Running Goals and a little math

For this year's unofficial running goal, I decided I wanted to log 365 miles, or essentially a mile a day.  While I cannot run every day because of my knees and my schedule, I can manage every other day.  I can also get in one mile on the dreadmill if I really want to make a game of it.

With DailyMile gone, it's a bit more effort to track.  I'm using STRAVA right now which torments its free users by making things harder than they have to be.  Example: you can manually enter an activity, but if you make a mistake on the date, time or distance, you have to delete and start over.

Update:  Apparently, this isn't just with the free version either.  There are various threads in the support community about this exact issue and how Strava refuses to address it.

At this time, we do not have the ability to manually edit the distance for a recorded activity on Strava. We appreciate your feedback.

— Strava Support (@StravaSupport) April 10, 2019

At the end of February, I had run 59 miles so I was right on target.  I missed some time in March because of sickness but still managed 25 miles and with three 3-mile runs under my belt so far in April, I'm on track.

So by my math, as of April 10, 2019, I'm at 93 miles for the year, including today's 3-mile run.  If I actually ran a mile a day, I'd be at 100 miles so I'm only off by 7 miles.  I'm hoping I'll get some running in when we go down to Olive Branch MS for Easter.  But even if I don't, it shouldn't be too hard to make up the missing miles.  And again, this is just an unofficial goal.  Some days I just don't feel like running and after a decade of being a slave to a training schedule, I kinda feel like I deserve to not run if I don't feel like it.

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2019 Shamrock Shuffle recap

2016: didn't take a picture this year

I've run the Shamrock Shuffle every year since 1997 except for 2007. I've run this race in lousy weather, hung over and even once after an 18-mile training run the previous day. I've always enjoyed it because I use to run it fast, set new personal bests and knew lots of people at the event. There was often a lot of post-race partying as well. I'm starting to think it is time to let go of the tradition. Surprisingly, it's not the race fee that is driving this. And it isn't quite my ego...I know I will never duplicate my PR of 31:03 (April 2, 2006). But I am feeling my age, as the elders like me say. Physically, when I run more than 3 miles, my bones start to rattle. No, what is really driving this is the event is no longer my playground. Yesterday morning after I checked in my gear, I didn't see anyone I knew until about just before they closed the corral. In years past, I would have seen so many familiar faces.
To be clear, I'm not rushing into anything. I do have a couple of friends that still run it and we meet up afterward to have our token beer and then some coffee, and if time permits, brunch. But if we move, I don't see myself driving in from Barrington or flying in from Memphis to run this thing.

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DailyMile is going the way of the DoDo

I've been using the DailyMile website to track my running since December 2011.  It served its purpose but I can tell that the site is sorely in need of code updating, which it will likely never see because whoever is/was behind it, couldn't figure out how to monetize it.

DailyMile came too late to the game.  This would have been a wonderful thing in the early 2000s when not ever runner had a Garmen or other GPS watch device and would have loved a simple tool to keep track of their mileage.

In lieu of the expensive GPS watches, a lot of us runners used a poor person's tool at USATF.   This clumsy website was just good enough to let you map out a route and share with others, although most runners, I suspect, just used it to figure out how many miles they just ran.

Had it partnered with USATF, perhaps it could have found its niche.  Instead, when DailyMile came on the scene, it tried to be like if Facebook if Facebook were a Running App.

I'll keep using DailyMile as long as it is free and available but I suspect it will be sunset in the next few years.  There are other apps I could use and will likely do so since my Garmen is about to die.

UPDATE:  Not too long after I published this, I logged into DailyMile to post that day's run and saw this message

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Winter Training Memories

I was thinking of someone I use to run with back in the day.  We were group leaders for Winter Training.  One winter I was going out for a 20 mile run and looking for some people to run me in.  I

was training for one the many spring marathons I've run as such, was doing the bulk of my training solo. 

SF volunteered but she only wanted to do 5 miles.  On the surface that sounds like a great thing.  SF is gonna help me with 25% of my run. 

Couple of things here..

