Decent Run in Chicago

One week after the half marathon, I headed out for a modest 3-miler here in Chicago. Great day for it--about 59 degrees. Ran through Grant Park, along the river trail past the conference hotel, and back to my hotel. Knees don't hurt at all.

While walking this week, I have noticed a bit of knee pain, but nothing during the run. Also, I have noticed a very odd sensation in those calf muscles that freaked out. Almost feels like they're damaged or something. No pain, but an odd sensation of "deadness." I am sure it will get better. Nothing at all while running.

Half Marathon PLUS!

Well, I finished my 2nd half marathon and didn't improve my time by much. My final time was 2:06:23 or 9:26/M, but the course was 13.4 miles, as the race organizers miscalculated the course. An "adjusted" time (use the overall pace and re-calculate a 13.1 distance) would be 2:03:38.

• 2011-04-02 (adjusted): 2:03:38
• 2010-10-17 (half of 26.2): 2:05:48
• 2010-03-20 (actual 13.1): 2:02:56

I need to do some serious work on my calf spasm issue. A few random notes:

• 30 degrees is warmer than you think. For a long race, even a 10K, I think that throw-away sweats are a good idea. I decided to go half way on this; I wore a throw-away fleece but committed to long running pants. I should have gone all the way. Even though it never got above 40 degrees, I still could have gone down to shorts with no problem.
• The 4:30/:30 ratio worked pretty well.
  

3 Days!

Okay, I am kind of psyched for the half marathon. My runs have been going great. I was going to do a 3-miler tonight, but I decided against it. Now that I am writing, part of me is tempted. But I think I will do it in the morning. My 11 mile run went great, and I really like my strategy idea. It might not work, but I know I will finish.

I am going to try to keep a 9:00/M pace through the race, but I have a different set of tactics. I am going to keep track of 3-mile splits, not mile splits. I'll see how close to 27:00 I can keep the 3-mile splits--this worked great for the Crim last year. Also, I am employing 90% walk strategy, something I didn't do for the Crim. I was at a higher level of fitness then, so I think I need this run/walk/run strategy. Doing the math, this means 24 four-minute-thirty-second runs, followed by thirty seconds of rest. Should be doable.

When I finished my 3-miler last night, I used this strategy dead nuts on. I felt like I could do it 3 or 4 more times. We'll see how it works in practice.

Martian Medal... Cooooool!

Gotta be the coolest race medal, ever!

Turned a Corner...

Okay, so I switched to the half and I feel pretty good. My knee has really improved. I had my best run in months on Monday night--9 miles with no walk breaks, and no knee pain. Awesome. Just got back from a 3-miler with the planned ratio for the race: 4:30/:30, which is 90% running. Felt great. Did the 3 miles in 26:51, just below 9:00/M with plenty of gas.

I plan to do the following before the race:

THU 3/24 - 5 mi
SAT 3/26 - 11 mi
MON 3/28 - 3 mi
WED 3/30 - 5 mi
THU 3/31 - 3 mi
SAT 4/2 - RACE (13.1 mi)

Should be great.

4/2/2011

Ok, there are three options:

1. Switch to the half marathon
2. Run the first half of the full marathon and bag it/walk the rest
3. See if you can run with Townes at the 11:20 pace; that might still be okay

I'll have to think about this. Just ran 3 and did fine. Gonna try:
3/4/3/8
3/5/3/10
5/3/3/Race

Not A Great Week

Well, my runs went okay this week, but the 8 miler didn't happen. About 2 mi into it, my knee hurt and it didn't make sense to go beyond 4. Today I will try my 5 miler and see what happens, but I'm nervous about the long run tomorrow. Nothing about my running this week suggested that I'd be okay running 15 miles tomorrow.

Getting there

Well, today is the first decent long run in a long time... 10 miles. I've decided to cut it into a couple of parts just to ease back. Did 7 just now and will do 3 more after the kids go to bed.

9:44 pm. The last 3 miles felt great. Total time of 1:39:27, with an average pace of 9:56/M. I will take it. The R knee was only slightly uncomfortable early on. Not a peep from it on the last 3; in fact, there was a stretch when the knee felt good (rather than absence of pain, it felt good).

• 42.03 / 10.30
• 28.18 / 9.26
• 28.53 / 9.37

So, on this run I was dogging it in the first 4 miles. These were all with the 2min/30sec ratio. I plan to increase the ratio like this

• 2:30 / 30 sec
• 3:00 / 30 sec
• 3:30 / 30 sec
• 4:00 / 30 sec
• 4:30 / 30 sec

Not sure I've ever written it down, but I think one of the reasons that walk breaks help is that they give you the "start" of a run every few minutes. From a form/biomechanical standpoint, I think I have my best form right at the beginning of a run. You get that "start" every time you start running again.

