener High School track; not the best, and I had to move benches from the inner lane and dodge sprinklers.

Warning: if you are easily grossed out, you might want to skip this paragraph. So in the second lap of the second interval, I had to run really hard to keep my time decent, and I felt that I was losing control of my rectal muscles. I had to slow down a bit so I didn't crap my shorts. I though my intervals were over, and I wasn't sure I can get home without an accident. But it was really dark at the track, so I just took a dump in the shadows by the track; used some grass to wipe my ass, and then I felt liberated. The I thought that I might as well finish the intervals.

It wasn't easy. I had to push myself to the limit on every single one of them to just put them under 3 minutes. Splits are 2:54, 2:57, 2:54, 2:58, 2:58 (hundredths are rounded down). But with the circumstances, I say it's not too bad. Average of 2:57.7. It barely hits the 1:27 HM McMillan training times, but under more ideal circumstances and later in the training cycle a HM PR is not out of the question.

Here is my weekly mileage plan for the HM:

08/19 (11): 58

08/26 (10): 62

09/02 (9): 66

09/09 (8): 62

09/16 (7): 68

09/23 (6): 72

09/30 (5): 70

10/07 (4): 62

10/14 (3): 64

10/21 (2): 60

10/28 (1): 54

11/04 (R): 44

Bernheim Challenge 7 Miler Race Report

Goal: Top 10

I wasn't planning on running this race until a few weeks ago I volunteered for another trail race and I got two free entries for two trail races of the 2013 series. I got all excited about running trail races, especially after the Bourbon Chase fell through. I didn't specifically prepare for this one, and the race came at the end of a 58-mile week, only the second in a row of large mileage weeks, so I was not recovered. But I didn't care that much and I thought I can still be in the top 10. I previewed the course so I knew where the hills were. The main thing that worried me though was that the trail is very technical, and the older I get, the worse I get on technical terrain. Not that I was that good to begin with...

We woke up to a gorgeous late summer morning, temperature in the high 60s, which I guess is not good for me considering that I tend to suffer less from heat than my opponents. The race was held in the beautiful Bernheim Forest and Arboretum. It was a point-to-point course, so at the beginning buses took people up the hill and we ran down back to Guerrilla Hollow (close to the Visitors' Center). I was lucky enough to get a space in a car of a friend of a friend, so I was up on the hill in no time. The race started a little late, but that was expected due to the 100 runners, who had to be taken to the start line.

We started on a fire road in the woods, but in 50 yards, the course took a right turn onto a singletrack trail. I wanted to be close to front runners, and I took the turn in the 4th place. The first mile was mostly downhill, so I pushed myself really hard, finishing the first mile in about 6:30, which is no simple feat on that technical course. Maybe I paid for that later. In any case, I let a few people pass on the subsequent uphill mile, and then settled into a pace and a strategy that I thought I could keep by the end.

Well, it didn't happen. One by one, people passed me and I never saw them again. Typically this happened on the climbs, where I had to walk many times, because I felt exhausted and mentally weak. But even on downhills, I wasn't very fast, and some runners gained on me. I gave up two more positions in the last mile, one, to a 56 year old guy, who was barely faster running uphill than I was walking, but I could not run. I finished in 12th place with a time of 59:40. Age graded is even much worse: 17th place. An old rival beat me by more than two minutes, so that he actually took a wrong tun and lost a bunch of time!

I can try to find excuses, but at the end, this is what it is: a pathetic performance. This kind of trail racing is probably not for me, but even then, I should have done better than this. So it might be all for the better that I won't be able to race Siltstone in November (family schedule), but instead I will race the LSC Half Marathon again. It would be really cool to PR in that hilly race, maybe running a 1:23, but it seems like a long shot with my recent performances...

Long time no post... That doesn't meant that I didn't run, but as usual, summer brought on less running... I'm trying to get back to full training with a November Half Marathon in mind. That would be either Siltstone (trail) or LSC  (if UofL asks me to run for their team - if there is a team at all).

The Bourbon Chase is off. The team that was essentially promised to me vaporized, so we didn't pay the balance, and so the team is off now. I'm bitter about this, and it was also a big financial loss, but it is not worth blogging about it.

I gained 5 pounds during my less-running-time, so now I have something to lose. :) That's OK, and 5 lbs is not that much.

I came back from Hungary (dry continental climate and quite a bit northern than Kentucky) on July 10, and immediately went for a few runs, only to realize that the different climate and maybe the lack of training took away my ability to run decently here. So even though I was very tempted to run the Otter Creek 8-miler trail race the weekend after my return, I decided it wouldn't be fun to embarrass myself. But there was a last minute call for volunteers so I volunteered. That gained me two free entries of future trail races in this series this year, so that's my focus now.

So in a nutshell: I'm starting a HM plan this week, but in the meantime, I focus on trail training (it really is called cross country training) by running more hills and more trails. I can't expect to match my peak form times, but I'll try to get in shape to be able to PR in a hypothetical November flat HM. If things go great that might mean a PR or close in LSC HM (which isn't flat by any means) or possible a good position in Siltstone HM.

The two weeks leading up to the start of the HM plan included one more travel and a bad cold, that cost me some training. But today I ran a "PR" on the Siltstone trail. OK, no big deal, probably only the 2nd time I'm trying to run this in a decent time, but 2:06:22 on a trail that is comparable to the Millennium Trail at Bernheim is not bad, especially overweight and on the very first day of the training plan. Oh, and it didn't kill me: I'm quite fine now.

St. Matthews Street Festival 5K

Goal: 18:30, but at least sub-19

Since this race was a piggyback afterthought after the half marathon, I didn't really take it seriously. I didn't train very much at all since the half marathon, and I actually decided on the time goal on the morning of the race. I knew I wanted to destroy that old PR of mine (19:11), and that I also wanted to run sub-19 (I'm on that thread on runningahead.com), but I also knew I should be capable of more. McMillan equates my HM time with 18:02, but I knew that was unrealistic for several reasons: it was quite warm and humid, the course was not completely flat (unlike the half marathon), and I did no specific 5K training, in fact I slacked out quite a bit in the last two weeks.

So I was putting on my running gear early at dawn, when my daughter and I were standing at the window (admiring a bunny having breakfast in our backyard), and I asked her what I should aim for, and after a short discussion we agreed on 18:30. (She is 9 years old, but already a runner. She completed her first 5K last weekend in 30:41. I did run with her, but that is a different story. I will write about that later.)

I arrived to the race early enough to have plenty of time for warmup and bathroom breaks. It was 68 F (=20 C), which wouldn't be so bad if the humidity wasn't freaking 87%. Also, let me include the elevation chart of the course right here.

Not too hard, but there are a few rolling hills, and it is nasty that the first mile is the easiest and the last one is the hardest. Regardless, the pre-race preparation went very smoothly, and I actually started to worry a bit about how relaxed I was. You need some adrenaline to run well.

I lined up right behind the start line, and exactly on time the race started. I darted out as usually, but in 100 yards I had to realize that I'm not winning this one: a group of 5 young guys in their 20s went out at 5:30-ish pace, and they looked like they knew what they were doing. I settled to a pace that felt like my VO2 max, and my GPS confirmed the correct 5:40-ish pace. I'm saying correct, because with the elevation profile and the goal, I knew I had to complete the first mile well under 6 minutes. As for position, there was the initial group of 5, and one more somewhat slower (but still clearly faster than me) young guy, and I let 2 bare chested guys in their 40s pass me in the first 1/2 mile. So I was at 9th place.

Mile 1: 5:47

So far so good. Right after the mile marker it seemed like one of the initial 5 had more ambition that ability, and he slowed quite a bit. I passed him right after the mile marker. (I think he ended up running 20:04 - after a first mile that was faster than mine.) But the hills started, and the sun came down hard, and halfway through I started to feel lousy. We made a bunch of turns, and I was running in no man's land. The shirtless guys in sight, but too fast to catch, and nobody behind me that I could see. The end is too far.

Mile 2: 5:59 (technical note at the end about mile splits)

The next mile was pure struggle. It was also the hardest in terms of elevation and turns. I ran my last 5K almost a year ago, and I already forgot how much they hurt. I wasn't 100% in the game mentally, and I forgot (seriously) to use my "out of body" technique. But I did think of my forum pals, and my daughter, of course, how disappointed she would be if I slowed down. I also made sure nobody threatened my position. The shirtless guys were at constant distance of 12-14 seconds ahead of me (that's how we finished), and slowed exactly the same rate as I. One more indication that my slowing was not a result of bad race strategy, but the terrain and the natural slight positive splits that is the optimal way to run a 5K.

Mile 3: 6:07

We turned onto the finish line, and I gave everything. I saw the clock and I knew I was sub-19, but 18:30 has just slipped away. I thought of my daughter when I crossed the line at 18:32 (slightly under 6 minute pace for the kick). Well, that's approximately 18:30, isn't it.

