Week -8 went reasonably well, though it wasn't as good as the ones before. I probably hadn't realized just how hard it was. The rest day on Monday was not nearly enough to recover from the Sunday marathon paced run, and I followed that up with 13 miles on Tuesday, and 15 miles of Wednesday. Both days I started at 6pm, which meant that I finished well after dark. It was also pretty cold every day. Then one recovery day, and then the threshold run on Friday.

It was supposed to be a continuous 5-mile run, but my schedule and my stomach was messed up, and I had to stop for a bathroom break after the second fast mile. It was cold, windy, I was tired, bad stomach, bad traffic, and too much work the during the day - I was predisposed to run poorly.

So it was 6:47, 6:30, break, 6:30, 6:35, 6:29. The first mile doesn't look right: I'm pretty sure I was just as fast as in the others (and the partial mile splits looked right), so it must have been due to the traffic that held me up in an intersection. So I guess it's OK. Not terrific, because it was broken up, and that first mile is suspect, but not terrible either.

Then another recovery day, and my first 18-miler on Sunday. The difficulty of which is the tired legs from all week. 66 miles. Some records: largest volume, longest tempo, longest run in about a year (Boston training).

Next week is recovery, but not easy.

Week -7:

M: Rest
T: 8 GA w/ 10 x 100 ST
W: 15 MLR
T: 5 R
F: 10 w/ 4 @ LT (6:30)
S: 7 GA
S: 17 L

Total: 59 miles. (Edit: in fact it is 62. The book has an error.) Seems doable; there is nothing here I haven't done recently. Also, hopefully, the weather is getting better.

Then week -6 and -5 are two brutal 70 mile weeks, the two hardest weeks of the whole cycle.

Week -9 went OK. The crux of the week was the marathon paced run on Sunday: 17 miles of which 10 at marathon pace. My fast splits were 6:39, 6:57, 6:58, 6:48, 7:05, 7:01, 7:08, 6:57, 7:06, 6:54. The strong wind and the terrain is largely responsible for the variation in pace, though I did start a bit fast, and I developed side stitches after 5 miles. I took a 5-second "stop - slow breath out - go" to get rid of it, and it worked.

This is a 6:57 average. I was aiming for 7 minutes, but 6:57 is perfectly fine. This would translate to a 3:02:xx marathon, but if we add the hills, you get 3:05.

I still obviously do need to develop all three aspects of my running: endurance (marathon paced and long runs), stamina (lactate threshold), and fitness (VO2 max), because the last miles were not easy, and this only 10 (or 17, depending on how you count), not 26. Though I have to keep in mind that this has been my largest volume week for almost a year, and I have had some good workouts recently, so I was running on tired legs (and I definitely felt it).

So I think we are on track for 3:05. Getting to 3 hours again seems incredibly hard, but let's do one step at a time.

Another important note: the 12-week cycle is short, and so definitely not ideal for me.

Week -8:
M: Rest
T: 13 MLR
W: 15 MLR
T: 5 R
F: 10 w/ 5 @ LT (6:30/mile)
S: 5 R
S: 18 L

Seems doable, the crux being the threshold run on Friday. Then the following week is recovery (with 59 miles, LOL)!

Week -10 was an unambiguous success. The first difficulty was the two longs runs at the beginning of week, and it was indeed pretty hard: by the end of my 11-miler on Wednesday I started to bonk. But I had just enough energy to finish it anyway. Then just a short day until Friday: the LT run. It got quite cold, and being acclimated, I decided to better do it on a treadmill. And the run went just right. It was hard enough that I struggled a bit at the end, but I didn't need to slow down, and I probably could have done another mile. Finally, the week ended with a 17-mile run: my longest since Boston. I went to Turkey Run Park to make is hilly, and though it was tiring, I was able to finish strong at marathon pace.

So there is a good reason to be optimistic. Here is week -9:

M: Rest
T: 9 GA w/ 10x100
W: 14 MLR
T: 5 R
F: 12 MLR
S: 5 R
S: 17 w/ 10 @ MP (7:00/mile)

It doesn't look terrible, except for the Sunday long run. The 17-miler was hard enough, and now 10 at race pace! But hopefully I will be stronger, and I'll do the bare minimum for each run to get ready for Sunday. That is, GA and MLR runs should be just under 8 min/mile, and recovery should definitely be over. Marathon paced long run should be mostly flat, probably on my neighborhood lap.

One day left from week -11 (which I heavily modified to fit in the 4-miler). All is well, assuming that I can finish my 15-miler tomorrow on my raced legs. Here is week -10:

M: Rest
T: 12 MLR
W: 11 MLR
T: 5 R
F: 9 w/ 4 T (try 6:32/mile)
S: 5 R
S: 17 L

Snowman Shuffle Race Report

Goal: start at threshold pace, and try to pick it up on the hills. Would be happy with 26:00.

This race was after the first week of marathon training. I've done high miles, and little rest in the last few weeks, so all I was hoping for is treating this as a fast tempo, and hopefully win my age group. I didn't have high hopes for the Master's win, because there was a guy in the first two races, who was much faster than me. And I knew that if he didn't show up, I would almost certainly win the Master's group of the Polar Bear Grand Prix anyway. So the goal was to make this a good threshold run, maybe a bit harder at the end, and hope for a 6:30 overall pace, which would bring me close to 6:20-ish lactate threshold, which is a 55 VDOT, and a strong indicator of being on track for a 3:05 marathon.

It's always hard to get the family started in the morning, so we left pretty late, and we arrived at 8:20-ish for the 9am start. I did 2 miles of warmup right away, bathroom, change, drink, and line-up. Worked just fine.

The weather was lousy: 33 degrees and very humid, so it felt colder. The course was wet asphalt with puddles, and anything off the road was covered with a thin layer of snow, so my shoes were wet even before the race started.

The course had two hills, and we started on the top of one. We went down in the first half mile, then it was flat until mile 2.7. The last 1.3 miles was up-down-up. Lots of turns.

We were off at 9am. I ran by my threshold feeling, which made a fast descent from the hill. A passed several people, but I was aware that they would catch me. It's just my running form: I'm faster downhill than most people of similar speed. So this is indeed what happened: by mile 1, I was passed by a few people. I was just running my perceived LT pace.

Mile 1: 5:58 (my GPS systematically underestimated distance on this course, so I'm correcting for error linearly)

We were on the out and back portion of the course. I was in decent position, and I had some suspicion that the Masters winner from the first two races was not here. It didn't change my strategy, so I was just running by feel. I cheered on both Flora and Melinda when they came by. This was an entirely flat mile.

Mile 2: 6:21

If this is really my LT, then it;s a great sign. I do have some doubt though. I think I'm closer to 6:30, and the race gave me some extra adrenaline to run a bit faster. Also, my watch measured a 6:27 pace here, so I didn't get overly excited.

Soon enough we started to climb. My fitness sucks. I know this for two reasons: (1) it is actually hard to maintain my LT for more than 2 miles - cf. beginning Boston marathon training a year ago (2) climbing needs more oxygen, and I couldn't get it fast enough to my cells. I slowed quite a bit, and a woman passed me (her name is April - she is the one I had a conversation with during the 4K). Maybe if I risked more, or considered this an important race, I could have followed, but not today. She beat me by 15 seconds in the finish.

Mile 3: 6:55

Soon we reached the crest of the hill. I was still somewhat conservative downhill, trying to catch breath enough to have something in the tank for the last hill. It was quite a bit harder than expected. I got passed by a 16-year old uphill (yes, the same one I wrote about in the 5K). He was super nice and cheered me on, but I couldn't follow him. He beat me by 9 seconds in the finish. Once we reached the flat part (the last 100 meters), I realized that my GPS was lying to me. Before the last hill, I've seen that I've been doing a 6:33 pace, so I determined that 26 minutes is hopeless. But I was closing on to the finish line, and the clock still showed 25:52. I tried to sprint, but I missed 26 minutes by 1 second! Chip time was actually 26:00.5, so I'll generously call it 26 minutes, and determine that I reached my time goal. I learned at these local road races that now matter how lame you are, you must be proud of yourself. :)

Mile 4: 6:46

Total time: 26:00. 12th overall, 1st in age group, after the Masters winner is taken out.

Also, to my surprise, that Ben guy, who was the Masters winner in the first two races didn't show up today. So even though I had three 2nd places in the Masters division, I ended up taking the Masters trophy in the Polar Bear Grand Prix. They changed the (nonexisting) rules at random again this year, and they actually counted overall points for age group places. I think this is a better system, but it's messed up that the rules are not published and decided after the race.

The organization otherwise was not terrible, but they did have issues with the results. It is all so temping to start an organizer and timing company...

Flora got second in her age group, and Melinda improved a whole lot on her 5K pace. All in all a good day for the family.

So this race shows that my lactate threshold is probably no worse than 6:30, which indicates a 53 VDOT. If this is true, it is an excellent starting point for marathon training for 3:05. Now I just have to survive it.

The die is cast. I am signed up for the Derby Marathon. 12 weeks, training started today with 8 miles of general aerobic run. Goal is still 3:05. Since I'm old as dirt, my BQ base time will be 3:20, starting at 2021, so I'll set 3:15 as a secondary goal, even tough it seems too easy.

Everything is good and steady since the 5K. I managed to go out for runs even when I really didn't feel like doing it. I've done two 60-mile weeks (including race week), and I'm on my third one, with two more runs left (one of them is long).

I'm planning to start my marathon training on February 3. That means that Snowman Shuffle 4-miler will be on the first weekend of training. I need some adjustment of training then. The first adjustment is, since I want to frontload the race week, is to shift my rest day to Friday. I can start working on this next week.

01/25: 9 E
01/26: 15 E

01/27: 9 E
01/28: 9 E
01/29: 9 E
01/30: Rest
01/31: 9 E
02/01: 9 E
02/02: 15 L

02/03: 8 GA w/ 10x100
02/04: 11 ML
02/05: 5 R
02/06: 8 GA
02/07: Rest
02/08: 2 wu + 4 race + 2 cd
02/09: 15 L

02/10: Resume marathon training. We can consider shifting it up by one day (so marathon day is Saturday, not Sunday), for which this would the perfect opportunity, having already taken a rest day on Friday. However, that would place rest days for Sunday, and mid week long runs for Tuesday, which works terribly with my real life schedule.

Frostbite 5K Race Report

Goal: nothing particular, just run for the best placement I can get

So this is the second race of the Polar Bear Grand Prix. Very obviously I wasn't trained for this. All I did is base mileage and no workouts, because I really do marathon base building. But these races serve well as workouts.

