Hot Weather Training

The Boston Marathon is on April 19th, a time of year when the weather is completely unpredictable. If it turns out to be a cold day, I'm ready. Rainy -- who cares? Of course, we all know that the problem is that is could be hot. Last weekend, I ran a marathon on a day that hit 70 (gasp!), and I got the picture. If it had gone to 80, it would have been a problem.

Now, I'm not a guy that's going to just roll the dice. So I grabbed a flight to a Caribbean island (I can't release the name) that is just 20 miles north of Venezuela. Here I'll train in the heat in order to be ready. Sure, some would say that I'm taking a vacation with my family when I should be training for the marathon, but I'm calling it my family tagging along on a training trip.

This morning was my first run in the heat, and ouch -- it was tough. I thought that heading out at 7:30 AM would protect me from too much sun and heat, but I was mistaken. With two miles to go on a six mile run, I was worried about sunburn and dehydration. The main concern though, was that I was sluggish (dying) from start to finish. The heat just sucked the get-up-go right out of me.

After I got back, I was forced to indulge my family with a day of lying on the beach, snorkeling and fine dining. If that's what it takes to get the training in, then that's what I'll do.

Tomorrow, I'll go out earlier. Hopefully, it will be cooler and my body will have acclimatized somewhat. If not, I may have to move at least some of training indoors (!).

Getting the Job Done in D.C.

This weekend, Peter, Tim and I went to D.C. for the National Marathon. That's right, a road trip, a boys weekend.

The common time goal was 3:50, which would be a PR for both Peter and Tim. I was the pacer. My goal, aside from helping my friends as best I could, was to go the distance without getting beat up. It was to be a training run in preparation for Boston, which is 4 weeks out. If I ran myself into the ground, it would defeat the purpose.

We took the train down on Friday, and when we arrived in D.C. we were greeted by a gorgeous Spring day. We decided to walk from Union Station to the expo, which was really nice, but was a bit longer than we had planned. After picking up our numbers, we took a subway to the mall, and did a little sight-seeing.

We then met up with Peter's parents, who took us to their place, fed us well, and sent us to bed early. When we got up at 4:15AM, breakfast was cooking.

I'm big on eating a lot before a marathon, but usually it's bagels and peanut butter etc that I set aside the night before. Here it was eggs, toast, oatmeal and on and on. I was in heaven.

When we got to the staging area, we were all struck with the how different it was from the NYCMarathon (none of the three of us had every run a marathon but NYCM). The staging area was INSIDE (!), and the wait was a fraction of what it is in NY. Of course, the number of participants was also a fraction of the NYCM number. I woke up at about the same time that I would for the NYCM, but the race started 3.5 or 4 hours earlier.

The start was a little rough. They don't have corrals, just pace signs for people to ignore when they line up. Also, there are more than twice as many half marathoners as there are full marathoners in the mix.

In the corral, we saw a 3:50 pace group and agreed to follow them, at least for a while. During the crowded early miles, we couldn't really run together, so we just tried to keep an eye on each other, and watch the pace group as a reference. By mile 4, I had lost both Peter and Tim. I kept close to the pace group, and thought I would see them at any minute, but as the miles passed, the hope faded. I ran ahead, dropped back and did everything I could think of, but they were gone.

At mile 13, the halfers split off to finish, and the field suddenly dropped to a fraction of what it had been. One effect of this was that my field of vision was greatly increased, and at around mile 14, I spotted Tim way ahead. I picked up my pace and caught him -- in time to be there to support him for the tough miles. He told me that Peter even further ahead, which I was glad to hear. At around mile 23, there was a big out-and-back, and we saw Peter coming back, ahead of the 3:45 pace group, and looking very strong. We all cheered each other, and braced ourselves for the tough final miles.

As Tim and I approached the finish, I could see it was going to be down to the wire. I did everything I could to encourage him, but talking to a marathoner at mile 26, you can never tell if you are helping or just irritating him. When the finish line came into sight, Tim kicked, and we flew across the line at 3:49:55. I love it when a plan comes together.

Peter finished in 3:48:13, so both of them came away with big PRs.

As for me, I was tired, but not beat up. My legs felt really solid. I think I can count it as a run that will build my strength, rather than tear it down.

We went back to Peter's folks', got showered and fed, and Peter's father drove us to the train station. It was a fun ride back -- we return victorious!

(More photos of the trip)

Battling the Elements, or 8 kilometers = 4.97096954 miles

Today was the NYRR 8000, an 8K race in Central Park. Weather predictions were pretty rough, but I was gung-ho to race.