I still think I raced this one well, nearly perfectly. I'm not sure I could have done any better than this. But on a flat course, in 50 degrees, and with proper speed training, I might be able to go below 18 minutes. I still have more than 2 years before my 40th birthday. I actually think of racing more 5Ks, with 70 mile weeks and real preparation. They do hurt, but they are pleasantly short, and very abundant. You can race one seriously every other week. And maybe, just maybe, one day, when coincidentally all the good runners stay at home, I could win an overall at a road race for the first time in my life.

The depth of the Louisville running scene is well illustrated by the fact that 18:32 was only good for 8th place at a local 5K. The winning time was 15:37. I got 2nd in my age group, which would get me an award, but I had no time to wait for the ceremony, because I promised my daughter that I would take her to the Science Center today, so I rushed home. The race was so close to our house that I got home at 8:35, when about a quarter of the participants were still on the course. I will pick up whatever I won probably today (Sunday) before I'm leaving town for a week.

*****

Technical note on mile splits: The marker for mile 1 lined up well with Garmin, but the mile 2 marker was grossly different. At the end the GPS measured the course as 3.04 miles, but I'm rather sure that it was the correct distance and the GPS was wrong. I have several reasons to believe that. 1) The organizing company was a very reputable one. I don't think they got the course certified, but I'm sure they measured it carefully. 2) When I overlay my route with a satellite picture, it diverts from the streets a lot, making me cutting corners by running through buildings. 3) When I ran the course in training, the GPS measured it to be longer. That's actually not surprising. When I run faster, the data points will be farther from each other. 4) Mile 1 was accurate, because it was mostly straight. When we started to make many turns, accuracy went dramatically down.

I knew this while running, so I wasn't too worried about my Garmin splits. And for the purpose of the report, I scaled down 2.11 miles to 2.04 (actual to measured) and divided my measured mile splits by this ratio to get more correct ones. These are the ones reported above.

I accidentally erased my training logs for the last 2-3 years. It was never meant to be permanent (this is why I write this blog; *this* is supposed to be permanent), and I did not keep the logs that I used before I converted to SportTracks, but now I feel like I lost something... At least I should have kept the data from the beginning of this year. Oh, well.

Anyway, trying to think of what I have to preserve:

To the best of my memory, my old Mizunos have ~350 miles on them, and the newer ones have ~100 miles. My Kinvaras also have ~100 miles. The pair of Asics I use for speedwork has been on borrowed time for a while, so it doesn't really matter. Let's start from here.

I ran 5.63 miles today in 42:06 in my old shoes. The weather was 86 F, sunny. Summer is here.

I am signed up for a 5K in the weekend, but I really don't feel like running. This is post goal race burnout. Nevertheless, I forced a set of intervals on myself on Sunday. Only 2 x 2000 at 7:15, 7:20 respectively. It was hard as hell. I'm not exactly sure why, because it was nice and cool, and I only ran about 40 miles on the week before (that was my post goal race week, so it was still pretty good). But then after Sunday I missed two days in a row. I did mean to rest on Monday, but Tuesday was just sheer laziness. Or post goal race burnout. Call what we want.

500 Festival Mini Marathon HM

Goal: 1:25:00. Dream goal: 1:23:00.

I decided to run this race, because after I signed up for the Derby Mini, it turned out that I'll be traveling that weekend. So I needed another half marathon in the spring, and this seemed nice. In retrospect, the fact you have to pick up the packet the day before, so I had to drive to Indianapolis twice in two days, is a bit of a pain.

Since it is a two hour drive, and the race is huge, I got up at 3:15 AM in the morning to be able to leave home at 4:00, and to get to Indy at 6:00. The race started at 7:33, but we were supposed be in our corrals at 7:00, and with 30 thousand participants in this race, I didn't want to risk parking issues. I parked the car at 6:00, and I was in the start area at 6:30. It was a bit boring to wait for the start, but with these many people, I think I made the right choice. At least I could a do a good warmup. I got into Corral A at about 7:10 and lined up at about third-fourth line. I was only a few yards from the start line. I admired a few African elites in front with their child size bodies that is capable of maintaining sub-5 minute pace for the distance of a marathon.

We had a bit of a silence for Boston. With the adrenaline pumping in me, or because I was so focused on running, I got quite emotional, especial thinking about the child victim of the bombing. Then we listened to the anthem of my adopted home country. At 7:30, we saw the wheelchairs off, and 3 minutes later we were off running.

It is always a bit surreal running a race. Somehow I just don't feel the effort the same way. Noticing my fast breathing I knew I was running hard, but subjectively it felt easy. So I did a bit of a jackrabbit start (I do this all the time), and the first mile was over in no time.

Mile 1: 6:07 (All splits are Garmin splits, and it showed 13.15 at the end)

OK, that's unquestionably too fast. I have to slow down gradually, because this is guaranteed blowup. We ran through some streets here; I don't have a lot of memory of these, except that I didn't find Indy particularly nice. Supposedly we ran by the White River, but I don't remember water. I was just too focused on running.

Mile 2: 6:13

Still too fast. I let people pass me, because I knew I had to get back to the crowd who are running at 6:20 pace. I have to say it is a bit demoralizing to let people pass you. My breathing became a bit more relaxed.

Mile 3: 6:18

Yeah, yeah, still a bit too fast. But I felt pretty good and the bands here were playing old Rock'n'Roll. It's hard to control yourself. Maybe this was the part of the race when I blew my sub-1:23 chances. The 5K mark had a clock that I passed at 19:23, and that's only 12 seconds off of my PR from 2011, the last time I ran a 5K. (It would probably be easy to run a sub-19 5K if I tried.) But it also meant that the Indiana Runners thread would know I crossed the 5K point with this time. "If I blow this, they will be so disappointed", I thought. Slow down...

Mile 4: 6:15

Too fast. Got to slow down. I let a few more people pass. I also started to feel the heat (it was 60 degrees). I took water at an aid station and poured half of it over my head.

Mile 5: 6:24

That's more like it. Now I was among people who I thought may have the same speed as me.  We entered the vicinity of the famous racetrack. I ran quite relaxed, telling myself that we still have most of the race ahead.

Mile 6: 6:31

We entered the racetrack, and I guess it was supposed to be really special,  but to me it meant essentially nothing. Except that it had a nice straight (or slightly curved) very smooth asphalt road. I saw a guy throwing up by the the track. I though: what a shame that he maintained this hard pace so far, and now his race is over.

Mile 7: 6:25

Now I was down to my 1:23 goal pace average (6:20/mile), so it was time to maintain it. I tried to pace off of people around me, but I soon realized that I wasn't the only one who went out too fast. I started to pass people back who just passed me. The track was long, windy, and boring.

Mile 8: 6:20

At this point I saw that I ran the exactly correct pace in the last mile, but it felt I was working hard, so it was a bad sign... Still, I would have blamed myself forever if I didn't try to finish the race at this pace. We left the track and I was till passing people, but I knew I wasn't fast, but instead they were slowing.

Mile 9: 6:25

I noticed that I was a few seconds off of my 1:23 pace. Still 4+ miles left, so I can't kill myself. I just tried to pace off of a guy in a red T-shirt, who seemed to maintain the right pace, but I was quite tired and he started to slip away.

Mile 10: 6:17

We ran along a long straight road, and I already imagined this to be the finish line, but of course it wasn't. I passed the 10-mile marker at 1:03:20, which is the right pace for 6:20/mile, 1:23 finish. Only 5K was left, so I decided I would give everything. Pushed hard, passed a few people. I was hurting, but my pace was still controlled.

Mile 11: 6:17


We turned onto the road by the river. The field thinned out quite a bit here, and I ran alone in the turn. I felt I was very slow. I changed to a somewhat irregular breathing, because I just needed more oxygen. I tried to do the same strategy: pushing hard, controlled pace, but I was hurting badly. I started to look at my watch just to see how long I was along within the mile. Again, I saw a guy stopped (almost collapsed) by the road.

Mile 12: 6:26

We turned onto a bridge and so we had to climb the slight incline to the bridge. It was nothing, but it killed me. Finally I understood how it feels to blow up at the end of a race. It was not in my head. I was able tell my brain to go fast, but my body just switched off the circuits. I was going as fast as I could. People now passed me.

Mile 13: 6:32

Not terrible, but I saw the finish clock turning 1:23, which was a mild disappointment. I sprinted down to the line.

Remaining: ~52 seconds, sub 6-min pace.
Final time: 1:23:28 (chip time) 143rd overall (out of 30064), 29th in age group (out of 1982).

I was very tired in the finish; a volunteer asked me multiple times if I was OK. We got our worthless medals (everybody gets one), but as a nice touch they gave a "500 club" medal to the first 500 finishers.