Two mantras worked well for me tonight on form; first is my standby: "stand tall / step small," and the new one was "cross country skis / rotation please." That old one is the best mental thought I have to bring back the best of the ChiRunning stuff. The new one was a result from my difficulty today in keeping feet parallel without sacrificing a little rotation of the leg. When I try to straighten my feet, I often get the "pendulum" effect that is probably really bad for my legs and knees. This thought joins the parallel image with the image of a rotation. It seemed to work.

Running 411 for Lana'i

This is an e-mail I sent to Renee:

Running 411 @ Lana'i

This is a long message, the result of geeking out over how we can run while on vacation. So, we both need to do some running there. I am sure we can get even better information there, but here's what to expect. First, a map of the island:

http://www.lanaicity.com/map.html

The Four Seasons Manele Bay is at the southern tip of the island at about 175 feet above sea level. Go more than 2 miles inland, however, and you are looking at very steep grades (12% and above) and steady gain for more than 1,000 feet! The smallest loop I was able to put together from the hotel is a 10k route that looks great on paper; it starts at 175 ft and maxes out at 1,234 ft. That is almost 2x the elevation from Hwy 224 up to the house in Park City!!

There is a beautiful hiking/jeep trail called the Munro Trail near the hotel, but the grade an elevation are even worse getting there. It would be fun to go there, but perhaps the four of us could rent a jeep and make the trek that way. Here's a link:

http://www.gohawaii.com/lanai/regions-neighborhoods/central-lanai/munro-trail

So, where do we run?

I usually like loops, but that isn't going to work for me given the topography. I have no interest in running those kinds of grades, up or down! We could have someone drive us to the NE coast of the Island to run along the coast, but that would be kind of a pain and would eat up time we could be doing other things. My idea is two out-and-backs that are just beyond the driveway of the four seasons.

1) West on Kapihaa Pl for about 1.5 mi before it gets hilly: there's a 3 mile route. This route goes past the golf courses and should be pretty scenic.

2) East on Kapihaa Pl and turn South onto Manele Rd for about 1 mi; there's a 2 mile route. This route goes down to the beach, which should also be pretty scenic.

The routes can be combined to just about any length (this is how I do my runs here at home). I'm scheduled to do a 20-miler that week, but I am not sure it's going to happen. With these little routes, I might be able to do it. The good thing about these routes is the ability to bail or head back to the room for a bathroom break/water refill. Do both 4x and there's a 20 miler, without ever getting more than 1.5 miles away from the hotel (and without doing any Tour de France style mountain climbing!).

Another good thing about the routes is that we could do different distances but still run together. It might change, but this is what my schedule calls for while we are there:

SUN / 6-Mar / 14
TUE / 8-Mar / 5
WED / 9-Mar / 10
THU / 10-Mar / 5
SAT / 12-Mar / 20

I can flex the days, and I prefer to run first thing in the morning so it doesn't get in the way of other stuff. Again, I don't know if that 20 is going to happen (this is the day we leave). I might get up super early and try to knock off as much of it as I can. The only other option would be to try to do it jetlagged on Sunday, which sounds no-fun.

Here are links to the routes.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/27941480
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/27941214

Crossroads

I really am at a crossroads here.

It's entirely possible that I will not be able to run the 4/2 marathon. But, it is still possible. I would need to start building back the miles. If I use the run/walk/run approach, it should still be possible on a slower basis. If I do run it as a marathon, I will need to really cut back on goals, etc. It's also possible to just do the half.

1. Do the half.
2. Run/Walk/Run to finish.

If I do the half, I think I can just do what I normally do and set a goal that week. Here's an idea for #2.

• Continue to train at 80% r/w/r ratio.
• Pay extra attention to form, stretching, days off, etc.
• Use a very easy schedule (Hal Higdon's Novice #1) for mileage.
• Be prepared to scale back to the half at any time.

Here's a modified HH Novice schedule I think might do the trick. It gets a 20 in before the taper; you just need to take it nice and easy.

Getting Back

Two days ago I did4 miles and felt okay. Skipped a day and will run 5 today.

3mi @ -3F

It's cold out there. No wind, plenty of sun, and I think I dressed perfectly. Most important detail: not a peep out of my R knee. Felt great the whole time.

I did a 2 min : 30 sec run/walk ratio, which seemed perfect. I will use that for a while.

2:1 Ratio

Well, my blasted R knee is still acting up. Mostly it's along the ITB, but sometimes it creeps over the knee cap to be more like petellar tendonitis. Running with a 2:1 ratio makes it almost go away. I did 4 miles with 2:1 and it was fine. A couple of days ago, I did 3:1 for a few runs, and it came back. So today I did a 3-miler with 2:1 and it was only slightly sore.

I think I will run 2:1 until it goes away completely. If that means I run the April marathon 2:1, so what?

26.2 Goal Setting

Starting to think about goals for the next marathon. I know that I will need to ease through this training. I think I've turned a corner with the R knee, but I don't want to take any chances. There will be some time off. There will be a week in Utah; I am traveling to Indianapolis in Feb, but I think I will run there. Not sure how much running I will do in Hawaii. Might as well--it's a great place for that.