First, most marathoners do their LRs by going out and back.  If you are running 12, you go six miles in on direction and then come back.  This is a little game we play with ourselves so that we finish without quitting or cutting our run short.  [unless injured, inclement weather or just having a really craptastic run.]

Second,  anyone who has ever trained for a marathon and has run 20 miles knows that the first 5 miles is the "easy" part.  Heck, if you are a marathoner and have run multiple marathons, I'd say the first 10 miles usually isn't so bad.  It's the second half where the struggle is real. 

Third, when someone asks you to Run Them In, it's just understood they are referring to meeting up with them closer to the end of the run so that they don't give up. 

But SF didn't want to wait 2 hours or come back, SF was already there.  And SF didn't want to run 5 miles with me and then turn around.  SF wanted to only do 5 miles total, which meant 2.5 out and 2.5 back which doesn't really help me at all.

What SF should have done was done some fuzzy math and figured that if I left at X time and ran an 8 minute pace, I'd be turning around at 1:20 minutes, give or take and meet me five miles from our base two hours after my start time.  But that is a lot of work and not fun.  She didn't want to flesh it out over email the days before, saying we'll figure it out on Saturday but when Saturday came she didn't want to stand around in the cold trying to figure it out.

What I should have done was said okay let's go 2.5 miles north, turn around and then head back to base and I'll run 15 south on my own.  But I wasn't thinking of making the best of what a flake had to offer, I was trying to figure out how to get what I wanted. 

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Future Marathon Plans

Me and SHB at Soldier Field 10

Since I get asked now and again, I thought I’d write my thoughts down.  This is more for me though I will certainly send people this link when they IM or email me and ask.  (If you've been sent the link, you might want to skip to the Here's the Plan down below).

While I don't have any marathons planned any time soon, I do believe there is at least one more marathon in my future.  Possible a few more throughout my sunset years.

If I'm gonna run a marathon, there has to be some extra prize at the end.  Since my first marathon in 1998, I've run 22 marathons so I certainly have proven that I can push my body through 26.2 miles of pavement and in spite of the cliché, for me it's more than just simply finishing. Last year's marathon in Detroit was about overcoming the ego and proving to myself that I still had it.  Mission accomplished.  Now I don't want to run/walk another marathon again.  So the next marathon will at the very least be about running at least 80% of it before bonking.  Hopefully it's about more than that.

The other things to keep in mind is that training for a marathon is a big commitment of time and resources, especially if you're gonna do it right.  My first two marathons I did half ass and the results back that up. The typical training schedule is 16 - 18 weeks and it gets old getting up early to run to beat the heat or trying to squeeze a run in during lunch or after work.  

When you train for a marathon, you find yourself married to a training schedule and making the time to run those miles can be tricky.  Most people think that you just go for a few runs on the weekend and before work and you're set.  No Charlie, it's much more than that.  When the mileage gets high, it takes even the fastest runners at least an hour to cover the mid week long distance and that isn't factoring in the time to change in and out of your running clothes and showering.

When I started this marathon business, I did one a year.  After a few years I got the crazy idea that in order to improve, I needed to keep my running base up all year so I would do winter training which eventually led to spring marathons because if you're gonna do the work you might as well get the results.  So I switched to a two marathon a year schedule which foolishly morphed into doing three marathons a year at one point (2007, 2008).  This led to injury and along with old age, has cut my marathon career a bit short. 

Alright so here's my plan:  For 2013, I will not sign up for nor run a marathon. I will instead focus on increasing my running stamina which means 10 milers and half marathons in order to accumulate the appropriate mileage.  Assuming all goes well and I can run distances greater than 10 miles without petering out the way I sometimes did last summer, I'll move on to increasing my speed.

That will mean sped work and a marathon in 2014.  My hope is that I'll be able to do one more gracefully than the Detroit Marathon in which I essentially walked at least 10 of the 26 miles.  The ultimate goal is to be able to qualify for Boston Marathon although I really will be happy to just run a marathon from start to finish in less than 4 hours.