This is my first race in a while when I didn't achieve my dream goal, but I still did achieve my regular goal, and more. I think with proper training and ideal race conditions (60 degrees was about 10 degrees too high) I should be able to run sub-1:23, but maybe I really should focus on the queen of all races: the marathon. McMillan is now quite positive that I could break 3 hours.

Post race party was OK, but they didn't give me my free "beer" (I'm putting quotation marks here, because it was Michelob Ultra) without my ID, which I left in my car. I mean come on, I'm 37. I walked back to my car and got back to the finish area a good 1/2 hour later. The area was extremely crowded by then. The two-hour folks have just arrived.

I have to say that even though the organization was extremely efficient, and I'm sure the silly ID rule must be followed if they don't want to get in trouble, I didn't really like this race. Car racing means nothing to me, and frankly, Indianapolis is not very pretty. Besides, the race is just too big. Sure, I can start from the front, but I have to arrive 90 minutes early, I have to park a mile from the start line, and there are just too many people everywhere. The KY Derby Half instead runs through beautiful Old Louisville with its Victorian homes, Churchill Downs, and it's about half the size. Plus, I live in Louisville.

Next immediate goal is to piggyback something off of this training. Might not be anything before Bernheim HM, but that would also be nice.

Two days. Two days left until the big race. Last run today is easy 4.1 miles. Got carried away and ran it somewhat hard in 30:40. (It's all speculative though because I left my GPS at home.) 75 F, partly cloudy, new shoes. I feel tired, regular tired, taper-madness-tired.

What hectic day of training! I did my usual routine of driving to the expressway, 2 miles from the high school track where I do my training, parked my car, and jogged to the school as a warmup. It is more time efficient this way than driving all the way to the school. Plus I save gas and eliminate some air pollution.

During the jog I was thinking that it is great that I do this track workout on Thursday, instead of the usual Wednesday, so I'll probably avoid the fat people I wrote about last week. Well, I did. But instead of a nice empty track, I found the high school track team training there. I asked the coach politely if I could train there, but he asked me politely to use the outer lanes. That would be OK, except I can't run 2000 meters in the outer lanes. I contemplated it for a while, but I just saw no way of doing my workout. Also, the younguns were running pretty fast, so the coach was quite right that I would be problematic in the inner lane.

But my car was two miles away. I knew no open tracks nearby at all. I essentially gave up track training for the day, and I jogged back to the car. During which I thought I would just give myself the chance that the university track is open. I had given up on that track a long time ago, because it was almost always closed (locked) when I tried to use it. I even emailed somebody in the athletic department but I got no response. Anyway, I drove back to campus, parked the car in my usual lot, and jogged another half mile to the track.

And it was open. It is a very nice track. I took a sip of water and in 20 seconds, I was off to fast running. I was afraid that any second somebody shows up and sends me off, so I wasted no time. It was worrisome though that I already had almost 5 miles in my legs. I wasn't sure if I can run well after that crazy and long warmup.

Well, I could. 3 x 2000 meters with 800 m recoveries, and the fast splits were 7:22, 7:26, 7:24. It was never really painful (just discomfort). That is quite awesome. I seem to continue the tradition that the last track workout before a big race goes very well. I also recalled that in my sub-20 5K chasing days about 2 years ago, I ran 2 x 2000 meters in something like 7:50 or 7:55, and it was hard. So this is not bad at all. All intervals were at sub-6-minute mile pace.

The race is close. I'm optimistic about 1:25.

I'm not very good at regularly updating this blog. But I did keep up the running quite well.

On Sunday I ran 10 miles of trail up that mountain in Boulder. A great trail run, but with some walking and of course slow pace. 12:34/mile on average, but it went from 5600 ft elevation to 8000 ft and back, all on trails. It wasn't a very easy run.

On Monday I still ran in Boulder (in snowfall!). I got back to the hotel on time to watch the end the Boston marathon, but of course I turned off the TV (internet) well before the bombing.

No running on Tuesday, long run of 14 miles on Wednesday (hilly -- Cherokee Park -- and fast -- 7:28/m), easy Thursday. I didn't actually do a steady second longest run this week (I was supposed to do 10 miles of that).

On Saturday, I ran a tempo. I wussed out and I ran only 4 miles, though the pace was decent: 6:18 average. On one hand, this is probably my fastest tempo to date. On the other hand, how come I couldn't/didn't do 5 miles at least? I was supposed to run a 8-10K tune-up race. OK, no race (kids were my responsibility in the morning), but I could have done a 5 mile tempo. I felt so bad about this, that I ran the last 0.89 mile fast again, at 6:11 pace. So this was a sort of a silly workout. I should be smarter with my training.

I finished last week with 60 miles then. This week, I'm at 30 so far, not counting the slow 2.5 I ran with my daughter at the Girls on the run meeting. I plan to do 3 x 2000 meters in 7:30/interval today. I could do a second longest run of 9 miles on Friday (travel) or Saturday (conference). I must do a long run of 9 miles on Sunday, 7 at good pace on Monday, 6 easy on Tuesday, 5 easy on Wednesday, 4 easy on Thursday, rest on Friday, and race on Saturday.

Wednesday run was in Iroquois High School, the track. This is the second time that some morbidly obese parents watch some sweet little kids, who are running extremely slowly (it actually looks like a parody of running - and this is no joke). Last time I saw them there were only a few adults (one fat woman walking in the inner lane) and the kids seemed to have a structured workout, and they were even somewhat considerate of me. This time, the workout seemed to be over, and the adults just hung around for an hour or so, while the kids were playing around. Everyone was standing, walking, talking in the inner lane with almost zero consideration of me trying to run fast. Amazingly poor track etiquette.

Nevertheless, I had a somewhat decent workout. I got hot and dehydrated at the end, but I managed to run 4 x 1600 meters with acceptable splits: 5:58, 5:56, 6:01, 6:05. The last one was less than satisfactory, and I spent a good portion in the pain cave... I seriously thought about just giving up. But apparently this is still good enough to satisfy some kind of decent Pfitzinger paces.

Then I ran Thursday morning 4 miles only, because I was teaching and I had a plane to catch to Denver. I thought maybe I would finish the workout on the hotel treadmill in Boulder at 10 or 11 o'clock, when I was scheduled to arrive. Well, weather was bad in Atlanta, so we got delayed at the transfer, and only made it to Boulder at 2:00am. So no more running on Thursday.

We hiked with a group in the Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday almost all day. We climbed a 3000 meter mountain. It was fantastic. I thought that would be the exercise of the day, but then, in the afternoon, reading around about Boulder, I couldn't resist, and I went for a run. My first run over 1600 meters of elevation. It is definitely harder than sea level, but I think I already felt partially acclimated, because it wasn't all that hard.

Today (Saturday), we have had a long lunch break at the conference, so I went out to do my planned tempo and to finish the 64-mile week with an 8-miler. I decided to run 2 easy, 4 hard, 2 easy. Because of the elevation and the hilliness, times are essentially meaningless, so I just jumped into my 2-1 breathing pattern, and pushed my pace as far as I could with this pattern. I decided to stay out of the pain cave this time. If I really honestly just want the training effect, it is not necessary to enter there. I finished, and my splits for the fast portion are: 6:57, 7:39 (steep climb), 6:27, 6:07. The average was 6:47.8, which is meaningless, but it still feels good that I did this pace a mile high and with the hills (and no pain cave). I hope it did help my lactate threshold.

Tomorrow I'm not going to RMNP, as I originally intended. I will probably just climb/run one of the beautiful mountains around Boulder.

Tuesday:

Run 1: 6.6 miles, 52:07, old Mizuno.
Run 2: 4 miles, 32:19, old Mizuno.

Monday runs were done in old Asics.

Today I ran 16 miles at 7:28/mile. It looks bad on the statistics to have a zero mile week, then 37.5, then 35.5, but there is little evidence of any loss of fitness or endurance. I'll see how I'm with LT this weekend. To get back on schedule I'll try to squeeze in two quality workouts this week.

Week -3: total of 64 miles.

Sunday: 16 miles (done).

Monday, Tuesday: 2 x 5 miles or 10 miles recovery pace (Seriously!! I'll need it!)

Wednesday: 4 x 1600 meters at 1 sec/lap slower than 8K-10K goal pace. Let's discuss this. Last week I entered 1:25 HM into McMillan to compute my 8K goal pace, and the paces were too easy. If I had entered 1:23, it would have given me 3:41/km pace, or 88.4/lap. If I add 2 seconds, I get the 90 sec/lap that I was trying to get inside of. So it looks like a good method to try again. So this time I'll try to aim for 89.4/lap, or 5:58/ interval. Essentially run all 4 in less than 6 minutes. Probably 800 meter recoveries.