The whole family was there again, which always makes this a bit more stressful. We arrived early, so I did a very good warmup of 2.2 miles, strides, and dynamic stretching. Legs felt heavy, which is no surprise with the training I've been doing.

It was 65 degrees with very high humidity (in January), so I was all sweaty after the warmup. But the heat didn't bother me, at at this short distance. It was also a full cloud cover.

The race started right at 9:00. This course had the same two hills as the 4K, but this time they added an extra out-and-back section for the extra kilometer. By the way, I'm pretty sure they messed up the cone placement and the course ended up being about 0.1 mile too long. That's about 40 seconds! But it's OK. I wasn't going to PR today anyway.

This time the race start was at a different place, and so the race starts with the harder of the two hills. We are gaining 85 ft in 0.4 mile. I pushed the uphill a bit: I tried to keep myself at my VO2 max. I knew it was not sustainable, but my plan was to ease off a bit on the downhill. This may not be the best strategy, but I figured it would be the best for me today.

I was running behind a shirtless high school kid on the uphill, but he slowed a bit toward the top. I still tried to tuck behind him, because there was strong wind with some crazy gusts, especially on the hill. But he was slowing more, and I made the jump to the next group on the top of the hill. This was two people: a young guy in a white T-shirt, who told me at the start he was going to start at a 7:15 pace (we were averaging 6:3x here even with the hill), and a young woman (her name is Bailey), who looked like a serious runner with the right gear.

The terrain flatted out, and we quickly left the guy behind. I just tucked behind Bailey.

Mile 1: 6:30

This seems very strong with my current shape and the hill. I knew I had to conserve some energy. but Bailey ran just the right pace for me. We started the next hill, and it was quite brutal, but I didn't let her go. We both got passed by the high school kid (I was surprised how he came back). He was way too fast uphill for me to follow. At 1.3 miles, we reached the top, and I knew there were no more hills today. Now I just had to rest up for the last mile, and then give everything. But I wasn't trying to pace myself. I just followed Bailey.

Mile 2: 6:34

Esther was standing at the mile marker, where the out and back section started. She cheered so enthusiastically that I just had to pass Bailey. Now I was on my own, trying not to go crazy. The out-and-back portion was quite a bit longer than I expected. By the turnaround, the high school kid ahead was quite a distance away, and Bailey was quite a distance behind me, so I decided to keep this position. That meant a bit of conservative running.

Mile 3: 6:32

When we hit this marker I was surprised to see how far the finish still is. Nevertheless, I did have some energy in reserve, and I pushed all the way to the finish. It took me 1:18 to reach the finish line: Strava tells me this was at a 6:01 pace, which seems right, though that would mean the course was 3.22 miles. I'm willing to believe that my Garmin overcounts, but not by this much, not here in the park.

Total: 20:54, (but more like 20:15 for a 5K).

14th overall, 1st in AG, though I was beaten by a 40 year old and a 55 year old by almost two minutes (they ran within two seconds of each other). They took the masters and grandmasters victory, so I could get the lowly AG award.

Flora also won her age group, and Melinda did very well, too. I ran a nice cooldown, by which it started to rain heavily. Everything looks well on track for a 3:05 marathon in the spring. It will be challenging, but doable. Just right.

If I run 16 miles tomorrow, I'll hit 60 this week. I will do three more weeks of 60 miles, maybe with a workout each. Probably lactate threshold. Or some kind of Daniels Gold training. Marathon training starts on February 3.

Training didn't quite work the way I wanted. The week after the 4K was fine: I did run 50 miles with a 15-mile long run, but the week after that got interrupted by travel. I ended up running my last run of that week on Monday on a terrible hotel treadmill in a terrible hotel gym in like 75 degrees and high humidity. With that, I ran 55 miles that week, but the "week" was 8 days long, or putting it in another way, there was an extra rest day between my two weeks.

After that poor experience, I decided that there is not much point of beating myself up in that hotel gym, so I stuck to cross country skiing. Pretty good sport, though I'm not good at the technique, which also limits how much cardio I can get out of it. It ended up being a week of zero running, if we don't consider the Monday run, which really belonged to the previous week.

Then the following week was the race week for the 5K in the Polar Bear Grand Prix. This was supposed to be a cutback week, but of course I couldn't do that after no running the week before. So I jumped back into training hard: 9 miles a day from Monday to Thursday. It was hard, but I need to build mileage for the marathon training. I rested on Friday, and I ran the 5K today. Race report in a separate post.

Reindeer Romp 4K Race Report

Goal: run it at perceived VO2 max.

The main goal of this race was to be a rust-buster after 8 months of no workouts. I ramped up my mileage to 47 miles as of last week, but still no fast running whatsoever. So I just wanted to race it for real, an honest effort.

Almost the whole family signed up! Flora was coming back from her break after the XC season, and Melinda ran her first race! Esther didn't want to race, because she is on her planned break, but she came out to support us.

We arrived at around 8:20, so we were ready for warmup. I jogged two easy miles. I was not feeling the greatest, but I was OK. It was a nice 42 degrees, and after an all night rain, we had high humidity and wet pavement (some puddles), but the rain stopped.

The race started exactly on time. I lined up in the front, Flora a bit behind, and Melinda toward the back.

The first mile was downhill. I went with one of the front groups (not the very front - they were way too fast). After stumbling over the young kids who lined up in the very front, I settled into a pace trying to focus on maximum oxygen consumption, but no oxygen debt. After the slope, a half mile flat section came. I felt the lactate burn in my muscles, but that's fine. It is expected to be over my lactate threshold.

Mile 1: 5:50

We hit the first uphill, and my pace dropped like a stone. This where I went much slower than two years ago, when I was in much better shape. I let some people pass me. I did not want to go over my VO2 max.

After the hill, I accelerated again. I started to feel the real pain. I glanced at my watch and we were at 1.8, so roughly 0.7 left. Esther was standing by course here cheering me on. There was a lady behind me; she said:

"Oh, first I thought it was your wife."
"No, she's my daughter. I'm 44."
"Well, I'm 42. Definitely older than these people around us."

Then after a pause "It is so nice that she came out to cheer you on."

I couldn't really respond. I was too out of breath. She definitely had more in tank than me. We circled the statue of Daniel Boone. Esther was there again, telling me that I only had a 1/2 mile left.

Mile 2: 6:57

But what a half mile! In includes a 1/4 mile uphill, going up the same hill as the one we ran down from at the start. It's the easier of the two on the course, but it still kills you, because it is so close to the end. It felt like I slowed way down, but looking at my paces, in fact I went a bit faster than on the other hill, and also a bit faster than two years ago, when my overall time was 44 seconds faster. Pretty much all of that was lost in mile 2 on the second hill.

The lady from behind passed me. I yelled "Go, youngster!" She did beat me by a few seconds in the the finish.

Last 0.5: 3:34 (~7:08 pace)

Total: 16:21. 11/483, 1st in AG. But only because a 40 year old male took the Masters win, and he wasn't counted. I also got beaten by a 55 year old guy. He ran 15:02.

I stayed to cheer on Flora, and then Melinda. Everyone did great! Flora won her age group, and Melinda ran much better than she expected!

I went for my cooldown lap after Melinda finished, and they started the awards while I was away. But I did arrive on time to hear the important results.

I actually took no after-race snack. 4 kilometers is still way too short for me. It doesn't really exhaust me - it just hurts a whole lot for 16-some minutes.

Now back to base building. Plan is to run long tomorrow, and then increase my mileage to 60 before the next race.

Base building is all fine: I'm up to 46.7 miles as of last week with a 13.4 mile long run. I'll do a cutback/mini taper next week before the first race of the PBGP.

Mon: Rest
Tue: 7 miles
Wed: 5 miles
Thu: 3 miles
Fri: Rest
Sat: 4K race, with a total of ~6 miles.
Sun: 10 miles

The weeks after that I jump back to base building.

Dec 16: 50 miles
Dec 23: 55 miles
Dec 30: 60 miles
Jan 6: cutback/mini taper for 5K

Jan 13: add some quality for the next two weeks, but start marathon training on February 3. The last race on the PBGP will be while on marathon training cycle.

April 25: Kentucky Derby Marathon!

A month went by and so far so good. I've been consistent and my body is holding up. I've increased my mileage to 42 miles per week as of this week. I can be close to 50 by the PBGP race 1, as I predicted.

I ran my long run of 12 miles today and it felt great. Despite the increasing mileage, I don't feel tired today.

Well, that's been a long pause, wasn't it? Here is the story in short form (and won't write the long form).

I ran Boston. I wasn't quite in perfect shape, just shy of a 3-hour marathon in that course, and it wasn't the perfect day (is it ever?), so I ended up bonking *really* bad, and I ran a 3:11:xx something. I got so discouraged, that I never wrote a race report, and I never will. Enough to be said that it was a death march after the Newton hills.

Then, I wasn't training for anything, and I had a busy summer, as always, with lots of travel. I kept in shape though, and I did some great hiking in Colorado. I did have my share of disappointment there, too, when I made an unsuccessful attack of Longs Peak (*not* the Keyhole Route). My whole summer I averaged 20-ish miles a week, with large variance between 40-50 and 0.

Then the usual fall struggle started, back on, and then off, because mostly being very busy. Right now my Strava profile says that I ran an average of 20 MPW in the last four week. This includes a 9-day pause, in which I did a bunch of firefighting, and then I had oral surgery (gum graft) that sidelined me for a few days.

I started back this week with great plans! This year's Polar Bear Grand Prix will be a good excuse to get back into shape. I really want to run just one more 3-hour marathon on a somewhat challenging course, if nothing else. It is probably not realistic to expect this next spring, but I want to run a marathon next spring. So here are the detailed plans.

I run base mileage until Race 1 of the PBGC. That is December 14, and it's a 4K. I might get back to around 50 miles by then, if all goes well. That race may work as a benchmark, unless the weather is terrible. But in any case, the plan is that I will have a baseline by that race.

Then add some quality (probably keeping the mileage) and do a 5K training to prepare for the 2nd race, which is a 5K on January 11. Then I'll figure out if extra mileage is appropriate, but just train well for the third race, a 4-miler.

Once that training is over, I can do a short cycle for a sprig marathon, hopefully the Derby Marathon. 3 hours is not realistic, but I can try to BQ my current age group, which is now around 3:05 for me. Keep training until July, when I'll do some crazy hiking and climbing. Then off to a fall season - a short cycle to run a challenging fall marathon in 3 hours. By that time I'll be 45, and that would probably earn me Wave 1 qualification in Boston.