So the caveats.  If it doesn't seem like I'm going to achieve any of the above, there's no need to run said marathon.  If my running stamina doesn’t' return to the levels it was in my mid-thirties then I'll be content with just running a maximum of 6-8 miles on weekends and 3-5 miles on week day runs.

Also if Life Gets in the Way and things are too busy to maintain a marathon training schedule or even a consistent running schedule than all bets are off as well.  If Nightingale and I have a kid or two, that would certainly truimph any marathon comeback for a few years if not forever. 

Post Marathon Depression

If I had run the marathon on Sunday I would probably be feeling down, like many of my running friends right about now.  It happens to virtually even marathoner especially if you have a goal beyond simply finishing the race.  You spend 16-18 weeks training and sacrificing for your sport and you get once chance come race day.  If it's not your day, it's a long time before the next do-over.

Surprisingly, I'm not sad that I didn't run on Sunday.  Any wistful longing for being part of a ritual I followed for more than a decade was eased when I watch several runners struggling just to make it to the finish line, their hopes of a PR or BQ dashed.  Any thoughts I had of still doing the full marathon in Detroit on the 21st are quickly dismissed thanks to my rickety knees.

I will admit I do wish I were one of the many friends who was able to post a new PR on Facebook or have their friends congratulation them in the comments.  I'm a little jealous of all the buzz that seems to be languished upon my friends who have recently discovered running and marathoning. 

In the days before FB, I would send out a post-marathon story to my friends in an email blast, and then later a link to post on one of my old blogs. Running marathons was one of the few successes I had in life and I wanted to share.

Most of my friends humored me or used it as an excuse to check in on how I was doing otherwise and share any news of their life.  Of course I had friends like Fitz who made me feel bad about my running hobby.

A couple months ago, someone posted this link to the Onion article on my Facebook wall. It stung because its true.

When someone asks how are you, most of the time its just to give themselves a second to catch their breath before they tell you how they are doing. 

Many of my friends got married 10 minutes after college graduation and started families. Every year I'd get the photocopies holiday newsletter which sounded pretty much like last year's newsletter. Soccer games, scouts. family vacations. I assumed that if I read through their newsletters someday they'd return the favor. Nope, I can't tell you how many emails I'd get from some friend saying oh I haven't read your newsletter yet.

I guess its hard to find time between children were "sleeping dry" at age three months and that Larry and Barbara got 18 miles to the gallon out of their camper on the way to Former Landfill Lake. I found these photocopied diaries impersonal and boring, and if their poodle was depressed following her hysterectomy, I really didn't care but at least I made the effort to acknowledge it

It's best to shower for everyone's benefit



New shoes broken in this week

 I’ve talked about the challenges involved with marathon training many times here. The first and last third of the schedule aren’t so bad, especially for the Novice and Intermediate programs. At the beginning the distance for the weekday runs are less than 5 miles which is easy for most runners to get in before work, during lunch or after work even in warm temperatures. At the end you are tapering and the mileage decreases as well.

It’s the middle of the schedule that is always tough. Background on marathon training: There are typically three training programs that people follow: Novice, Intermediate and Advanced schedules. The essential difference is amount of miles you run per week, including longer LRs. For instance this past Saturday it was 15, 17 and 19 respectively.


Here’s a typical week pulled from the middle of the schedule:

Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat (LR) Sun
Rest 4 mi 9 mi 5 mi Rest 18 mi  Rest

If you don’t run before work, you have to run after or during lunch. The typical member of the RatRace isn’t going to get that 9 mi run in during their lunch “hour”. If you go by the book and adhere to expert advice, you really should allow 24 hours rest between runs and a rest day before your LR. It’s a good idea to take a couple days off after the LR once the mileage gets up to double digits.

Some people are very consistent and can adapt their lives to this schedule. SHB is one of those people though she pays a price for that ability.  For most, including myself, Life gets in the way and I end up adapting the schedule to my life. In my former Single Life, there was always some social event that promised interaction with the opposite sex and adult beverages. I’m terrible at getting up before work and running and back then running during lunch wasn’t an option so I often had a dilemma: run after work or go to the event? In the early weeks both could be done with time for a shower.