Thursday: Travel, but try to get 9 miles anyway.

Friday: Hike or 5-mile tempo (total of 9-10 miles)

Saturday: if Friday is hike, or Thursday is bust, do 9-10 easy to get to 64.

Sunday: Hike, but try to run 9-10 or more miles in the Rockies. Pace is irrelevant. This should be part of the following week though.

Nice intervals today. Warmup, cooldown 2.2 miles, and 5 x 1200 meters with 600 recoveries. Fast splits were 4:27, 4:25, 4:25, 4:27, 4:27. It seems like I still have it. I was in the pain cave for the last 400 meters of the last split only. That's quite normal.

Pfitzinger only wants me to run these in 4:38, but that seems super slow. Or if I really run them in 4:27, that means 89 second laps, so my 8-10K pace should be 87 seconds, which is 36:15 for 10K. I'm almost positive that I couldn't do that.

As you'all may have expected, I didn't jump back to 70 miles. I did fine for the first half of the week (37 miles in 3 days), but then more work, more URDs, and that was it for the week. 6 days of no running, and started again this Tuesday with only 4 miles (that was all I had time for, but I had to go out, because I started to have withdrawal symptoms - I'm not kidding). Wednesday I finally had an 11 miler. I left my Garmin at home, so I didn't know my pace until the end. It turned out to be 7:10/mile. I didn't mean to run so fast, but I guess I was hungry for exercise. Then 11 easy yesterday, and I'm about to have some intervals today.

My training is out whack, and I'll have two travel weekends ahead before my race, so I'm not sure how the rest will go.

I know this is frequently returning theme of this blog, but seriously: fuck the fucking weather. When on March 25 the peak temperature of the day is 35 F and there is drizzling snow all day with cutting wind (feels like 25 F), I say enough is enough. And I ran twice today.

On March 16 I finished my largest week in my running history with 68 miles. Then the week after that I went to conference, worked really hard, weather sucked, and I got in 0 miles. That is correct. Zero. I'll try to jump back to training this week like nothing happened. This is according Pfitzinger's marathon training guideline: if you skip less than 10 days, you can try to get back where you were.

Week -5: Total of 70 miles.

Long runs: 15 and 12 miles. Take these easier, keeping them just under 8 minutes pace, unless I feel great.

VO2 max: 5 x 1200 meters at 2 sec/lap slower than 8K-10K goal pace. If I assume I only want to run 1:25 HM, then 8K goal pace would be 90.75 sec/lap. That is 4:32/interval, and I haven't even added the 2 sec/lap. Unless I really lost a lot of fitness this week, I should be able to do much better than that.

Non-long-run days should average 10.75 miles/day.

I'm tired of the cold, but chugging along. Today I had a great track workout at Iroquois High School. It was just over 40 degrees, which is very nice considering the freezing yesterday, but we got a few flurries again.

Anyway, I ran 1000s and 1200s with 600 meters recovery. Splits were the following:

1000 - 3:39.94
1200 - 4:23.93
1000 - 3:38.45
1200 - 4:26.52
1000 - 3:38.82

Very nice progress: these are all sub-6 minute paces. I used to run 1000s in 3:55-4:00. I think these times would predict sub-18:30 on 5K. I really have to go out and run one.

Week -7: 68 miles (oh my!)

Long runs: 15 and 11 miles.

VO2 max: Pfitzinger says 5 x 4:00 moderately steep uphill. But I've grown to like track training for VO2 max, especially because my goal race will be pancake flat. So this translates to something like 1000-1200-1000-1200-1000. McMillan lists 1000s at 3:32-3:42, 1200s at 4:18-4:30. I would probably be closer to the slower end. 600 recoveries would work well. Roughly 9 miles with a sizable cooldown.

Easy days: 11 miles each. Try two runs each, may be easier in spring break and warmer temperatures.

Finished the week with a tempo today of 5 miles. It was tough. I tried to run 6:20s, but at mile 2 or so, I had to realize it wasn't going to happen. So I settled to do 6:25s. Splits were 6:23, 6:21, 6:30, 6:30, 6:24, the whole last mile deep in the paincave. Average was 6:25.48, which barely qualifies as tempo according to McMillan, but at least it was 5 miles, and at least it wasn't like 6:30. I do have trouble with my stamina. The good news is that these very training runs are supposed to make it better. The other good news is that almost surely the 60-some mile weeks don't let me fully recover, so I will hopefully get better after some taper.

Addition: After I wrote this post I checked back to see what 5-mile tempo I've run in the past. So the good news is that the fastest before this was at 6:30 pace last fall, and I was very satisfied with it. This was probably a less hilly course though, but at least I didn't get slower.

I have finished my last week with the planned 66 miles. It was hard. It's a lot of running. I had one URD, so I just finished the week on Saturday, and today I'm about to run 16 miles for this week's long run. Tempo was far from perfect, but with this many miles, I'm fairly happy about the week. I'm in a constant state of physical exhaustion. I sleep 10 hours a day and I really need it.


Week -8:

Total: 62 miles.
Long runs: 16 and 11 miles.
LT: 5 mile tempo
Easy runs and tempo average 8.75 miles a day.

I finished last week with 62 miles, which I think is probably a record, though it did take 7 days instead of 6, and I had larger 7 weeks periods before (but with two long runs at the two ends). But the bad news is that I had a bad tempo run on Friday. 4 fast miles with splits 6:16.40, 6:31.69, 6:29.59, 6:26.90. Works out as 6:26.15 average. Yeah, I lost some seconds because bad timing of cars at intersections, but it should not account for the total inability to run another really fast mile after the first one. I mean for God's sake, this should be my half marathon pace by now. And I was done after 4 miles.

I'm not sure what it is, maybe just the miles, maybe the bourbon I've been sipping more than one evening, including the one before this tempo run. But I didn't drink all that much and I felt no hangover. In any case, after this run, I made a new decision: no bourbon until race day. I still had like 3 glasses of wine last night, but I still had a good 15 miler today.

Speaking of which I'm planning another record volume week. I'm not sure how it will go, because last week I had trouble putting in all those miles. In particular I had to squeeze in another 3.1 mile run on Saturday, which was supposed to be my rest day. But I think that actually worked nicely. It wasn't long enough to tire me out, but it shook out my muscles to have a better recovery. I felt no effect of my Friday tempo by my Sunday long run.

Week -9: Total of 66 miles
.
Long runs: 15 miles and 10 miles.

VO2 max: 5 x 3:00 moderately steep uphill. I'm almost positive I'll replace these with 800s, maybe a 1000 thrown in, because the 800s will be slightly less than 3 minutes. I just trust the track more than those hills, and my race will be totally flat.

Average distance for days other than long runs: 10.25 miles. It doesn't matter how get those in, but it would be nice to run two 6-milers on some less busy days.

Week -10:

Total: 62 miles. That is pretty much all time high. I did run 66 miles withing 7 days last year, but it included two long runs, which shouldn't count for the same week, and the second one was a 17-mile run that ended in a death march jogging the last few miles over 9-minute pace.

Long runs: 14 and 10 miles.

LT workout: 10-mile run with long hills or 4-mile tempo run (but 10 miles regardless).

Easy runs: 9.33 miles on average.

I like whiskey. And in particular, I like a good Bourbon. You probably figured that I don't drink a whole lot, so it takes a lot of time to try many different Bourbons, and this hobby of mine only started when we moved to Kentucky. Bourbon is very cheap here, so I bought a bottle. The first one was Jim Beam - a whiskey I knew before, and didn't particularly like, but it was like $12 for 0.75 liters. And it was fine. But I saw all those much higher priced bottles on the shelf in the store and they made me wonder how they taste...

My favorites are the whiskeys produced by the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort. I ran their 5K, too. The flagship BT is fantastic, George T. Stagg is even better.

Today I bought a bottle of Old Forester Signature. This one is produced by Brown-Foreman. The first sip was not very good, but now I'm at the 3rd glass (and it's 50% alcohol), and I have to say I really do like it. Now the only question is, how will work and my 9-mile run go tomorrow.

Bad thing in good thing is that my mileage sucks. Only 30 miles this week so far, in four days, including my long run. Since I'm working toward 58 miles, it should be like one 10-miler and two 9-mile days. Doable. I'll see if I can run tomorrow morning. If yes, I might do 4+6 or 5+5 or 5+6. So I can run less on Saturday. Because I'll have to jump into next week with no rest. I took the rest yesterday.

Yesterday I had a bad day. Working all day like a dog, and I didn't even have any time to run. I was dog tired in the evening, even though it turned out to be an unscheduled rest day (bad thing). I'll have to run on Sunday to make up for that.