Week -3 is finished, so I'm officially tapering. I'm almost surprised that I made it this far. My total alcohol consumption in 2019 was like 3 beers and 2 glasses of wine, all in early January. I ran 743 miles in less than three months. I don't know if this made me ready, but I can honestly say that I put in the work. I also increased my VDOT by quite a bit, and theoretically, on a good day, it may be enough for a 3-hour marathon in Boston.

The week was alright, if not spectacular. I ran a 5 x 1200 on Wednesday. My legs felt tired, and it was a somewhat windy evening, and the workout was OK, but not great. Splits were 4:19, 4:20, 4:23, 4:23, 4:21, and it was rather hard, especially the last two reps. (The goal was 4:21, which corresponds to Daniels's 55 VDOT.) I think the main difficulty with this workout is its position in the training plan. I was playing catch-up with recovery... Lots of miles, then a 10K on Saturday, a 17-miler on Sunday (legs are done), the I get a rest day on Monday, and I can "recover" with 6 + 4 miles on Tuesday. Just rested enough to do the workout on Wednesday, but not rested enough to do it easily. Plus a 5 x 1200 is probably the hardest VO2max workout in existence. Oh, and do finish 11 miles for the day. Oh, and the following day you go and run 14 miles.

After two easier days the last 20-miler was waiting for me on Sunday. The weather was good and I felt great. I pushed it a bit and finished it at 7:23 pace with a 6:55 last mile.

I read yesterday that to be well-prepared for a marathon, one necessary condition is that the sum of your longest five runs should total 100 miles. (I'm sure this is just an arbitrary metric, but I was curious what coaches think about the number of length of long runs.) I added up mine: 22+ 21 + 20 + 20 + 18 = 101. But I think what counts more is the many 18-17 milers I had that I didn't count here, and those many freaking 13-15-mile midweek runs. I hope they do they magic on race day!

Week -4:

On Tuesday I started with 5x600 at the track. I accidentally messed up the second interval, running 700 meters instead (this is what happens when one tries to run 300 meters recoveries), so I ran only 500 for the next one. Altogether, the splits were 2:09, 2:27 (700), 1:50 (500), 2:11, 2:10, for a 2:09/600 meter average. That's actually slightly fast: correct pace would have been 2:10-2:11. I took it as a good sign just two days after the 14 miles at marathon pace. My legs were definitely tired for this workout.

Wednesday I ran a 14-miler, which I managed just fine, but my legs were trashed from cumulative fatigue. I was trying madly to recover on following two days, though I had a brutal fire training on Thursday. I was full of doubt for my Saturday tune-up race, but it went well, though due to the nature of the race I got no indication on my fitness.

I finished the week with a 17-miler, where I got dehydrated again... Why does this keep happening? I run like newbie. I still finished the run with a decent average pace, but I slowed a lot for the last three miles.

I'm ready for my last hard week. I have 5x1200 today. Not looking forward to the pain...

On a different note, there will be not tune-up race two weeks out. I'll be at a workshop in Michigan. I'll try to get in a 6-mile LT run on Saturday instead. If it doesn't work out, I might shift the days there. (It may actually be a good idea to do the day shift there, regardless.)

E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park: 27th Irish Classic 10K Race Report

Goal: Just race hard, for position, if possible.

This race looked like the perfect tune-up 10K for this weekend. Pfitzinger's 18/70 marathon plan includes three tune-up races, 6 weeks out, 4 weeks out, and 2 weeks out. I never ran all three, because in my busy life it is hard to even get in one or two tune-up races, so usually the race must be near, and there must be no family program that day; the race must be the right distance and preferably similar style to the marathon.

Well, this was announced as "mixed surface", including asphalt, gravel, trail, and grass field. The asphalt portion was about 1/4 of the distance, and the rest (especially the trail and grass) was quite treacherous this morning: frosty, slippery grass, deep mud, puddles. That is especially fun going uphill! So the style of the race didn't match after all, but the other variables were present: all-in-all I'm happy I ran it. However, that explains why time goals would not have been appropriate.

It was a small race, and thank god, they started at 9am, not 8. It was cold: about 30 F, but coming out of winter this is perfect racing temperature. I had some trouble starting the car in the morning, so I was 12 minutes "late" arriving at 8:12. I picked up my packet, put on my racing gear, went to the bathroom, and started warming up at 8:34. I did two miles of jogging checking out early parts of the course. I stepped into a deep puddle right away that soaked my shoes, but it didn't really bother me later. I felt rather tired during the warmup. In fact cumulative fatigue has been bothering me for some days, and on top of that, we had a pretty brutal fire training on Thursday that left me with aching muscles all over my body.

Just ten minutes after I finished my warmup, I lined up in the front and we started the race right on time at 9:00.

Four people got away immediately. Somebody (I think) in a blue shirt, shorts, quite fast, started to lead. Another guy (his name is Mike) in a white shirt saying "Team Mubea" on it. I noticed him before the race: he had quite a ritual, e.g. he greased his legs (or put some kind of cream on them). Good or bad, he obviously took the race pretty seriously. In the third place, another guy who wore the race shirt. That usually means less serious runner, but sometimes they can surprise you. I settled in fourth place.

I tried to be a bit conservative knowing the treacherous trails and hills ahead, but those four started quite fast, so I decided to follow them. Right after the start (like in 50 meters) we went from the asphalt parking lot to the gravel. After running maybe 0.2 miles on the gravel, we changed to grass, and that slowed us down quite a bit. The top three started to pull apart, but I was right behind the third place guy. We ran like this for a while. His pace was just fine for me: maybe just a bit faster than lactate threshold. He was more muscular than me, and we were climbing a bit, plus add the race shirt: I figured I should be able to beat him later for a podium finish.

Mile 1: 6:44

We reached the top of that gentle slope at around the mile marker (though no real markers were on the course). On the gentle downhill, I started to feel that he was slowing. This is the age old question: how much are you willing to slow, risking that somebody behind you is catching up. I didn't wait very long. We arrived to an asphalt road and I put in a strong attack (on a slight downhill). I left him in no time. Fortunately Mike was not very far ahead, and not excessively fast either, so I could "pace" after him, following him at a distance of 50-100 yards.

We left the asphalt quickly and we were back on the muddy trails: a downhill portion that you can't enjoy because of the surface. Soon I noticed that I was starting to catch up to Mike. I didn't mind that at all, of course. I caught him at around 1.8 miles. I deliberately didn't pass him. I think he expected that I would, so he looked a bit confused. His breathing sounded very labored, while I was still relatively relaxed.

Mile 2: 6:33

The next portion was quite hilly (up and down). I could have used some cross country spikes, but then what do you do on the asphalt? I followed Mike, and I noticed that it felt easy to do that. He did a good job though pacing the uphills (I may have overexerted myself without him), and when we reached another top at mile 2.6, I had to change into a 2-1 breathing, and I kept to that until the end. At 2.7, we hit another asphalt portion. We had to slow to find the course signs. The leading golf cart was in front of the leader of the race, who was now too far to be seen, and we got the "runner-up treatment". :) Even the asphalt was very muddy and full of puddles. At one place, we actually had to run on the grass by the road, because the road had a little pond on it. :)

I didn't really want to attack Mike before the turnaround point, because I wanted to see where the #4 runner was. But he felt slow, I felt relaxed, so it just happened. I slowly pulled away from him, willing to let him back in the lead any time, but he didn't seem to want or to be able to do that.

Mile 3: 6:59

I hit the turnaround point right at 3.1 miles on my GPS, so I knew I can rely on it for the distance. This was an out and back course, so I looked at the positions. The top four was the same people, except that I went from 4th to 2nd. Mike was right behind me, close enough so that I could hear his breathing. The 4th place was almost 2 minutes behind me, so that distance seemed safe.

Mike's breathing got quieter. We're back on the trail. I was pushing hard. By the time I hit the mile marker, I didn't hear Mike any more.

Mile 4: 6:38

The next mile was probably the most difficult part of the course. All uphill, and the first part is on trails. I knew this was coming, because I ran this portion during my warmup jog. I also knew I needed more energy for the last mile, and I wasn't going to lose my 2nd place. So I ran the hill conservatively. Made it to the gravel, then the asphalt, still uphill. I almost took the wrong turn, but fortunately I stopped myself.

Mile 5: 7:03

When we turned on the trail again, I looked back. I saw Mike not too far back. I can still lose this. I knew I had to keep pushing, so I did. This was still uphill, until about mile 5.4. I kept myself on that sweet spot that is "almost blowup", but you feel you can still finish. This mile was entirely trail/grass.

Mile 6: 6:49

Right at the mile marker another switchback to the gravel. I saw Mike at a safe distance (~200 yards). You can't erase that lead in ~400 yards. So I was happy, but it isn't a time to slow down. I pushed the last gravel bit at around 6:15 pace for a 42:29 finish. Second place overall is great, and I was happy with my effort. The time is meaningless. I'm sure this was good training. Before the race the constant fatigue I felt made me think that I might be overtraining, but based on this race, I think this is not the case.

I had a great chat with Mike after the race. We ran the cooldown together. He is from Germany, working here in Florence, KY (Mubea is the name of his company).

Postrace food was fine: I had a banana and a bottle of water. I got a medal for my age group win, but nothing for 2nd place overall. The winner was a 46 year old guy! I had a get a jump to start for the car going home, but I got lucky, and the guy who parked next to me was able to help me, so I didn't even get delayed. Now I'm off to battery shopping.

Training report for week -5. The most demanding part of marathon training.

As always, you get a rest day on Monday, but it's hardly enough after that tough week. Then hit it hard on Tuesday with a 6 x 1000 meter workout. I did it on the treadmill, because of multitude of reasons, but mostly I didn't find any time to seek out a track. I alternated 10.3 mph (5:50/mile) 1000's with 6 mph (10:00/mile) 400's for recovery. Even on the treadmill, this is the kind of workout when I have to plead with myself to do it. Like even after the 2nd or 3rd, I would tell myself that if I can only do 4 or 5 that's OK. But then I do the whole thing.

So after a workout, you get an easy day, right? Yeah, sure. 15 miles. It was still cold, dark by the end, and I didn't enjoy it, especially not the end. I definitely was not recovered.

On Thursday, you finally get some recovery runs: 6 miles + 4 miles. I ran the four at 10pm after firefighting training. Definitely wasn't fun, and I really just slogged through these.

On Friday, a 12-miler. I felt just well enough to finish it at the decent pace (7:39).

Then a 5-miler on Saturday, when I felt tired again. And what was especially frightening was that I knew what was coming on Sunday. An 18-miler with 14 at marathon pace.