Today I don't usually have a social event to run off to after work.  Instead I'd prefer to get home before the parking disappears and enjoy some sunset decktime. Yet I still struggle with keeping to the schedule. 

Weather wise, it would have been prudent for me to run Mon, Tues and Wed with two days of rest before this week's 18 miler. Even though Saturday's run sucked, it was a cutback so it would have worked from a mileage standpoint as well.

This is also a crazy reason to run in hot weather

Yesterday I worked from home (WFH). This allowed me to sleep longer and still manage a 3-mile run before the workday got rolling. The only reason I went for a run at all was to burn calories, not because I was worried about the 9 miles I will run tomorrow. If the training had called for a longer run, say 5 miles, I would have flat-out skipped it. The difference between sneaking off for a 3 mile instead of a 5 miler, especially in this heat is significant (25 versus 40 minutes). 

I looked at the temperature around 8:15 and saw that it was 77, according to my phone weather app. I decided that I could manage a 3-mile run and burn off some of the calories we consumed in the form of wine, which somehow tastes better on our deck. However, I decided to do some chores first like loading and running the dishwasher and starting a load of laundry. So by the time I got out the door, 30 minutes later, the temperature was now 88 degrees.

Surprisingly, I had a decent run.  It was faster than I expected though slower than my training pace.  I would not have been able to say that if it were a 4 miler or longer since I was pretty gassed by the end.

In years past when I trained for marathons, I would get it in my head that if I had a poor marathon performance, it had to be because I missed too many runs.  I now know that missing a run here and there isn't going to make a huge difference, as long as you don't miss too many runs.  The test is easy when you do the homework.

In years past, I also missed too many runs because of my inability to wake up and run before work and my social commitments after work. 

Swiss Cheese Weekends



It was so hot, we wore our Invisibility Cloaks

 The weekend was awesome in that we didn't have many obligations. A lot of our weekends are what I call Swiss Cheese Weekends. We have a couple of things planned and have pockets or holes of time between events which are not really enough time to do anything but are too small to go unnoticed.


I anticipate that most of my Fridays this summer will be spent at home since I have to get up early for Group Leader duty. When I was single and younger, I still went out on Fridays and would do a lot of my LRs slightly hung over. Usually by the first mile the blood was flowing enough to snap me out of it though I do recall a run or two where I probably would have been better off sleeping in. That behavior not only won’t fly at my age but also is unnecessary. Though it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to have a short beer with a friend and make an early evening of it.

So my first group leader run was fine. I was surprised to see that my old co-group leader wasn't there. His platonic girlfriend told me he's training with another running organization this summer. So instead I had two new GL to work with. As far as I'm concerned, it's there group and I'm just here for the ride.

Our distance was 7 miles for novice and I did about 6.6 (took a pit stop at the restrooms near the turnaround point). I picked a good week to come on board because not only is 7 miles well within my current ability but also this coming week is a cutback week so the mileage will drop by 2 miles. Although everyone will probably want to do 7 because Marathoning = ego and at this point, 5 miles seems like too short of a run.

Saturday night we went to my friend L’s Annual Taste of Randolph party. L lives half a block from the fest and has had a party in honor of that for the last couple of years. We brought along DrDrea who aptly described it as basically a college party for 40 year olds.

It’s sad but true. Many of the ladies there missed their window of opportunity on catching a guy when they were younger and hotter and are trying to re-capture that lost youth. And why do I say such a judgmental snarky thing? Because those are the type of women who wouldn’t give me the time of day when I was the younger guy referenced in paragraph two. These same women didn’t seem to notice Nightingale or my wedding ring until I blatantly pointed it out.

Sunday was a lazy day of doing nothing except hit a few Open Houses. I’ll post those stories separately. SHB and Nightingale have been hanging out by hitting the gym on Sundays, and she came along for the OH in Logan Square. She liked it, said we should buy it. Of course that was from the lens of someone not truly invested in the decision as us and not thinking beyond the initial warm rush that seeing a home that you could buy brings.