Then turn around today, I had a killer workout. I went to the high school track to run 5 x 800 meters. After 2.2 miles of warmup, here are my splits: 2:56.69, 2:53.94, 2:54.03, 2:53.08, 2:51.82. Except for the first one, all are in the McMillan range finally for an 1:25 HM. I could also put the first one there, if I really wanted to, but I wanted to play it safe. It wasn't even all that hard. I could have done at least one more.

Several weeks from now, I'll have a track workout that is supposed to be 5 x 1200 m at 2 sec/lap slower than 8K-10K goal pace. If my HM goal is 1:25, the corresponding 8K goal pace is 3:47/km. That is 3:01.6 split at 800 m. Of course it would be one extra lap after that, but it doesn't seem all that hard. For an 1:23 HM, 8K goal pace is 3:41.5, and the 800 splits are 2:57.2. Even that seems possible now.

Log: Monday, 8 miles, 1:03:11. 47 F, sunny. Mizuno.

After the successfully finished 58 mile week, I'll have another of the same mileage this time.

Total: 58 miles.

Long runs: 14 and 10 miles.

VO2: Officially 5 x 2:30 moderately steep uphill. Recoveries are 50 to 90 percent of the duration of the interval. I may want to change this to another 5 x 800 meters, because that is more measurable, and I need VO2 max improvement.

Easy runs: Need to average 8.5 miles/day, which is a little over my comfort zone. So run 4 + 6 or 6 + 4 when possible, and just make sure we get to the total  mileage.

I ran to the Big Four Bridge opening yesterday. This is an old, former railroad bridge between Louisville, KY and Jeffersonville, IN, that is being converted to pedestrian and bicycle usage. The last train crossed it in the 60's, and after that they took down the ramps, so there was large, elevated bridge, not wide enough to build a road on it, but not worth to demolish. So this was the perfect thing to do.

Still, I thought with the way American society is, nobody would be out there. The news about the opening didn't exactly made the headlines. To my surprise, there was a crowd. Running was like when you line up at the back of the pack accidentally at a large race. Fortunately I wasn't in any hurry. The run was long, took me 10 miles to get to the far side from campus and back. You still can't get down to the ground on the Indiana side, because that ramp is still unfinished. I got somewhat dehydrated when I got back to campus, because it was fairly warm (a gorgeous day all in all).

I'm at 50 miles in 5 days. One easy run away from my weekly mileage.

I ran a very good tempo today. I'm afraid to say that "I'm back", because I'm afraid I would jinx it, like I did last time, but hey, it did go well.

2 x 2.5 miles tempo intervals, and the half mile splits were 3:06, 3:12, 3:16, 3:04, 3:08 (total 15:46.35), then after a half mile recovery, 3:10, 3:05, 3:05, 3:13, 3:13 (15:46.86). That means both bouts were at 6:19 average pace. With this run, I also finished 40 miles so far this week and it's only Wednesday.

Weather was quite nice though, 41 F and sunny.

Long run yesterday, 13 miles at 7:30/mile. I felt pretty good despite the fact that I didn't eat or drink anything. This is very unusual of me, but I only brought Gatorade, and I had some mild gastrointestinal discomfort, so I didn't want to risk drinking the sugary drink. This is probably the first time in my life of running this long without any fluid intake. But it was cold (around 32 F, 0 C), so I didn't sweat too much.

Plan for week -12:

Total: 58 miles.
Long runs: 13 and 9 miles.
LT: 2 x 2.5 miles tempo intervals. Start at 6:30/mile, then try to accelerate. I'm afraid I won't be able to.
Easy runs: either one 8-8.5, or do a double of 5 each or so.

I solved the mystery why I can't run fast tempos. It's because my VO2 max sucks. Surprisingly it seems like I detrained my VO2 max during the weeks following the HM in November. I already may have had some decline before the race, because I barely ever did any VO2 max work.

Today I went to the track and I ran 800's. It's been raining and freezing on and off (and today it was the rain's turn), so I was sure the trail would be like a mud pit. It was a good choice, because it got revealed that I can't do those 800s very fast. I ran 2:56, 2:57, 2:57, 2:59, 2:59. The last two were quite hard, and I know I was at or over my VO2 max. This is still faster than I used to run like a year ago, but it only corresponds to 1:27-1:28 HM time, not 1:25. Well, you just do what you can do. The circumstances were close to ideal (except for some wind), so those are not to blame.

At least I lost two ponds, as of this morning. Down to 151 again. I hope to be 148 or less by May.

Finished the week with 50 miles, but the 2 x 2 miles tempo was a failure again. In the second interval I ran 6:36/miles, but I couldn't run any faster even if somebody chased me with a gun. Seriously. I felt lactate rushing though my muscles at that pace. The 35 degrees didn't help, but this is still super disappointing. I can probably forget about the 1:23 dreams. I should also sleep more and get less stressful in real life, because that takes quite a bit of energy out of me. So I guess I'll have to give up my evening coffee again.

Week -13: Total of 54 miles.

Long runs: 13 and 9 miles.

VO2 max: 5 x 3:00 trail sprints. Total of 8 miles.

Easy runs: 8 miles each.

Easy run today is finished with only minor discomfort in my left hip. So this 50-mile week is going to be counted as success. The only thing I wanted to be better at this point in my training is 6:20 tempos, but I hope the 6:25's I run now are good enough. I'm so excited to start the regular training plan!

Week of 1/20 (-14).

Total of 50 miles.

Long runs: 12 and 9 miles.

LT: 2 x 2 miles LT intervals at 6:20 with 2-3 minutes of jogging between the intervals. Total of 8 miles.

Easy runs: 3 times 7 miles.

On the day of Lance Armstrong's confession, I finally had a nicer tempo. Not perfect, but on a teaching day, finishing in the dark, pretty cold weather (and started with breathing difficulties) I'll take it. I cut the warmup short to 1.57 miles, so I would be more fresh and I wouldn't have net elevation loss. That feels like cheating. So instead I had a 15 feet net gain (with a couple of 20-30 feet hills, but nothing too serious). The fast 4 miles were 6:29, 6:24, 6:25, 6:22. Average of 6:25.165. I only set out to run sub 6:30 (see the first mile), so maybe that's the secret. Or simply the slump is over. At least I ran another sub-20 5K somewhere in there. :)

7.1 easy tomorrow to finish up the 50-mile week. I have almost no pains! My very troublesome right ankle seem to have healed completely, my left hip was pain free today. The only issue I had was my stubborn left heel PF, but that's really minor. Well, maybe I'm speaking too soon. I will see what I'll have tomorrow.

Hard training start next week!

Finished my 50-mile week, which I'll repeat starting today.

Then off to HM plan as follows:

Jan 20: Week -14

Jan 27: Week -13

Feb 3: Week -12

Feb 10: Week -11

Feb 17: Week -10

Feb 24: Week -9

Mar 3: Week -8

Mar 10: Week -7

Mar 17: Week -6

Mar 24: Week -5

Mar 31: Week -4

Apr 7: Week -3

Apr 14: Week -2

Apr 21: Week -1

Apr 28: Race week.

May 4: Race day.

Another sucky tempo is no big news I guess. But it's my responsibility for the future myself to document it. 4 fast miles at 6:21, 6:25, 6:31, 6:26. At the end, I was done for. In the pain cave for the last 0.7 mile. The course was my usual, somewhat hilly course close to work (but not too hilly at all). The weather was perfect, 55 degrees, and my run had net elevation loss. Average pace was 6:25.69. Barely qualifies for tempo run.

Still much faster than I was a year ago, but not where I should be based on my last half marathon. At least hard running is over for the week. Only two days, a little more than 14 miles, and I'm hitting a magic 50. HM training starts on 1/20 (though I should probably double check that).

Here we go. The low of the training: no running since Dec. 29. It was always cold and cloudy outside, and I didn't feel like going out. I rather stayed at home drinking good bourbon. But it's all over now. From today, I'll revamp the training.

I'll do four hour-long runs this week until Saturday. Then from Monday, I'll repeat the staple week twice: total 50 miles, with 13.1 mile long run, 8 mile tempo (4 fast), and 7.23 mile easy runs. The tempo is fine to anywhere between 6:30 and 6:20.

I'm sure everybody is tired of hearing about how my tempo runs suck, but what can I do?

On Wednesday, in cold (33 F), light snow, I ran my worst tempo since the LSC half. 4 miles fast with splits of 6:22, 6:31, 6:27, 6:36. As you can see, by mile 4, I was done for. Average of 6:29/mile. It's time to admit that I can't run 6:20 paced tempos just now. So next week, I'll slow it down to run the first two miles at 6:30, and only accelerate if I can in the last two miles.