At last the weather got nice: sunny, 59 degrees with wind. It is a bit warmer than ideal (after having cold weather all week long), and the wind is not great, but still pretty close to ideal weather. In my previous two cycles, I made this workout as easy as possible: treadmill for the first one, and neighborhood run for the second one. But I paid for my insufficient hill training in Bowling Green, so I decided to go the Parklands this time. Not the crazy hilly southern part, but the northern side, which had some small hills, and one long and steep that I had to climb twice.

I did finish the run with 6:50 average pace, but the last mile was brutally hard (I ran 7:12 for that). I tried to conserve energy and time (kind of contradictory) for the second climb of the big hill, and though I did slow quite a bit on climbing it, I had enough energy to accelerate back at the top, and push myself on the other side. The downhill is a series of narrow switchbacks, which is impossible to run fast, because you virtually have to stop in the corners. The switching of directions hurts, too. But even that wasn't the hard part.

I still had two miles to go, the first of which was OK. But then I had to climb a bridge, and loop under it. I charged up the bridge, and when going down, I felt like I was done for. I stopped for a second, and then I needed all my willpower to cover the last mile - which included another bridge. Again, this felt like the last mile of a marathon... When I finished I felt nauseous.

So what did I learn? About my prospect for the 3-hour Boston Marathon? Not much, really. I did successfully finish this run, but it was hard and it was only 14 miles. I know this training plan is designed so that this should feel like the last 14 miles of a marathon: and it truly did. I probably started a bit too fast banking a bit too much time. If I banked 30 seconds less, I probably would have had easier time in the last mile, probably gaining it back. On the other hand I'm so happy that despite the steep hills, I was able to run 3-hour pace. This workout was the real deal. I hope I'll be much more ready for hills than I was in Bowling Green.

One thing is very clear: I definitely should not overrun the first half of Boston. I want to feel still pretty good when I make it to the Newton hills.

Week -6 is finished. These weeks are pretty hard!

5 x 600 on Tuesday, and remember, I had a 22-miler on Sunday. It was OK, though it didn't feel particularly easy. I was aiming for 2:12/split, and ran 2:09, 2:13, 2:12, 2:11, 2:11. There were soccer players warming up on the high school track, and they were total assholes. Jogging 3-4 abreast with no regard of faster runners. I ran with Flora, and she probably did the longest run of her life!

Medium long (14) on Wednesday where my legs were still (or again) tired. Then two recovery days, and there was supposed to be a tune-up race on Saturday.

I wasn't able to find any appropriate race at a reasonable distance. So I decided to run a 6-mile threshold run. Since I had to take Esther to the gym anyway, I ran on the treadmill. I started with a setting of 9.5 mph (6:18/mile), and felt surprisingly easy. So much so that I cranked it up to 9.6 (6:15/mile) for the next two miles or so, meanwhile deciding to run 10K instead of just 6 miles. When I still felt great, I kept increasing the speed bit by bit, until I hit 9.9 mph (6:03/mile), where the treadmill maxed out. I ran the last ~0.5 mile at that pace. I finished the 10K in about 39 minutes.

So, yeah, it's treadmill, so it's easier, maybe even it was incorrectly calibrated, but if not, it's fair to say that I hit 55 VDOT. Which means that I do have a pretty good chance of a 3-hour marathon if the weather cooperates and I don't mess it up.

I ran 18 miles today, the day after the workout. I felt my legs at the start, but at the end it felt reasonably easy. I didn't push the pace hard, but still finished with 7:41/mile average (with heavy snow at the beginning), and three strong miles at the end. It's amazing that in perspective, 18 miles doesn't seem that long.

Possible tune-up races:

3/16: E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Irish Classic 10K. Register by 3/13. $35

This is pretty much a no-brainer. Right in town, right distance, cheap registration, somewhat familiar course. It has some grass, dirt, gravel, as well as asphalt, but nothing wrong with that.

3/30: Carmel Marathon Weekend 10K. Register by 3/24. $45

This seems to be the best choice. Alternatives are Caracole's Run/Walk for AIDS 10K in Cincinnati ($40 on Sunday, no deadline posted), or RunTheBluegrass 7 mile race ($100). The former is on Sunday - it might be good, if I shift my training by the required one day. The latter is very unlikely: it is outrageously expensive, and what an odd distance!

Week -7 went much better than expected. After the appalling start of the training cycle, it seems like my hopes of a sub-3 marathon are restored. (Not saying likely, though, but there is a positive probability!)

Here is the roundup: After the rest and recovery runs, I had a rather miserable 15-miler in heavy rain on Wednesday. But the most dreaded run came on Friday: 7 miles of lactate threshold. I went to the track to do it, and I wasn't sure at all if I could. I was aiming for between 6:25-6:30 for the first few miles (1600 to be exact), but it went better than expected, and I was bale to run my perceived threshold at a bit faster pace. I ended up running my 1600's in 6:19, 6:23, 6:21, 6:23, 6:21, 6:23, 6:22. The last mile got a bit hard (not surprisingly), but for about 10 kms I felt fairly comfortable.

It did trash my legs a bit, and I still felt it on Sunday, when I had a 22-mile run on the plan. This epic distance is the longest in the whole plan, and this week is arguably one of the hardest with the brutal threshold workout and 70 miles total. Nevertheless I chose to run the 22 in the southern end of The Parklands, so I could get some good elevation training (over 1000 ft). In windy weather I managed to run 22 miles. I was very tired by the end: it felt like the last miles of a marathon. But it was like the last miles of a good marathon: tired, but still in control, and able to run some fast last miles. I managed 7:31 average with a 7:04 last mile.

Now, on Monday, I feel quite beat up, but happy with the monster week. Phase 3 (race preparation) starts next week with tune-up races. Unfortunately there is no appropriate race for me within 2 hours of driving this weekend, so I'll just train: probably doing 10K of lactate threshold.

Week -8 was supposed to be recovery, and I think I've slightly overdone it.

I ran 6 x 800 VO2 max intervals of Wednesday on the high school track. It went well enough: 2:55, 2:56, 2:56, 2:57, 2:58, 2:59. It clearly got harder toward the end, but that was expected: my fitness has still ways to improve. It was painful for the last 200 meters, but I pushed it a bit to get under 3 minutes. My goal pace was originally 3:00/interval, but when the first four went under without trying too hard, I decide that I should put the last two under 3 minutes as well.

I ran 11 miles on Friday, and I went to Iroquois Park and back to put in some elevation; then on Sunday, I ran in rural Indiana putting in lots of elevation: 1125 ft in 15 miles. This is actually slightly more than the whole Bowling Green Marathon! My most elevation in a single run since November 25, 2017. Now, on Monday, my body feels it!

The next few weeks will be hard. High mileage and lots of workouts. Based on my recent runs, I think my shape is right around 3 hours for a flat course and 50 degrees, which is not the Boston Marathon. But I still have two months. There is some hope.

Further schedule:

Week -8: 2/11
Week -7: 2/18
Week -6: 2/25
Week -5: 3/4
Week -4: 3/11
Week -3: 3/18
Week -2: 3/25
Week -1: 4/1
Race week: 4/8

In reality I have an extra day, because the marathon is on Monday, but it is easier to have a Monday-Sunday schedule, and the timing of the long runs and workouts works much better this way for my work schedule.

Tune-up races:
3/2, 3/16, 3/30

Probably no chance of racing in March 2-3: the map of the US has big hole for that weekend for races between 8K and 15K!

After about two months of silence, it is time to post. I'm halfway through the training that had its ups and downs. Here is the summary.

Week -16: Planned 55 miles with a single marathon paced run: 16 miles with 8 at marathon pace. I skipped that run altogether, because I replaced the clutch of my car, which was incredibly tiring and time consuming. There was no way I could do that run. The rest of the week was fine, but I only ran 39 miles.

Week -15: 58 miles with a 4/9 LT run (4 miles at LT pace out of 9 miles). We were out of town and I ran this on crazy hills by just effort. Splits are almost meaningless, but I managed 7:08, 7:01, 6:59, 7:03, which I though were OK for the hills. Maybe it was good that I didn't have a good measure how much (or little) it sucked. :) Just two days after this workout I ran a 15-mile long run at 7:32/mile.

Week -14: 62 miles with no real workout except the first 18-miler on Sunday. I ran a good 7:30 pace.

Week -13: 63 miles with a 5/9 LT run on Tuesday and 10/18 marathon paced on Sunday. The LT run still sucked: 6:28, 6:44, 6:46, 6:45, 6:32. At least it was better than the last one, and it was in some strong wind. The MP run went very well: I ran an average of 6:49 pace for the 10 miles. Kind of ridiculous that my marathon paced run is not much slower than my LT paced run. My endurance is probably fine, just my fitness sucks.

Week -12: Travel to a conference in Baltimore, so I missed a lot. I only ran 23 miles to stave off withdrawal. This would have been a cutback week anyway with 55 miles planned.

Week -11: 68 miles with 5/10 LT run on Tuesday, and the first 21-miler on Sunday. The LT runs are getting slowly better: 6:21, 6:38, 6:43, 6:37, 6:32. Still not good, but more and more acceptable. The long run went well. Three laps in the neighborhood for a 7:32 pace. It was flat though.

Week -10: Planned 66 miles with 6/11 LT run on Friday, and a 20-miler on Sunday. I took the LT run to the treadmill this time. (Somehow I didn't feel like running outside. There were some brutal cold runs this week.) I ran a constant 6:31 pace for the LT portion. If I could duplicate that outside, it would put my VDOT to ~53, which would correspond to a 3:01-3:02 marathon. Lots of hypotheticals. Worse yet, two days later I failed my 20-miler. I made many mistakes: sauerkraut (with possibly spoiled meat) for lunch, terrible diarrhea, running one way through the Parklands in constant headwind, sudden 67 F after training in freezing temps, carrying too much water in a Camelbak, stopping like 5 times for just phone calls... I hit the wall at mile 16 and I had to hike out to my car. Finished the week 4 miles and a long run short.

Week -9: This week originally had a 16-mile long run with 12 miles at marathon pace; no real workouts except a 15-mile and a 13-mile midweek long run to get to 67 miles. But after last week's failed long run, I decided it would benefit me more if I ran a 20-miler in the weekend. MP runs don't have much extra physiological benefit over slower long runs (according to Daniels). I cut 1 mile from the Saturday recovery, and ended up with 70 miles for the week. The first time since September 2017. I ran my 20-miler at 7:38 pace, finishing it pretty strong.