Standing in the corral, I overheard a lot of talk about it not being a good day for a PR. It was cold, rainy and windy, but it still seemed to me like a decent day to run. I know that heat slows me down, and really, really cold temps are tough, but I didn't really know what effect today's weather would have.

Technically, to PR I would have to beat the 6:43 pace that I ran at last year's 8000. Really though, my 5 mile best of 6:37/mile was the mark to beat (8 kilometers = 4.97096954 miles).

At the sound of the horn, I went out at what felt like a brisk pace. As we crossed the transverse, a big gust of wind hit us from the north. A few seconds later, we turned south, and the wind was at our backs. My first mile clocked at 6:43 -- exactly my PR from last year's 8000. The next mile was downhill, and the pace improved to 6:24. I was cheered on by a gaggle of Flyers, and in mile three, more or less flat, I ran 6:34. Things were looking up.

We turned north just before the 3 mile mark, so we were facing a substantial headwinds along with tough hills. I knew that I would lose some time, but I was still surprised to see my mile 4 split of 6:57. I got a boost from another (even bigger) cheer from the group of Flyers, who were running the other way, and the last 0.97 miles came in at 6:38.

My official time was 33:16 (6:41/mile). This was an 8K PR, but was 10 seconds off my 5 mile best (33:06), even though 8K is slightly shorter.

So, the question is.... how much does rain and wind matter? I certainly noticed the headwind, but did it really slow me down? And didn't the tailwind make up for it? When I got home, my shoes were pretty wet... that could make a difference.

One thing the weather did not mess up was the pleasure of racing. I gave it my all and had a lot of fun, so I'm going to call it a good day and leave it at that.

Always Do the Right Thing

This morning was Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K, one of my favorite events on the NYRR schedule. This year, I decided to prioritize marathon training, so I ran long the day before the race. I knew this meant that I wouldn't be able to shoot for a PR, but I planned to show up just the same.

When I woke up this morning, my half-asleep wife was surprised that I was heading out to run. She had seen how beat I was after yesterday's long run. When she said "again??", her voice had an uncharacteristic edge to it. Here's how "again??" expanded in my imagination:

You go long yesterday, and you are useless for the rest of the day, and now you're going to go race, hurt yourself, and be a whiny-ass b*tch for the next 3 weeks 'cause you can't run? Fine. Whatever, moron.

OK, my wife doesn't talk like that. But the little voice in my head does.

I had promised to meet PL at the race and hang afterwards, so I went. Instead of running, though, I just spectated. After the race, I had breakfast with PL, who PRed by the way, and felt great about my decision. Always do the right thing.

Coogan's, by the way, is a great race to watch. Spirits are high, there's music and other entertainment, and the running is fast. After the last runners pass the start line, it's less than five minutes before the leaders are back. The finish is downhill, and these folks are just flying. Very inspiring.

Long is Short

The three marathons that I have run were very different from each other in the way I felt at the end, but one conclusion was the same -- "That was reeeeally far. "

OK duh, but the distance is SO far, that I'm not sure it's actually good for me. Don't get me wrong -- I fully believe that RUNNING is good for me, even the marathon training. But the event itself... ouch.

So this year, I'm on a mission to make the marathon shorter. I mean, every new distance was long the first time, right? These days though, when I finish a half marathon I'm tired from racing, not from running an endless distance. Why? Because I run 10 miles at least twice on the weekdays, and often run longer than 13.1 on the weekends.

The marathon is different, however. Conventional wisdom says peak at 20 or 22 miles on long runs, at at least a minute per mile slower than race pace. That means that on race day, you are asking your body to go 4.2 miles farther than any training run, and at a much faster pace. No wonder it hurts!

So why would anyone suggest such a strategy? The only reason I can think of is that running that far is not good for you, so you shouldn't do it in training. You should just get close enough that you can survive race day. Race day won't be good for you either, but you only do it now and again, so you can get away with it.

If, over time, I come to accept that theory, I'll stop running marathons. I don't want to abuse my body. BUT, I haven't accepted that theory yet. So here's what I'm trying.

I'm going to train up to the full distance. Today I ran 24 miles (22.45 in the park, and 1.5 to get there). It was my longest training run ever. I two weeks, I'll run the National Marathon as a training run, at about 45 seconds per mile slower than my target race pace. Four weeks later, I race Boston.

I recently ran the "shortest" 20 miler that I've ever run. Today's run was harder, but I should expect that -- it was the longest I've done. The idea is that as the milage comes up, I'll become fit enough to go the distance without abusing my body. Obviously, this theory can't be applied to any distance no matter how long, but so far, I'm optimistic.

To do this, I need to keep ramping up my other runs, because it's cheating to cut back in order to be able to stretch the long runs. The medium distances have to come up to match. We'll see how it goes....