There are many plausible explanations why I'm slowing. For one, I'm increasing mileage. Also, it is getting colder, darker, and it is hard to run in the winter due to seasonal changes in human metabolism. It could also be partly mental. I can run mile 1 in 6:20 and feel fine, but then when fatigue starts to take over, I may lack the mental strength to push through it. Anyway, considering that a year ago I had trouble running sub-7 miles at this phase of my training, I think I'm OK.

Sorry for the changed appearance. Google essentially forced this out of me. With my old template the website started to throw error messages at me every time I tried to post.

I ran my weekly tempo today. It didn't go very well. I think I'm not ready to run this fast. I tried 6:20-6:25 pace, and at the end, I did finish 4 miles at average of 6:24 or so, but my paces were all over the place, and for mile four I felt like crap. Oh, well. I guess the same was true last winter. Reading back my blog I see myself complaining that I can't run faster than 6:50 pace for the 4-mile tempos. Maybe next winter I would complain that I can't run sub-6 tempos. :)

I will keep trying for 6:20-6:25. I should be running the 6:20 by January.

OK, here is how today went: I went to the group trail run, but nobody was there (I was 5 minutes late, so maybe they left, though that would be surprising given that they knew I was coming). I decided to do my 4 mile tempo. But I was sort of unprepared, it was dark and cold, and I just didn't have the will to run fast beyond mile 2. And my right shoelace was kind of loose. So I stopped, tied my shoe, ran 3:30 recovery and then 2 more miles fast. Even in the intervals I wasn't very fast, and the worse is that I was gradually slowing during both of my intervals. So I'm officially in a rut.

It does look like I hit this place every November-December. It may be seasonal. I'm not too worried still. My splits were still OK, I still ran some decent LT workout today. My ankle is not really better, but at least it's also not worse.

Mon, ~6 miles in my bricks.

It looks like I'm getting slower every week. Today it took me 22:27 to run the 3.5 miles, which is 6:24.85 pace. It is still not terrible, and I did *not* go over 6:25, so by my statement of last week, I can't be upset. But I'm very close to being upset... Why am I getting slower every week is a puzzle. Is it the winter slump? Too much stress in real life? We'll see... next week I'll try 4 miles.

Tempo today was not as great as last week, but was still OK. Splits are 3:05, 3:19, 3:16, 3:06, 3:05, 3:15, 3:11. Total time was 22:17.98 for 3.5 miles, 6:22.28 pace. Last week it was 22:09.61, or 6:19.89 pace. Looking at the general paces, it does look like I'm more fatigued this week, which is probably true. Less sleep, colder temps, real life. This pace is still fine, I just don't want to go over 6:25.

The plan goes perfectly, survived even Thanksgiving. I did not run on Sunday though, so I'll be running 6 days in a row for sure, and if all goes well, add the other 6 next week starting on Sunday.

Most remarkably I ran a great tempo run last Tuesday. The middle, fast part was 3.5 miles with the following half mile splits: 3:02, 3:14, 3:11, 3:12, 3:09, 3:14, 3:08. I was aiming for 6:20 miles (3:10 splits).

I will actually have to be careful not to work out too hard. During Thanksgiving, I did a run on the beach in North Myrtle Beach with a few friends. After some slowish initial miles, I apologized to them and took off. Then I did the last 1.5 miles at sub-7 pace, and it didn't feel that hard. That is almost scary...

Another nice piece of news: I got a letter from the LSC Half Marathon organizers stating that I received a $50 gift certificate for placing 2nd in my age group in the race. Nice! I now turned professional, making money of my running. :)

Slightly revised plans follow. I'll have two buffer weeks at the end of the buildup, in case I run Indianapolis, and one buffer week in case I run the Derby Mini (looks unlikely now - will travel to a conference).

Week of 11/11: 5 easy runs of 4 miles each, no slower than 8:00; one long run of 7 miles. Total of 27 miles.

Week of 11/18: One easy run is switched out to a 5.5 mile tempo: 1 mile warmup, 3.5 miles at tempo pace (6:20, but a little slower is fine), then 1 mile cooldown. Increase long run to 8 miles. Total of 29.5 miles.

Week of 11/25: Total of 32 miles, including 8 mile long run, 5.5 mile tempo (as above), and easy runs of 4.63 miles each.

Week of 12/2: Total of 35 miles, including 9 mile long, same tempo (but do try to hit the 6:20 pace), easy runs of 5.13 miles.

Week of 12/9: Total of 39 miles, including 10 mile long, 6 mile tempo (1 - 4 - 1), and 5.75 mile easy runs.

Week of 12/16: Total of 43 miles, including 11 mile long, 7 mile tempo (1.5 - 4 - 1.5) and 6.25 mile easy runs.

Week of 12/23: Total of 47 miles, including 12 mile long, 7 mile tempo and 7 mile easy runs.

Week of 12/30: Total of 50 miles, including 13.1 mile long, 8 mile tempo (2 - 4 - 2) and 7.23 mile easy runs.

Week of 1/6, and 1/13: Repeat the last week. These two weeks will also serve as buffer if I ever have to repeat a buildup week. Note that in case I run the Derby Mini, there is only one buffer week.

Louisville Sports Commission Half Marathon Race Report

Goal: better than 1:27:11. Secondary goal: sub-1:30.

I ran this race as a member of the University of Louisville Corporate Team, so I could not risk completely bumming the race. I decided to go out at my PR pace, to give myself a chance to PR, and see it from there. My PR was run this spring on perfect training on a pancake flat course. This time, my training was much worse, and there were a few hard hills on the course. Here is the elevation profile:

We woke up to a cold morning with temperature of about 36 degrees. After my usual pre-race rituals (breakfast, coffee, etc.) I drove to the race, where I found a cheap parking spot really close to the start line. We met up with the team before the race, but we were all freezing, so we just got a quick picture together, and then went on to the start area.

I saw a bunch of people wearing only T-shirt or even singlet, but I decided to go with long sleeves. After the warmup, while standing in the start area, I sort of regretted it, because it was nice and cozy there, but it was too late to change the setup. In retrospect I'm happy that it was too late, because I needed those long sleeves.

There were about 2000 runners, but people seemed very reasonable here, and slow people didn't try to line up close to the start line. At exactly 8:30, after a countdown, we were off.

The race started with a long straight flat street, and we had the first mile split there. I knew I went out faster than I wanted to, but it was hard to control my excitement. I just went with the flow.

Mile 1: 6:26

We took a couple of turns, but it was like the first mile: flat, fast. I felt great, the adrenaline was still pumping hard in me, and the weather was also great. I was not hot, not cold, and the predicted rain didn't arrive.

Mile 2: 6:28

I knew I had to slow down. I just didn't believe I had enough miles in training to do this pace for 13.1 miles. I tried to take it easier. I ran by a couple of spectators in University of Louisville Cardinals gear, and I pulled down my upper layer to reveal my "Cardinal" T-shirt underneath. I got a huge cheer! :)

Mile 3: 6:35

I knew we had one more mile before the three hills of Cherokee Park. We entered the park, but first we ran a flat portion of the road. I saw one of my trail running buddies finishing his Saturday morning trail run in the park (another extra cheer). Unfortunately we also got some sleet/rain/hail here, which wouldn't have been a big deal if that was all for the race. But from here it was raining on and off, and by the end of the race it was just raining, heavy and cold. But let's not jump ahead.

Mile 4: 6:24

(It seems like I was very fast in the previous mile, but it was all downhill.) Right after the marker, the big climb started. Following my predetermined strategy, I slowed down, maintaining just slightly increased effort level uphill. When we got to the top, my Garmin still showed 6:33 or so average pace, and I wasn't sure if I should take it as a good sign (unexpectedly fast pace), or a bad sign (expected blowup at the end).

I had my first drink on the top of this hill. Aid stations were not great at this race. Most aid stations didn't announce who had water and who had Powerade, so you just got what you got. And except for one, they had these awful plastic cups.

Mile 5: 6:57

Hill #2. Not as hard as #1. Before I knew, I was at the top. But the weather was turning bad, and I already started to feel tired, and we weren't even halfway done.

Mile 6: 6:38

Hill #3. Difficulty is the same as #2. We left the park by this time, and people disappeared from around me. I passed a few people in miles 2,3,4 and 5, and I still always saw somebody ahead, but the passing became more and more rare. At least nobody passed me. Drink #2 happened with paper cups (great), but I got water (wanted Powerade).

Mile 7: 6:38

I permanently switched to the faster 2-1 breathing pattern here from 2-2. Mostly downhill, so I got good speed, but I felt my legs getting trashed. My left hip started to hurt, my right leg, too, a bit of soreness in the right ankle... and I started to hate the world. But I told myself, I was only a 10K from the finish.

Mile 8: 6:30

More downhill. Drink #3 (plastic cup, water, half of it on my shirt). No rain at the moment, but I was already wet. I passed a few more people. I started to feel good about a PR, and barring catastrophe, sub-1:30 was in the bag. But I *was* tired.