Week -17 is done without much trouble. As I mentioned previously, I did fail my LT workout on Tuesday, but after that, thing were fine. I ran good paces all week long (except for my recovery runs, when I ran over 8 min/mile - as I should). In particular I felt so good on my 9-mile GA on Friday that I ended up running the last 7 miles at 7:13 pace, and it didn't feel hard. Then I topped the week off with a strong 15-miler at 7:36 average, with some hills included.

That's an important point for me to do: I will not neglect hills this cycle, like I did for Bowling Green. I want to be ready for the Newton Hills. I especially like the 15-miler: I had a 110 ft hill in mile 10 with an especially steep last part (it is hard to keep jogging).

Week 16 is easy first, but there is a hard long run at the end: 16 miles with 8 miles at marathon pace. I'm not sure what pace I will follow, but I will probably start out aiming to be just below 7 min/mile.

M: Rest
T: 8 GA w/ 10 ST
W: 12 MLR
T: 5 E
F: 9 GA
S: 5 E
S: 16 L w/ 8 @ MP

After my last post, I just ran another 60-mile week. It was totally fine with a strong, hilly 15-miler. I was excited to start early training on Tuesday, December 4.

Well, it didn't work the way I hoped. For one reason or another, I didn't feel good, and I bombed the first LT run. I ran the first mile at 6:37 and it felt hard, which discouraged me so bad that I aborted the workout (turned it into a kind of a fartlek), and I did a whole week of soul searching, only running a total of 22 miles.

Then I decided that I still want to run Boston, and there is no magic, so I better start training. After my last week I assumed that my LT max was around 6:45, so that was my goal pace today. I failed again, but it was a very weird run, and at least I got in some good training.

I ran the first mile in 6:19, and the second in 6:32, and I felt pretty good. In fact it felt that my speed was oxygen limited, not lactate. Is it possible that your LT and your VO2 max are equal? By the third mile, I was out of breath, and I was totally incapable to push my pace to LT territory. I slowed to 7:45 pace, and I had to stop after the finishing the third mile to catch my breath. After about a minute of rest, I ran a decent 4th mile in 6:35.

So I think the 6:30-6:35 LT might be correct, but my VO2 max is so low that I can't sustain that pace for the duration of an LT run. I'll have to figure something out to solve this. This is a very nonstandard problem - it is probably due to my age, my experience, and the fact that I did no workout (but some decent mileage) in the last 6 months.

Anyway, training is now officially on, and here my week plan:

Mon: Rest
Tue: 9 w/ 4 LT
Wed: 11 MLR
Thu: 5 E
Fri: 9 GA
Sat: 5 E
Sun: 15 L

I got sick right after my previous post and I had to skip almost a full week of running. But I did come for the November 12 week at full force: 60 miles. Same for the week of November 19: Despite traveling to the coast and back, I managed to run 60 miles, the last bit of which I ran Sunday night at around midnight in cold rain, after I drove all day. "This is the training that wins races" I told myself, "not the ones on pretty, sunny days."

I was very busy on Monday, so I took a rest day, and in the morning rush on Tuesday, I messed up a bit and I thought that this week would be the early start of the marathon training (in fact it is December 3, or maybe even December 4, if I consider that the goal race is on a Monday). So I quickly looked at the plan, and it started with an LT run: 9 miles with 4 at LT pace. It was brutally cold outside, so I just picked up my gym clothes and I went to gym in the afternoon.

2 miles of warmup at 8:30-ish pace, and then I set the treadmill at 9.5 mph (6:18 pace). I was OK for about a mile. Then I realized that this wasn't going to happen: so I steadily slowed the TM down to 9.3 mph (6:27 pace) until I reached mile 3. I was already pretty exhausted, so I decided to slow even more - I computed that even with the slow start of the treadmill from 0 mph I would average 6:30 pace if I slowed the TM to 9.1 (6:36 pace), so I did that in two steps. I ended up finishing the 4 miles in 25:55 (6:29 average). I finished the workout with an excruciating 3 miles of cooldown.

From all of this I'm guessing that my LT pace may be around 6:30, or a bit slower: VDOT of 53. Better than a few weeks ago, but it's not enough for a 3 hour marathon. But that's fine, I guess. I have several months to go.

One issue is my weight. I still weigh about 155 pounds, which is about 10 pounds over my ideal racing weight.

Bottom line is that I'm not actually starting the hard training this week, so I'll just run easy 9's and and 15 in the weekend. Then I'll still have to make the decision if I should start on December 10 (or even 11) or December 3 (or 4).

60-mile week is finished! The first since February! I actually felt OK even after the 15-miler yesterday (and with some cold I caught).

Time to add some small amount of quality. I have 4 or 5 weeks (depending on when I start, depending on if we go to Florida in December) of fitness training. I'll decide tonight what I'll do, but I'll keep myself at 60 MPW. That way this cycle will be on solid base, and since it's 18 weeks, it won't be rushed. I have good feelings.

One more thing to consider is to run the Polar Bear Grand Prix again this year. Esther is into it, and maybe the rest of the family, too. First race for that is December 8.

Training is as planned for now. I'm on the way to my first 60-mile week. It's not easy. The 10% increase in mileage every week is taking a toll on me, and I'm constantly tired. My paces are typically 7:30-8:15, which is fine, but I feel like I couldn't go much faster. Patience! Once I'm comfortable at 60 MPW, I can try to measure my VDOT. Though by then it'll about time to start the 18-week plan for Boston.

Maybe it's actually good this way. I might just peak at the right time. Dreaming of a 3-hour Boston...

I've finished my 46-mile week with no problem. My 13.5-mile long run was hard: it was a hot day on the gravel path of Tom Sawyer State Park, which also has some elevation change, and I ran the mile loop 13 and a half times. But I recovered well by the end of the week, and my Sunday 6-miler felt easy, even a bit hungover.

Now onto the 50-mile week. I'll bump up the long run to 15 miles, and my weekday runs to 7.

Finished my week with 42 miles, with a 12-mile long run and an 8-mile run in the Parklands at Esther's M pace. That was 7:20/mile in 86 degrees from 10:30 to 12 with lots of solar radiation. It was tiring, but entirely doable. It doesn't reveal too much about my fitness, only that it is not horrible. The hardest part was the heat.

Now on to a 46-mile week, which will be accomplished by 5 x 6.5 and a 13.5-mile long run. Slowly getting there... 60-mile weeks are in shooting distance.

38.3 miles this week is done. Next week is 42. My age. But by the end of next week, it'll be even more than that.

I'll run five times 6 miles plus a 12-mile long run.

So far so good. 2 x 15 mile hike with a heavy backpack on the difficult Knobstone Trail. Check. 35 miles in the week of 9/17. Check. Week of 9/24 started.

Six months went by since my last post. As any reader would guess: it isn't because I was too busy running my greatest races...

In fact after the setback in the spring I had trouble bouncing back. It started well in March and early April, but then I got busy, and my training in May was terrible (MPW: 16, 31, 8, 33). Then more work in the summer with travel, and I didn't focus on running very much. I kept up with exercise somewhat (hiking in Colorado was quite strenuous) but not much running at all. July was a bit more consistent (regular running is summer camp), but low mileage: MPW's of 28, 34, 29, 18. Granted, the 18 mile week had some crazy mountain biking adventure in it.

August was again about struggling to get back to training. MPW's of 20, 15, 21, 16, with pretty uniformly 5-mile runs, and large breaks of not running during the weeks.

And now it's September. I managed 31 and 35 miles for the last two weeks with some 10-mile "long" runs. This week I'll be down to 25, but we do some good hiking this weekend on the Knobstone Trail. And why am I writing today? Because this morning I registered for Boston.

Once we're back next week, I'll try to build up my base again. I'll go for another 35 mile week next week, and then try a 10% rule until I reach 60. If all goes well, it would look like this:

Week of 9/17: 35
9/24: 38
10/1: 42
10/8: 46
10/15: 50
10/22: 55
10/29: 60

Boston 18-week training starts on December 10, so I'll have more than a month to maintain 60 MPW and add some quality work. One thing to consider is to start a week earlier in anticipation for winter vacation.

I've been silent for two weeks here, and the reason is that I got injured. This is probably the worst running in jury I've ever had. Fortunately, I've rarely ever had any injury, and if I have, it was nothing serious, but this one will have sidelined me for about two weeks (hopefully not more).

I've finished my Monday and Tuesday long runs. They went fine: aerobically I felt great, but I overexerted my right knee. I did some recovery running, and an LT max workout (treadmill) on Thursday. The workout went well, and in fact I was pain free once I was warmed up. However, by Saturday my knee got much worse and I did not want to risk a long run on it. Then the following week, it seemed like I wasn't getting any better. So I decided to scrap my marathon plans and heal up.

By Thursday, I felt some improvement, and by the end of the week, I was mostly pain free. As of Monday, I still feel mild discomfort in the knee. I will not restart training until I'm well enough to that without risking a setback. I'll be travelling from Wednesday - maybe I can start my way back with a short easy run on Wednesday. I hope to do  moderately long run or hike in the Smokies on Saturday.

Then next week, I'll ease back into general fitness training, starting again the painstaking effort to build back to 60 miles per week and 55 VDOT. I may run some shorter (or longer) races in the summer, but the goal for now is just keep up a general fitness level. I also want to challenge the CPAT again this summer to keep up my hiring eligibility as a firefighter in Kentucky (just in case I want to get a part time position).

Then, in the fall, I probably should race a marathon. Maybe even Bowling Green.

Week 9 went down well. The 14-miler on Tuesday was incredibly hard for some reason: I'm guessing mostly due to hot temperatures (80 degrees or so) and very strong headwinds for the second half of the run. I was completely exhausted. Then I had a great 12-miler on Thursday, running it at a 7:25 pace, which felt easy (and this was the Iroquois Park loop, which is hilly).

But the icing on the cake was the long run on Saturday. 17 miles with 10 at marathon pace. I ran the 10 miles at 6:40 average, and pretty even splits (except for the first mile, which was 6:29). Even without the first mile, the average pace was 6:41. The weather was pretty good, though it was raining the whole time.

This suggests that I should be capable of running a 3-hour marathon, and probably keep training at VDOT 55. Though I should run my marathon paced runs at more like 6:50. This is because the goal of a marathon paced run is to practice the pace, and gain some confidence, not anything physiological.

Week 8:
M: 13 MLR
T: 15 MLR
W: 5 R
T: 10 w/ 5 LT
F: 5 R
S: 18 L
Total: 66 miles

Everything went fine until Friday. I did my medium long runs, and my 4 mile LT run on Wednesday (on treadmill) went fine. It was hard, as usual, but it was doable, never painful, and I ran at 6:18/mile.