Even Pace

I think my biggest goal is going to be to keep an even pace. For some reason, 9:45/M pokes out at me as doable. If I were to manage that, I'd have a finishing time close to 4:15:00, which would be shaving more than 20 minutes off my first marathon. It would also leave room to improve in the Fall. I like this idea, so I am going to kick it around.

Another idea I like is having a weight loss goal for the race. The idea would be to commit to weigh a certain amount on race day--something like 175 lbs.

On The Road Again

Today, I ventured out onto the road for a slow 3-miler. R knee got soft at the end. Dang! Still, it was nice to be out in the snow with my 2010 screw shoes. These were the alternate pair of Ghosts that I bet up after the half marathon. Lots of training miles on these puppies. Stopped wearing them when I got the Ghost 2s and started breaking them in for the marathon. Then I got the Launch, and these guys never felt right again. They were tearing up my heels for some reason. Well, different story with the screws--these guys are great. Perfect Winter running shoes, and they'll make great lawnmowing shoes in the Summer.

But what about that knee? I'm supposed to do 115 minutes tomorrow, and I think I'll do it in the pool. I don't want to push it at all.

I put in far fewer screws this year. 10 on each shoe, and I think that's more than enough. I think four in front and four in back would do it. But they're cheap, so... what the heck.

99 Days to Go

All this knee anxiety has me worried. Today is an "off" day, and while I was tempted to get into the pool or something, I decided to really take the day off. Tomorrow, I will head to the gym and do the regular 30min pool run. Part of my is curious about trying to DWR in the deepest lane. Not sure if 5' of water will be deep enough. In theory it should be. My head will be out of the water--that's 10"-12" right there. Then you have the leaning forward, which should mean that you are not touching. Who knows?

Perhaps the resistance pool is deep enough? I've never seen anyone in there. I guess I will just have to check it out.

And then there's the elliptical trainer.

And then there's the diet. Could this be the time to do a radical experiment? Three months of diet?

A Brief History of Time

I'm digitizing an old cassette copy of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. It belonged to my grandfather. I think it will be good listening during pool runs.

Next Day

Well, the pool lanes were all busy, so I tried the track. Good news: 45 minutes without pain. I listened to Side One of the Hawking and made a point of not pushing it. Feels great to be on the road to recovery!

Genesys SWR by the Numbers

Okay, SWR is getting to be part of the routine. The new AQx shoes arrived today, so we'll see how they do. Part of me is sad that I can't try the DWR, but there's just no place for it. The main thing I miss, I think, is the core exercise. I'll just need to work out.

• The lap pool is 25 yards per length
• A lap is "out and back," or 2 lengths (50 yards)
• A mile is 72 laps (so said the lifeguard today)
• The lap pool ranges from 4'9" on the stair end, to nearly 5' on the deepest end. Today I tried to do SWR in 4'9" water, and that doesn't work; the water is too deep
• I saved a few minutes to run in the therapy pool on the theory I might need to do that some days when the lap pool is full. Well, that pool is 90 degrees, so it's really too hot for exercise. It's also only 4' deep at the very edge--running in circles is fine, but you get into shallow water if you're not hugging the far wall.
  

My knees are a little sore today; I wonder if I am being too paranoid about them.

Anxious to try the new shoes.

[That's not the Genesys pool in the photo, but it is a 25-yard pool]

SWR Bibliography

Here are the resources I find as I find them:

• Koury, J.M. (1996) Aquatic Therapy Programming.
  
• Puelo & Milroy (2010) Proper Technique to Water Running (from Running Anatomy).
• Town & Bradley (1991) Maximum Metabolic Responses of Deep and Shallow Water Running in Trained Runners.
• Dowzer, et. al. (1999) Maximal Physiological Responses to Deep and Shallow Water Running.
  

New 16-Week Training Program

I am pretty psyched to have a new training program for the marathon #2. It comes from Mastering the Marathon by Don Fink. SWR is going to be a big part of this one. I've adapted it to fit my "off" days and preferred "long run" days.

LRPM

Long Run Pool Marathon.

The acronym just leaped off the page. Earl Fee's The Complete Guide to Running has a whole section called the LRPM method. In it, he extols the virtues of DWR as a supplement to long runs to build the equivalent mileage to 26+.

I love this idea. Now, I am unlikely to work on DWR. The best fit for me is SWR, but I had already thought about something similar to this.

Given my finicky ITB, I think I am only going to do SWR this week and see how I feel. I don't want to be sidetracked for too long, so maybe I can nip this in the bud. By the time the really long runs come, perhaps I can work the SWR into long run combinations to simulate marathon-length sessions.

You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
--Steve Prefontaine

Update: SUN, 2010-12-19

Did the equivalent of 8 miles in the pool today. My right ITB feels "warm," but no pain. We'll see how this works. I plan to do all running as SWR in the pool this coming week. The way I am doing is seems fine. 9 laps = 1 mile. Each lap takes appox. 1 minute, so this seems about right. I did 72 laps today.