Mile 9: 6:27

The race was flat from here. I counted back the miles. I was struggling, but pushing myself. I already knew this race was not to be like the spring half marathon where I felt great at the end. I passed more people though.

Mile 10: 6:28

We were going through the working class neighborhood, and the folks were out and very supportive. I passed one more guy right after an aid station (plastic cup, water, some of which went down my windpipe), and then there was a long-long empty space in front of me. The rain was coming down hard, it was getting into my eyes. I started to feel quite cold, especially my hands. My shoes and socks were also soaked.

Mile 11: 6:30

The race started to feel surreal. I was hurting badly. I tried to run with my eyes closed and only open it for one stride out of 3 or 4. I seemed to get closer to the guy in front of me. Yes, he was closer. And then I passed him. I had this interesting disconnect between how I felt and how I ran. I was in a lot of pain and wanted to stop, but I just kept running the same pace. "You only have to endure it for less than 15 minutes." I told myself.

Mile 12: 6:26

I saw the clock at the marker turning 1:18:00, and I realized that with a strong last mile, I can get close to 1:25. My mental math was not quite strong enough to realize how fast would I have to be. So I just pushed, and pushed, and I was dying, and freezing, I couldn't feel my hands, the freezing rain was flowing down on my face, and where the hell is that finish line anyway?! It was a straight road for the whole mile leading up to the finish, but due to the heavy rain, the visibility was so bad that I didn't see it until I was very close.

Mile 13: 6:14

I really want to see those finish line photos. I was done for. I ran my heart out.

Last portion: 0:39 (roughly 6 min/mile pace)
Total time: 1:25:18
23th overall out of 2143, 2nd in my age group, but age group awards were not given.

Our team got 3rd place in the Corporate Challenge with me running our fastest time. This is a great result.

I'm overjoyed with the race. I couldn't have run any faster today. Running an almost 2 minute PR with the circumstances is great. But I will still focus on a spring half marathon to run an official sub-1:25 before going on to my sub-3 hour marathon journey.

The post race party was a bit lame with a goofy pop-rock band (Bon Jovi and Toto style) and the rain, but there was pizza and free whiskey for the corporate teams, so it was all good. :)

Leading up to race day, there are tow things to think about. 1. What pace should I go out? 2. What training should I do for the spring HM.

1. 6:39. This would lead to 1:27:18, slightly over my PR. Then I see how I feel. If it feels fine, go into Cherokee Park at that pace, and keep running powerful, but controlled pace (no lactate!). If I can finish the hilly part still maintaining 6:52 average, it's good. Then whatever I can do in the rest.

2. The goal is to be able to start the spring training healthy, no pains, and a very solid base of 50 miles/week.

No running on 11/04. Then whenever I feel like it (but no later than 11/11), start a 30 minutes/day regimen. Pace is unimportant before 11/11.

Week of 11/11: 5 easy runs of 4 miles each, no slower than 8:00; one long run of 7 miles. Total of 27 miles.

Week of 11/18: One easy run is switched out to a 5.5 mile tempo: 1 mile warmup, 3.5 miles at tempo pace (6:30 for now), then 1 mile cooldown. Increase long run to 8 miles. Total of 29.5 miles.

Week of 11/25: Total of 32 miles, including 8 mile long run, 5.5 mile tempo (as above), and easy runs of 4.63 miles each.

Week of 12/2: Total of 35 miles, including 9 mile long, same tempo, easy runs of 5.13 miles.

Week of 12/9: Total of 39 miles, including 10 mile long, 6 mile tempo (1 - 4 - 1), and 5.75 mile easy runs.

Week of 12/16: Total of 43 miles, including 11 mile long, 7 mile tempo (1.5 - 4 - 1.5) and 6.25 mile easy runs.

Week of 12/23: Total of 47 miles, including 12 mile long, 7 mile tempo and 7 mile easy runs.

Week of 12/30: Total of 50 miles, including 13.1 mile long, 8 mile tempo (2 - 4 - 2) and 7.23 mile easy runs.

Week of 1/6: Keep everything but bring up the paces. Ideally, by now, paces would be slightly faster, but if not, that's OK. We have some time to increase pace during the training plan (starting on 1/13), and in fact going through the plan at these paces should also be mostly OK.

Something like:

Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Race

I've been sick in the last few days with bad stomach bug: high fevers, no energy, and running was completely out of question. This happened with fairly bad timing, because my goal race is next weekend. I haven't run since Wednesday, in particular, missing my last track workout in the weekend.

I'm trying to figure out training for this week, but I think I will just do some easy runs and see what I can do on race days after this mostly imprefect preparation (including my previous traininng issue).

Week of 10/21 (-1):

Total of 49 miles.

Sunday: 5.75 miles recovery (this is done).
Monday: 12 miles at 7:45.
Tuesday: 7.5 miles easy.
Wednesday: 9 miles at 7:45.
Thursday: 7.5 miles easy.
Friday: Rest.
Saturday: 3 x 2000 meters at 8K-10K goal pace. Details: 2 x 2000 m at 7:45 (1:33/lap) with 800 m recovery (in no less than 3:53). Warmup and cooldown are 2.25 miles.

Doug's Run 10 km Race Report

Goal: not sure because of the hills, but thinking 42 minutes.

If you are a runner in Louisville, you certainly know Iroquois Park. A big hill in the middle of the plains, that was no good for farming or building, so the city surrounded it, but they never cut the forest. So we have this beautiful wilderness in town. Also, because it has a 2-mile steady uphill road, it is my favorite place to do my hill workouts. So I knew the course very well, and I must admit, I was very much afraid of it. To get the idea: the race starts at the foot of the hill, it goes up the hill, circles the top (but even that part is not flat), goes down on the same road where we come up, and then circles around the foothills, going through many "small" hills; but let me mention that these small hills used to be part of the KY Derby Half Marathon, and people always complained about the "difficult" hills at the beginning of the course. These are the same hills that are still part of the Papa John's 10 miler that I ran in the spring, and they are not negligible. But today, they were the easy ones.

There was one positive thing I didn't know about: the course had a net elevation loss of just over 10 meters (so it exceeds the allowed 10 meters for record eligible course). My (loose) plan was to run just under 7-minute miles for the first 3 miles, then try to average 6:30 (shouldn't be a problem for flat course) on the next 3, then all out at the end, and finish under 42 minutes (6:45 average).

The temperature was 48 degrees, and the sky was overcast, so it was perfect running weather. The parking lot was a half mile from the start line, so I got my perfect warmup by jogging to the start line, going back to the car to drop off clothes, finding a bathroom, and jogging back to the start line. I lined up in the front row in shorts and my lucky orange T-shirt (and my trusted Kinvara's of course).

At exactly 9:00am they started the race. They did make one mistake though that we only learned later: they forgot to start the clock, so all the finish times were off by about 1:20. It didn't matter during the race, of course. I had my Garmin to check my progress. I jumped out quickly as always, but then I restrained myself and let many people pass. I knew that the hill was long, and I can't kill myself in the first mile. I settled into this ~7 min/mile pace; but with the quick start, my average pace a bit faster.

Mile 1: 6:52

The hill continued into the second mile, and in fact it reached its steepest part. Up the hill I tried to pace off of a guy in a red shirt, but he pulled away on the steep part. I tried to accelerate some in the more flat portions in the second half of this mile, but my legs needed recovery. So I was just content not letting the red T-shirt disappear, and once I recovered by the end of this mile, I started to reel him in.

Mile 2: 6:49

A downhill portion here, and I just got relaxed and fast. I let my leg turnover increase, and when I felt even more recovered, I put in some power. I passed maybe two runners. We had some more serious climbs here (on the top of the hill), and it was hard to maintain control.

Mile 3: 6:17

Finally we were going down. A controlled, strong, downhill effort, but trying not to trash my legs. I think I caught the red T-shirt guy on the bottom of the hill, and I just powered by him. He told me in the finish "I tried to follow you, but man, you were moving!"

Mile 4: 5:58

We got to the foothills with its constant rolling terrain. It doesn't look bad on the elevation chart, but only because the big hill changes the scale. It used to be hard for me to run these in the spring, but I think I got better on hills. I was picking out runners in front of me and passed them, maybe two in this mile.

Mile 5: 6:20

I saw a guy in a white T-shirt maybe a 100 yards ahead, and I remembered that he passed me halfway up the hill. I decided to pull close, but I started get some side stitches, and I felt very tired and squeamish. I still got closer, but very slowly. We hit another incline, and I thought I would throw up. I just arrived up behind the white T-shirt, so I decided to stay on his heel without passing him. But he slowed so much on the hill, that just before the top, I charged out, and left him standing. I propelled down on the other side.