Then I had oral surgery on Friday, so I had to skip my Friday and Saturday runs, and the dentist didn't seem very eager to let me run anything on Sunday either. So I decided to make some changes. After skipping the rest of the week, I'll start Week 9 of Pfitzinger's 55-70 in 12 plan on Sunday.

S: Rest
M: 9 GA
T: 14 ML
W: 5 R
T: 12 ML
F: 5 R
S: 17 w/ 10@MP

This last day will be hard, and it will determine the rest of the training. If I can do it, I'll try to go on, if not I'll rethink my plans.

Possible tune-up races:

03/31: Run the Bluegrass 7 miler. It's a very fancy race (and expensive!), but it may be a lot of fun. 700 runners, hilly. Register by 2/28.

04/14: Trooper Cameron Ponder Memorial 10K: Typical small southern race, not much in awards, probably slow, small field. Register by 4/6.

Training like I'm running the Derby Marathon. Since the race is on Saturday, we will start weeks on Sunday. Tuesday should be easy or rest. So here we go:

S: 5E
M: 12ML
T: R
W: 9 w/ 4LT
T: 11ML
F: 5E
S: 17L

Snowman Shuffle 4 Miler Race Report

Goal: Win the master division, both in this race and more importantly, the overall in the Polar Bear Grand Prix.

This was the third race in the series, and by far the longest - also my first ever 4-mile race. Given the drizzle, the hills at the end, my lack of experience in 4-mile races, and less than perfect shape, I didn't really know what to expect. I was leading the master division coming into this race, and I googled the second place to see how the guy looked like, so that I would know who I had to beat. (His name is Marc.) I recognized him at the start, and walked up to him, telling him about our standing in the race. I thought it is just fair he also knows who he is racing against.

Again, we ran the race with Esther: she was also running to win her age group. We arrived to the park about 45 minutes early. I had time for a good warmup, and a bathroom break, but I didn't feel very good. I was hoping I would feel better during the race.

The race started with a downhill of about a 1/2 mile long, then flat until mile 2.7. In the last 1.3 mile there are two decent hills: the first peaks at around mile 3.0, flat until 3.2, down to 3.7, and then up for the rest. My plan was to go out strong and they try to hang onto my position: go out at sub-6 pace for the downhill, then slow down a bit, but try to reach 2.7 with an average pace around or just over 6:00/mile. Conserve energy on the first hill in case I need to race the last hill - unless Marc would try to pass me on the first hill.

At exactly 9 am, we were off. I was pushing hard the downhill, so much so that I was doing a 5:30-ish pace. My race position got established very early at my usual 10th place. I was breathing hard, and I knew I couldn't sustain this effort, but it was all according to plans.

Mile 1: 5:36

Crazy first mile but with net elevation loss of 71 ft (22 meters). The second mile was basically the symmetric tail and of an out-and-back portion of the course, so after about a 1/2 mile, I was able to see the runners coming from the other direction. Most importantly I realized that Marc was not far behind: maybe 100 meters. That meant I could come down to the line, so I can't blow up before the end. I slowed a bit to conserve energy. Unfortunately I missed Esther as she was running out. I did meet another friend though, who shouted out some encouragements at me.

Mile 2: 6:16

Mile pace was swinging a bit and I'm not exactly sure why. I know I had to run around a group of dogwalkers who cut in front of me as I approached, and there were a few turns where I slowed down a bit either due to slippery roads or traffic. I averaged around 6:30 pace here, which is a bit pathetic. Maybe I also tried to run slower deliberately, knowing the hills were coming.

Then we started to climb, and pace pace dropped like a stone. A woman passed me uphill. I let her go, because I had zero chance following her: she was fast (beat me by 31 seconds and she gained that in a little over a mile).

Mile 3: 6:53

I pushed the downhill a bit, and I got a little surprise at mile 3.4: the rest of my family came out to cheer us along! It gave me a lot of motivation, and I pushed harder, even though the last hill started. I looked back and I saw nobody, so I didn't run too hard. But when I glanced back again 100 meters later, I saw a woman approaching quite close to me. Even though she was clearly not a danger to my master division position, I wasn't about to let her pass me. I pushed hard up the hill, to the finish line.

Mile 4: 6:40

Total time: 25:24, 9/295, 1st in master division.

I slowed a bit more than I should have, and I did struggle at the end, but I've never been good on hills, right? (Well, I did have some success on hilly races, but some bad disappointments, too.) Job is done, master division has been won both in the race and in the Grand Prix. Esther came in at 42nd place in 30:16, which is a great time for her.

The timing company messed up again. Not my time or place this time, but they awarded 3rd place overall trophy in the PBGP to a 9 year old boy, who was beaten by dozens of people. It was quite obvious fr everyone that he could not have been 3rd place, and he was embarrassed and reluctant to take the trophy. What a mess-up! I used to have high opinion about River City Races, who organized this race, but out of the last four races I ran with them, they messed up the results badly at least three times! (I was involved twice: see reports on White Mills 5K and the Reindeer Romp 4K.) And these are the people who are now running the triple crown! Those are high profile races. If they continue the way are operating now, there will be scandal!

Note that I'm not actually sure that I deserved the master win either, because a 53-year old man beat me in all three races by a good margin. My luck is that they cut off the master division at age 49: over that it is "grandmaster". That doesn't seem logical to me. In fact if a master or a grandmaster wins in overall, they should always be awarded the "better" trophy. Anyway, at least these peculiarities seem to be in the rules (though they were never got published).

It makes me want to organize my own races, so that at least they would be run well!

I take a rest today, and then almost surely start to prepare for the KY Derby marathon. I have 11 weeks. Can I run 3 hours? (It does have a few hills.)

Another week of training went fairly well. I did a strong long run of 15 miles on Sunday, and then 9 miles each day after that. The one on Tuesday was a treadmill workout with 3 LT miles with 2 minutes of rests. It felt pretty easy (6:19/mile pace), as it should with 2 minutes rests and only 3 of them. I rested on Friday to be ready for the 4-mile race on Saturday.

I finished the full week without much trouble, though the LT max workout was less than perfect. The goal was to run 3 miles at threshold pace, rest for 2 minutes, and the run another 2 miles at threshold pace. Ideally, my threshold pace should be around 6:20/mile (55 VDOT), though I figured it would be more like 6:25 on the day. But I ran on gravel/dirt, some elevation, and it was cold (in the 30's) - or for whatever reason but I only managed to run 6:32, 6:33, 6:35 splits. Then, in the second bout, I ran a 6:14 mile, but I had to stop during the second mile for a bathroom break (probably 2-3 minutes), and I ran the second mile in 6:23 (without the break, of course). Realistically, the first bout was probably the LT effort, and the second bout was too fast. Though it is hard to know that with the circumstances, what VDOT that corresponds to.

For the second workout, on Friday, I ran 8x3 minutes VO2 max intervals on the treadmill with 2 minutes of jogging breaks. I ran the intervals at 10.3 mph (5:49/mile), and the jogs at 6 mph (10:00/mile). I managed to finish the workout, and it did feel that the fast pace was my true VO2 max (not faster). That would put into the 55 VDOT value. It might be that I have 55 fitness, but my stamina (LT) lags behind.

Here is the plan for race week:

Su: 15L
Mo: 9E
Tu: 3E + 3 x 1T w/2 min rests + 3E
We: 9E
Th: 9E
Fr: Rest
Sa: Race

I finished my partial week (got parked for a few days by Achilles tendon injury) with one hard workout: a 6 x 1000 meters on Friday. I ran on the track in perfect running weather, so the only negative factor was that I started it at 7pm, which means it was already dark

It went OK: the splits were 3:36, 3:36, 3:38, 3:35, 3:43, 3:39. My goal was to keep the average below 3:40, which I succeeded in, but the workout became pretty hard by the end. I ran the first 3-4 repeats in the usual way: digging a bit deep in the straights, coasting in the curves, pushing the last 100 meters. When I realized that I'm a but faster than what I wanted, I cut back for the 4th repeat by keeping myself deliberately out of any oxygen debt, even for the last 100 meters. Then I pushed the last one, maybe even harder than the first 3, but by that time, I was exhausted, so I only managed 3:39. I deduced that my VDOT is a bit under 55, which is not too surprising given that I did limited mileage and not many workouts since early November. I also need to improve my LT max next, because the relative ease of the first few repeats, and the difficulty of the last one suggests deficiency in that department.

I'll try to get a full good week in next week, and then do whatever is necessary to win the PBGP master division. Even though I realized that final standings are not based on time, but on positions in age groups. Then, hopefully, off to marathon training.

As I wrote in the previous posts, I pulled my Achilles tendon last week on a snowy run. Then I raced on it, and although it didn't affect my race performance, it aggravated the injury. So when I tried to run on it on Sunday (planned to do a 15-mile long run), I decided to quit after 3.5 miles, because it hurt, and it didn't get any better as the run progressed.

I skipped Monday and Tuesday, and my Achilles appreciated it: today I still felt it a bit in the morning, but after that, I couldn't tell by walking that I had any injury. So I tried a 9-miler, and it went fine. I felt a minor discomfort at some point, but I think (hope) I'm over it.

So I just jump back to training. I planned to do week 2, 4, and 6 of Phase IV, so I'll just jump back to the middle of week 2. Fortunately both today and tomorrow are easy days for an easy comeback. So here is the plan:

Th: 9 E
Fr: 2 E + 6 x 4 min H w/ 3 min jg + 1 E
Sa: 9 E

Next week:

Su: 15 L
Mo: 9 E + 6 ST
Tu: 3 E + 3 T + 2 min rest + 2 T + 1 E
We: 9 E
Th: Rest
Fr: 2 E + 8 x 3 min H w/ 2 min jg + 2 E
Sa: Whatever is needed to round out 60 miles for the week. Shouldn't be more than 9 miles.

Frostbite 5k Race Report

Goal: Run by feel. Preserve or increase overall lead in age group and/or master category.

The preparation for this was the usual, less than perfect, winter training, in which I got sick for about a week, and the usual busy schedule derailed my training a few times. The race got postponed by week, because last Friday night it started to snow, and very cold temperatures (~15 F) were expected for Saturday morning. This time, it was not too cold: just a few degrees above freezing, but this Friday was the first time in a week that the temperature rose above freezing, so the ice and snow didn't completely melt. Even worse: some parts of the race course was in a cold depression, and the melted ice froze back on the road during the night, and didn't melt again by the morning, so we had a half a mile of very slippery road.