I saw another guy at about 50 or so yards ahead, but he pretty much matched my pace, so I thought I probably wouldn't catch him. Then I saw the 6-mile sign, so I thought: I got to try. Only 0.2 mile left. If I can't pass him, it's OK, but I got to try.

Mile 6: 6:18

I got close to the guy, and I expected him to speed up, but he didn't (or mot much). I passed him, and sprinted to the finish. It was far! 0.2 mile can feel pretty long...

Last portion: 51 seconds. Due to Garmin or course errors, this was certainly less than 0.2 mile, and I think I ran at around 5 minute pace.

Total time: 39:25. The clock showed something like 38:0x, but the main organizer immediately told us that the clock was off by 1:20. The exact time doesn't matter too much, because it was non-certified, non-PR eligible course anyway. It's still plenty hard, so I'm quite happy with the time.

I thought I was pretty well ahead in positions, but I haven't realized until the awards that I got 3rd place overall. I'm especially happy, because looking at the results, the runners behind me followed me only by seconds (like the last one I passed was only 5 seconds behind), but the next one up ahead was a minute away.

With this strong performance in my bag, now I must try for a PR on November 3. I think I will go out at 6:40 pace, and see if I can maintain it. Those three hills on the course don't scare me any more!

I'm running a 10K in the weekend, instead of a time trial. That is great! It is a very hilly one, but it will be good for training, and I'll try to win my age group.

Decent run today: a VO2 max run of 4 x 1600 meters with 800 meter recoveries. The splits were 6:10, 6:17, 6:12, 6:16 (goal pace was 6:16). The bad news is that is was fairly hard, and I made a visit to the paincave in the last interval (I was 2 seconds off of pace at 1200 m and I was already quite tired). It was 72 degrees and a bit windy, and I had to run around people and obstacles on the track because a bunch of mostly very overweight people organized a picnic/football game at the high school track. So the performance isn't so bad after all. No pain, no gain, right? Finished the week with the planned 58 miles.

Week of 10/14 (-2): Total 54 miles.

Long runs: 14 and 10 miles (glad to see these going down)

LT: 10K time trial plus warmup/cooldown: 9 miles total. This will be hard, but I do need it all.

Easy runs: 3 x 7 miles.

Ideally it would be easy on Sunday, 14 miles on Monday, 7 on Tuesday, 10 on Wednesday, 7 on Thursday, Rest on Friday, and the time trial on Saturday. I should introduce Friday as regular rest day, and longest runs early in the week, because race day is approaching fast.

Week -4 is finally success (after many partially or totally failed ones). The icing on the cake is the 10000 meters I ran today in 39:22, with very even splits except for the first and last kilometers, which were faster, as they should be. Here are the kilometer splits: 3:47, 3:57, 4:00, 3:57, 4:00, 3:59, 3:59, 3:59, 3:59, 3:46.

Week -3: Total of 58 miles.

Long runs: 16 and 11 miles.

VO2 max: 4 x 1600 meters. Training plan calls for 1 sec/lap slower than 8K-10K goal pace. If I get ambitious and aim for the low end (8K pace), which is, according to McMillan, (corresponding to 1:27:11), 3:53/km. That is ~93 sec/lap. So the goal pace for this training run would be 94 sec/lap, or 6:16/interval. 800-meter recoveries. With 2 miles of warmup an 2 miles of cooldown, this amounts to 9-9.5 miles.

Easy runs: 7.33 miles.

I do have the occasional good runs, the problem is mostly lack of miles in my training. Like today, I ran 13.88 miles in the 60 degree rains. It was literally raining from beginning to the end of the run. That is 1 hour 43 minutes running in the rain. But that pace is actually quite good: 7:25/mile, and it wasn't all that hard. In fact I feel better than after my (slower) 12-miler last week.

Does it suck to run in the rain? Not so much. There were really only two things for which I wished it didn't rain. Number one is that my hand-drawn map practically fell apart. I was seriously worried that I wouldn't find the (shortest) way back to start, and I really didn't want to make this run 15-16 miles, or walk in the rain for a mile or two. But at the end, holding it in my hands, it lasted just long enough. Number two was the terrible chaffing. Both nipples and my scrotum are sore (I know, TMI). My right nipple bled a nice red line into my white running shirt, and the end of the run was through the crowded campus. I wonder how many people noticed.

There is just no good solution for nipple chaffing. I still hope I can develop callouses. :)

Training is still bad... I don't even like to look at how little I run. Last week was a grad total of 36.5 miles.

Week -4 (starting on 9/30):
Mileage: 56 miles.
Long runs: 13 and 10 miles.
Fast run: 10K race or time trial. Total of ~8 miles.
Easy runs: 8.33 miles.

Tue, 68 F, asics, 12 miles.

I came back from Poland two days ago (haven't run yet), and of course I didn't do enough training. I'll talk to my coach on Wednesday how to change my training to accommodate for this gap in training. The second week was better, so I may be able to resume it with no problem, but I'll let her take a look at what I did and make a decision.

So for now let's pretend that my training has been perfect. Here is the plan for this week.

Week 5, beginning on 9/23: 63 miles.

Long runs: 15 and 12 miles.

VO2 max: 5 x 1200 meters at 2 sec/lap slower than 8K-10K race pace. According to McMillan, 1:27:11 HM corresponds to 3:53/km 8K pace and 3:55/km 10K pace. So my lap pace should be 95-96 seconds. The workout would be as follows: 3200 warmup, 5 x 1200 meters at 95-96 sec/lap (4:47 intervals), 800 meter recoveries at 4:18 max time (that is 90% of 4:47), then 3600 meters cooldown. Total should be 16000 meters, or approximately 10 miles.

Easy runs: three 8.67 mile runs on average.

In an effort to get my lactate threshold up, and in the light of the lack of tempo runs during my "faltering motivation" period, I ran my second tempo today within two weeks. After the 4 miles last week, I ran 5 this time. The temperature was much nicer 73 degrees, and though humidity was high (right after a rain), the weather was cloudy, so it was mostly not a problem. I did get full saturation of my running clothes by the end of the run, but I think it didn't hinder my performance.

Splits were 6:26, 6:35, 6:32, 6:33, 6:26. Average of 6:30.39 with the hundredths taken into account. Absolutely perfect. This was ran in the Clark Park course, which is not completely flat either. And during 55-60 mile weeks.

Week of 9/2.

Total: 56 miles.
Long runs: 11 and 16 miles.
LT run: 5 miles tempo, approx. 8 miles total.
Easy runs: 7 miles each.

Tempo in 88 F? That's what happens if you train for a Fall HM in Louisville. I was reading my Spring training log today, and I was lamenting 71 F temperatures for a tempo run. LOL!

Considering the heat (also, full sun at 4pm EDT, which is solar 2:17pm!), splits were actually pretty good. 6:43, 6:37, 6:37, 6:39.

I realized I haven't run a tempo run since July 11. I need it much more than VO2 max, so I decided to run tempo today. It will be 4 miles of tempo. Next week is 5 miles of tempo. Pace should be ~6:30, no worse than 6:45.

Another run at 11:40pm, 76 F, Brooks. This time I ran without Garmin, 4 miles in 31:38.

Monday, 87 F, partly sunny, but full sun at the end. Fucking hot. (Asics.)

Interestingly, it is *not* hotter than average. It is impossible to train hard during the day in the summertime here.

Week of 8/26/2012 (week 9):

Try 60 miles.
Long runs: 15 miles and 10 miles. Everything else: 8.75 on average.
VO2 max: 5 x 3:00 uphill. 2-minute downhill jogs for recovery.

Starting with the 15-miler tomorrow morning. Coincidentally it's the day the Ironman Louisville. I'll run on the riverside hoping for sub 8-min miles. It will be fairly warm, but not superhot.

Yeah, I messed up again. The last couple of weeks were characterized by meager attempts to get back to regular training, but with no race on the horizon and way too much work, the efforts were only realized in the sporadic single 7-8 mile runs.

But now the good news: U of L will sponsor a team for the LSC Half marathon, and I'm on the team. I must go below 1:30 again, and there are a few nasty hills in Cherokee Park. I ramp up some training by the weekend and I'll try to catch up with my abandoned plan. So I'll attempt the following week plan and mileage:

08/26 (week 9): 60 miles
09/02 (week 8): 56 miles
09/09 (week 7): 61 miles
09/16 (week 6): 65 miles
09/23 (week 5): 63 miles
09/30 (week 4): 56 miles
10/07 (week 3): 58 miles
10/14 (week 2): 54 miles
10/21 (week 1): 49 miles
10/28 (race week): 40 miles

It's a little scary to jump into a 60 mile week, I hope I can do it... I ran 9 today and except for a mild muscle pull (left calf) I felt fine.

Oh, and also peak weeks in Poland... sounds unlikely, but hey, one can still plan, right?