Esther and I arrived to the park about an hour before the start. We warmed up, by jogging to the start line from the parking place, and we jogged around a bit more. I felt good, but not great. My Achilles kept bothering me, and despite the short run on Friday, I didn't feel well recovered. The 37 degrees in the park felt warm compared to what we had to endure since Christmas, but it is still less than ideal for running. I ran in long sleeves, shorts, gloves and cap, which was fine.

The race organizers informed us that some part of race course is very icy, so they would cut the distance to about 2.3 miles (3.7 km). That's bad news for me... 4 km is already too short, and this would be even shorter. Also, the race course they posted on-line is several years old, and they hadn't used it in many years, so what we previewed was already inaccurate, even without the modifications. I used to love this organizer company (River City Races), but they have had so many screwups recently...

We started right on time. I got boxed in a bit at the start again, but I didn't sweat the lost 1-2 seconds. Especially, because the race started with a half-mile uphill, so if you don't go crazy on it, it's fine. After pushing myself hard for a quarter mile to reach my VO2 max, I maintained a good 6:40-ish pace uphill, trying teeter on my VO2 max. Then we hit the top, and we were going down for a half of a mile (though the downhill was not quite as steep as the uphill). I had to be careful in the turns not to slip, and I did slow down. A stupid mistake could cost me the overall position. I also had to fall below my VO2 max, because even 4K is too long to maintain it for the whole race.

Mile 1: 6:08

The second mile started with another hill (about 0.3 mile long), similar grade as the first. Obviously I was a bit slower here, but I tried to race pretty aggressively. It is such a short race! On the other side we reached the bottom at around mile 1.7. Here in the "valley" the road was still frozen, and I had to slow down just because of that! One guy passed me, but he looked quite young, so I didn't bother to chase him. In fact I was kind of surprised how he can run so fast on such slippery road, when I realized that he ran on the snowy side, which is less slippery than the icy side. So I also started to run on the snow, but he still pulled away a bit.

Mile 2: 6:22

I started to push the pace, but I had to slow down one more time in a turn. Then I threw down a strong kick to finish at a 5:10 pace.

Last ~0.3 mile: 1:45
Total: 14:18 (14:15 chip time). 12th place overall out of 339, 1st in AG.

A bit regretfully, there were two runners within 4 seconds in front of me; though I was actually closing on them in the finish line. I got my age group win, but not the master win this time. Fortunately the master winner didn't run the first race, so I lead the master category of the Grand Prix by over a minute. Unless I really screw up the 4-miler next month, I can win the master division of the Polar Bear Grand Prix, not just the AG.

A bit embarrassing though that the grandmaster leader, a 53 year old guy has more than two minutes on me! It makes me feel like I don't really deserve a master trophy, if somebody who has over a decade on me is so much faster!

This is the training I did after the last post:

I ran the 9-miler on Friday, I rested on Saturday, and I wanted to run my Phase 3 week starting Sunday. We had snow and icy and freezing temperatures for the whole week, so it was impossible to run outside - at least for the first half of the week.

I got so busy on Monday, that I ran out of time, so I skipped that day. Otherwise the training was not too bad: on Sunday, after an easy warmup mile, I ran 10 miles at 6:42 pace (marathon pace), all treadmill. On Tuesday, I ran 10 intervals of 2 minutes VO2 max pace (5:50 pace) with 1 minutes of recovery, treadmill again. Then two easy days of 10 miles each, running outdoors on Thursday for the first time. It was still too much ice and snow on the ground, and I pulled my Achilles a bit... I only ran an easy race course preview on Friday, which turned out not to be the course that we ran on race day. More about this, in my next post: the race report.

So much for my plans! I got sick and I had to skip 5 days of training, which was supposed to be basically the first week of Phase II training. Then, coming back, following Daniels's advice on unplanned breaks, I just did easy running for 5 days, and since the Frostbite 5K was supposed to be this weekend, I just did easy mileage until Thursday, planning a rest day for Friday.

OK, now the race got canceled due to inclement weather. Two weeks of Phase II is gone. I think I'll try one week of Phase II and 3 weeks of Phase IV. Hopefully it'll work.

So I'll probably just run another niner today, rest on Saturday, and start my Phase II week on Sunday.

For my Phase II training, I'll run weeks 2, 4, and 6 of the Daniels 5K plan.

Week of 12/31:

S: 15L (max 120 min.)
M: E + 10ST
T: 2E + 6 x (200R + 200jg + 200R + 200jg + 400R + 400jg) + 2E = 10 mi
W: E + 8ST
T: E
F: 2E + 5 x 1T w/ 1 min rests + 6 x 200R w/ 200jg + 2E = 10.5 mi
S: E + 8ST

Average easy day volume, assuming one rest day: 8.17 miles.

OK, decision is made, I train for the Polar Bear Grand Prix, and when it's over, I'll make a decision about a spring marathon. KY Derby is 11 weeks after the last race in the PBGP, so I can almost do a short Pfitzinger cycle after that. With the winter training it should be good enough.

Here is my training schedule for the PBGP. We start weeks on Sundays.

Phase I: 12/10
Phase II: 12/31
  Frostbite 5K: 01/13
Phase IV: 01/21
  Snowman Shuffle: 02/10

For Phase I, I just easy runs to ramp up the mileage. Tentative plan is to run 50 (12.5 + 5 x 7.5), 55 (13.75 + 5 x 8.25), and 60 (15 + 5 x 9) miles a week.

Reindeer Romp 4k Race Report

Goal: Place well, maybe win age group. Due to terrain, temperature, and training, no time goal.

We signed up for the Polar Bear Grand Prix race series with Esther mostly to keep ourselves motivated to train through the winter. (And for her, maybe for the swag.) I just had my recovery month after the Bowling Green Marathon, which was complicated by a bad case of PF after that race - but I'm not complaining. So the goal was just to race as well as possible given the circumstances.

And those were not easy! The course is only 4 km, which is way too short for me, it has two long, hard hills (Urban Bourbon Half Marathon hills compressed into 1/5 of the length of that race), and it was a balmy 25 F (-4 C) in the morning. We jogged the course last afternoon with Esther so we knew what to expect. We arrived to the park at 8:15 for the 9:00am race. We did about 2 miles of warmup, a few strides, and we were ready to race.

I got a little boxed in at the start, but quickly jumped ahead (got a cheer from Esther), and off I went. The large amount of cold air flared up my exercise induced asthma, and I had some breathing issues for a minute of two, but fortunately it quickly resolved. After a short (0.1 mile) flat segment, we started the first downhill (1/2 mile long). I knew I can't rest on the downhill if I want to race well, so I pushed a 5:30 pace there. When we got to the bottom, I settled into a slightly uncomfortable, but controlled effort that (I guessed) I could maintain (or increase) till the end.

Mile 1: 5:52

I tried to run somewhat conservatively in this flat section between the two hills, so I tried not to overtake people. But I found that people around me slowed more than I expected (their pace was 6:20-ish), so after a while I passed a young guy, then a child, and I was back to my 6:00 pace. I kept slowly passing people, and I did not get passed after the first few hundred yards (I think), so I guess it was a well-run race.

We started the climb (1/2 mile long) of the second hill. My strategy was to be conservative here, and to start to run hard on the top. I allowed my discomfort to slightly increase, making sure I'm not going over my VO2 max. I ran the uphill at a pretty constant 7:10 pace, and then accelerated on the top to my standard 6:00 pace. We went on a slight downhill, took a U-turn around a statue of Daniel Boone, while I kept my place behind a small group.

Mile 2: 6:32

I knew we were close to the finish, but there was one more climb left to go back up the first hill. Not as bad as the other one: only about a 1/4 mile long, and the finish line is on the top. At the bottom of the climb I increased my effort and I passed the small group. I was powering up the hill, but I got slightly worried around 3/4 up that I started this kick too early... I was suffering bad! But I knew that only a few seconds left, so I toughed it out, and finished the race.

Last 0.5: 3:16 (6:44 pace)

Time: 15:40 (15:37 chip time). 13th place (out of 422), 1st in AG. (In fact master win, see update.)

I waited for Esther and cheered her on when she arrived at 18:30. The great thing about this race was that we both won our age groups! This motivates me to train harder for this race series and try to win my age group in the cumulative results. And if we both do it with Esther, that would be something!

We hung around for the awards, but we didn't quite feel like eating anything yet. We just had some hot drinks (it was still freezing), hung around for the awards, and then we jogged back to the car.

Update: A few days later I found out there they somehow miscalculated the results and I actually won the master division. They will switch out the trophy at the next race of the Polar Bear Grand Prix.

That recovery plan was completely ignored. First I was fighting with a pretty bad case of plantar fascitis, and then I was busy or lazy, or it was too cold or too dark... the point is, for the last month, I just ran when I felt like running, which (I think) turned out to be a remarkably good recovery strategy. Today, I feel fine, recovered, still in somewhat reasonable shape.

Recovery plan.

M: Rest
T: Rest
W: 5 R
T: Rest
F: 6 R
S: 5 R
S: 8 GA

M: Rest
T: 6 R
W: 8 GA
T: Rest
F: 8 GA + 8x100 ST
S: 5 R
S: 10 GA

Bowling Green Marathon Race Report

Goal: 3 hours (?)     Secondary goal: 3:10

Preparing for this race, my goal was to run 3 hours on a difficult course. I chose Bowling Green mainly because it is hilly, and I thought it would be nice to run a 3-hour marathon on a hilly course. There is a website that compares marathon courses, and I didn't read they methodology, but they rated Bowling Green 2 minutes slower than Indianapolis Monumental (where I ran 2:59 two years ago), just based on the elevation profile. 

Three or four weeks before the race I thought my shape was worse than going into the Indianapolis race, but I started that training cycle after some serious 5K-10K training and I started this one on nothing but base mileage. By the time I did my last workout (3 x 1600), I felt I caught up, and I was maybe in better shape. I weigh a few pounds more, but that's actually upper body muscle, because I spent some time in the weight room in the summer. Good or bad for running, it is arguable, but I need it for firefighting.

Then I saw the weather forecast. It got worse and worse as race day approached. The last two weeks of training in Louisville was in cool weather, typically 40 F (4 C), no sunshine; in fact my last (medium) long run was in 35 F (2 C). Compare that to race day morning: 70 F (21 C), 90% humidity (66 F dew point for the weather geeks), and mostly sunny. It wouldn't be terrible, if I didn't acclimate to the cool weather in the last two weeks, but it was quite brutal this way.

I did my usual morning routine: getting up early, having a good breakfast, driving to Bowling Green (2 hours). The advantage of a small race and being early is that I could park just 100 yards from the start/finish line. I was hit by the hot and muggy air when I got out of the car, so I decided not to warm up (except for some dynamic stretching), because I knew I would pay dearly for any fluid loss, even if it happened during warmup. I was also able to pick up my packet on race day morning. They had amazing swag.

It was a very small marathon: less than a thousand runners, and most of them ran the half. There were only 166 entrants of the full. It was a nice group of people, and I had conversations with a bunch of them. Most notably I met Hajime Nishi.

The race started at 7:00 (central time), but Louisville is on Eastern Time, so it was really 8:00 for me. The course has a unforgiving elevation profile starting with four major hills. It is basically uphill-downhill-uphill-downhill etc., for the first 7.5 miles, and everything is steep. If you've ever been to the campus of Western Kentucky University, you may remember Cherry Hall: it's on the top of a steep hill. Well, basically we climb that hill four times. Then from 7.5 to the halfway point it is "flat", but not like Indianapolis. It is still up and down, just without the steep grades. Then we are back to campus, and repeat the whole thing again.

I should have known that with the way the weather was and the way my fitness was, I had no real chance to run 3 hours. Yet, I didn't want to give it up before I started, so I decided to follow the 3-hour plan until mile 16, and then decide: if I don't feel great, then I slow down and just focus on getting my safe Boston Qualifier (3:10).

I started with a group of runners who ran the 3-hour pace (some of them were half-marathoners). The pace felt OK, but you can't make it feel super easy when you are climbing the Cherry Hall hill. The group broke up quickly, but everyone was in sight, and we sometimes passed each other: some people were faster going uphill; I was usually faster on the downhills. There was a guy in an "Army" shirt (his name was Peter), who was mostly ahead of me, but I passed him on a few downhills.

Mile 1: 7:01
Mile 2: 6:29
Mile 3: 7:03
Mile 4: 6:26
Mile 5: 7:11

The pace seems to vary, but it was a quite even effort with the hills. I was about 30 seconds ahead of my planned time (very unwise). I tried to take it easy, but I didn't want to walk uphill and didn't want to brake downhill. Mile after mile I recognized that the 30 seconds stayed about constant. On the other hand that meant that at least my current pace was correct.

We were still downtown, going up and down on parallel streets. A few jackrabbits were passed by this time, and I found myself in 5th place. I knew that the guy just ahead of me (Ryan) was a half-marathoner, so that made me at least 4th in the marathon.

I caught up to Ryan, and asked him if he knew who were marathoners and who were half-marathoner in front of us - he wasn't sure. I had had a conversation with him before the start, and I knew he was aiming run a 7-minute/mile pace. I told him we are a bit faster than that. We climbed the last steep hill of the first loop together.

Mile 6: 7:05

The hot and humid air affected me already. I felt warm. I took water at every aid station - drank half of it, dumped the rest over my head. Ryan started to fade and I left him on the next downhill. We entered an alley (it seems to be called BG262 Alley - I'm note sure if it's an official name). We ran a good half a mile in the alley among backyards. I liked that part. By this time I only had Peter (Army guy) in sight, and our distance was basically a constant 100 yards.

Mile 7: 6:32

Conditions deteriorated quickly. Temperature rose, the sun came out, and wind got stronger. We ran on a large road (two lanes in each direction), on which one lane was closed for runners. No shade, quite hot, and no aid stations. My singlet and my shorts were complete wet now and started to drip.

Mile 8: 6:46

I was just following Peter, still at 100 yards. I felt fine. The steep hills were over, I was running a good pace. I knew I was losing a lot of fluid though, and despite drinking at every aid station, I knew I can't physically replenish enough when I sweat so much.

Mile 09: 6:57
Mile 10: 6:42

After a short loop in a suburban neighborhood, we were back on the large road to the opposite direction. I noticed that Peter was slowing a bit, and I started to catch him. I didn't want to pass him. It is much better to run behind somebody than just ahead. Behind us there was nobody in sight any more. I was content to give up a few seconds here, because I knew that things would get hard. By this time my sweat saturated my socks and shoes so much that I heard a swishy sound on my footfalls. My right nipple patch fall off from the sweat and I started to bloody up my shirt. And there were still 16 miles left.

Mile 11: 6:54
Mile 12: 6:52

Peter continued to slow, so I pulled up to him. I asked his age (34). I knew we were 3rd and 4th on the road, but I didn't know how many were half-marathoners (I knew Peter was running the full), and how many over 40. I wanted to win an award and for that I would either have to place in the top three, or would have to win the over 40 category. I thought, even if Peter beats
me, I would have a good chance for the latter.

Mile 13: 6:57

Peter seemed to slow even more here, so I left him. I ran by the finish line to start my second loop. My time was a few seconds under 1:30, as planned.

And this is when things are started to go wrong. Yes, this early. I climbed the Cherry Hall hill again, and I lost all my advantage against the clock. Peter was quite a bit behind. I knew I wouldn't run 3 hours today, so I tried to conserve more energy. I decided that from here my goals are (1) securing my Boston Qualifier (2) preserving my position. People looked at my bloody shirt in horror (or at least that's what I conceived).

Mile 14: 7:37

This was a super lonely mile. I went down on a straight road, no spectators, no cops, no signs. I started to get worried that I got lost, but then I recognized some of the buildings from the first loop. This part was mostly downhill. From the little attention I was getting from the organizers I deduced that I'm not the leader of the race. He would surely get at least a leading cyclist.

Mile 15: 6:33

After the next aid station I decided to remove my shirt. I was climbing a hill slowly while I unpinned my bib from my shirt and pinned it to my shorts while running. The chafing was so bad that I didn't mind the lost time. I carried my shirt in my right hand from here, and I only put it back on right before the finish.

Mile 16: 7:36

A cyclist organizer finally started to lead me. I figured I was second or third; I was guessing second (I was correct). I could have asked, but I decided not to: it wouldn't have changed my strategy. I learned my position a few miles later when somebody told me (without asking) at an aid station. I was working my way over the hills. They were much harder than for the first time. I started to feel my quads.

Mile 17: 6:39
Mile 18: 7:43
Mile 19: 7:36

I switched into survival mode. I didn't need fast miles to finish under 3:10, but I still needed to do a sub 8-minute pace. So I just focused on to keep running.

Mile 20: 7:05

On the big road again. Even hotter, full sun, misery. I think I had a runner right behind me, because I heard the cheer squads cheering the a second time shortly after I left them. In one intersection, a cop stopped the traffic for me, and I noticed that he didn't let the cars go when I crossed the intersection. From that I knew that this other runner must be very close. I never looked back, just tried to maintain my pace. And somehow I got rid of him. Not sure exactly where and how, but I didn't hear the cheers behind me after a while.

Mile 21: 7:19

I turned into the suburban neighborhood again. I had a crisis here. I really thought about dropping out or at least starting to walk. But I would lose my BQ time for sure.

Mile 22: 7:52

I summoned some more will and kept pushing.

Mile 23: 7:27

Back on the big road. More hot, more sun, less energy.

Mile 24: 7:52

This part of the course followed the same big road back that we took to get from downtown to the suburb. I was now heading back to downtown, and I saw Peter running still toward the suburbs. He was now way behind me. (He finished in 16th place in 3:43.)

When it rains, it pours. I careless volunteer misdirected my cyclist and I. I only ran maybe 20 yards in the wrong direction, but I was tired enough without this! She apologized profusely. (Honestly, it's OK. It didn't change anything.)

Mile 25: 8:03

The last mile. Many turns, strong winds, hills, and my only thought is on finishing. I was running like a zombie, looking at my GPS every minute. I tried to imagine how many laps of a track is left. "Only five laps. I can run five laps."

At one point we had another out-and-back portion of the course - a short one - but it was enough for me to see the competitors at least a quarter mile back. Nobody was that close behind me. I was fairly sure then that I had my 2nd place.

Mile 26: 8:07

Even the last 0.2 mile was long. I put my shirt back on. Somehow the motion of the sweaty shirt in my hand washed out the bloodstain, and it was reasonably presentable. I crossed the finish line, picked up my medal, and I sat down on the curb. I used up everything I had.

Final time: 3:08:37, 2nd place overall.

The winner ran 2:58:04, and the third place was at 3:14:11.

Post race food and party was fantastic. They offered beer and burger. People were very nice. They didn't announced the awards, but they gave them out (or mailed them out, if the winner didn't ask for it). It is slightly weird, but I see this at more and more small races. I won a really nice glass cup.

I don't know if this was the hardest race I've ever done, but it was definitely the most miserable. On the other hand, it is not clear that if I ran a 1:34 first half, then I could have run a faster second half. The weather was clearly an issue: I got overheated and dehydrated by the end, but there were also some muscular fatigue problems from not training enough on hills. My fitness, the only thing I had actually been worried about, was probably fine.

It is very temping to come back next year to redeem my performance. But there are so many other nice races to do, and there is new fall marathon in Louisville (also hilly). For now, after recovery, I'll do a winter race series of 4K, 5K, 5 mile races with Esther. I have at least a few more days to figure out if I want to run a spring marathon.

It doesn't matter how fit you are. When you have to race in 70 degrees and 90% humidity, you can't realistically aim for the same the same goal as you would in 50 degree dry weather.

Tomorrow's weather forecast is exactly like that. 67 F at the 7:00 start, 71 F at 10:00. Dew point is pretty uniformly 66 F, which corresponds to humidity going from 92% to 84%.

I'm pretty sure I have no chance of running 3 hours in this weather. I'm not sure I should even try. According every heat table, it is already a good performance if I run 3:10 tomorrow.

I did my 3x1600 workout last Thursday, as planned, on the Jeffersontown High School track (asphalt, quarter mile track), in the dark. It wasn't the easiest thing, but I hit my paces with no problem: 5:48, 5:49, 5:50. Only the last one felt hard, but no pain cave.

Then I felt strong for my "long" run on Sunday: 13 miles @ 7:38 pace, but 3.6 miles were on trails with many steep hills. The last four asphalt miles 7:21, 7:10, 7:25, 7:01, and they also had some hills in them. It almost makes me worried that I push too hard on these runs, and I won't be sufficiently recovered.

So I took my Monday rest day, my very easy Tuesday run (still 7:47 pace), and I was ready for my dress rehearsal today: 7 miles, 2 at marathon pace. I ran the two miles way too fast: 6:39 and 6:29. OK, the second one was slight downhill, but the first one was slight uphill (Strava GAPs are 6:36, 6:33), but it is still too fast. They felt quite easy. I tried to restrain myself, but I felt if I ran any slower, it would be jogging. I will seriously have to restrain myself in the first half of my race.

Now it is really nothing left, but eating healthy, not getting sick, not getting injured, and finish my recovery in the last few days.