We all went back to our place to hang out on the newly decorated deck. A few weeks ago we bought some new furniture for the deck and got the planters out and filled. Nightingale also bought a deck rug which pulls it all together nicely.

Marathon Training but not partaking



Sort of the schedule I will follow



I've decided I am going to group lead for CARA marathon training. The only way to force myself to get up early enough in the summer to beat the heat and run double digit miles is to be tethered to an obligation like leading a pack of runners.

I emailed my friend who happens to be the a site coordinator at CARA, and she hooked me up with the group leadership gig, same as I did 2003-2008, and 2010. I'll help lead the 8:30 group out of Monroe Harbor probably doing the Novice Mileage.

I won't run a marathon this fall however. While I haven't officially retired, my marathon running days are probably over. I've run 21 marathons and while I'm certain with proper training I could finish #22, I doubt it would be with a finish time I'd be happy with.  Just finishing your first or second marathon is accomplishment enough.  When you do more than that, you're targeting a specific time, usually to Boston Qualify.  Since that dream has pretty much been filed away with my childhood desire to be an astronaut, there's really no reason I can think of to run another marathon today.

The most I'll do is the Detroit half marathon in late October. I suppose if I have a phenomenal July and August of running I could change my tune. More realistic is that If I find that I cannot hold pace and run the required mileage, I'll politely resign and go back to sleeping in on Saturdays.

Even though I cannot feel any pain in my knee, the damage continued running that my doctor alluded to might become more severe forcing that retirement issue altogether.

It's Gonna be a Hot One

When the earliest Advanced Forecast for tomorrow's weather was available, it looked like it would be a rainy cold marathon.  As the days drew closer, the prediction changed and conditions seemed optimal, dare I say perfect.  A cool start would be rewarded with a nice high 50s afternoon when most runners would finish the 26.2 mile run.

But it was too good to be true.  Over the last week it seems the temperature forecast increased by 5 degrees daily.  Perfect running conditions have been supplanted by it's gonna be another hot one.  As late as Thursday I still believed that even if it were a warm day, a start time of 7:30 would make us lucky enough to miss the majority of the heat until at least the halfway point if not the 20 mile mark.

The Chicago Marathon of 2007 was ridiculously hot even before the gun even went off.  In 2008 the start was comfortable enough but the temperature climbed quickly.  These are both valid possibilities for tomorrow.

After the 20 mile run, I promised myself that I wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't go out too fast for this race.  No delusions of grandieur, no attempt at a BQ or PR.  I simply wanted to do what I did on the 20 miler: run at a consistent pace the entire time and not have my calves cramp up like they usually do. 

Conventional Runner Wisdom tells us to have several race goals.  I sent the following to my running group:

Quoting 9mm Group Leader Lisa O:

Set at least 4 goals:

1. This one is the pie in the sky. A time you'd like to make, or close to it. Make it something that if everything goes perfect, could happen.
2. This is what you will probably do, even if the weather and how you feel isn't great.
3. This is what you might do if it just isn't your day.
4. Finish the race. That's good enough. Remember, most people get winded running for the bus.

 My 4 goals are really just #4 in different wrapping paper. This is my first marathon since 2008 and I’m coming back from injury. So I tell myself that I will be okay with whatever I do and feel relatively good while doing it. Still, I’m hoping to make it under four hours and not have the wheels come off too early and end up walking half the course.

 

That's probably why I'm so calm right now even though in years past I would be jumping out of my skin with less than 18 hours to go before the gun goes off.  But I feel bad for many of my fellow runners who trained all summer and were heading into this taper thinking this might be the year! 

 

If I've learned anything over the last decade training for 20 marathons, it's that it's very hard to have a perfect season.  You want to run all your mileage, cross train, eat right and get plenty of rest, but most people are tempted by summer fun or challenged by work/life/family demands.  If you manage to get through an 18 week training program and meet those goals 80% of the time, you will do all right.  More than that and you should have a shot at a Personal Best.  But then something like the weather reminds us that we are not always in charge of our destiny and we have to make adjustments.

20 Mile Run: A New Hope

Two weeks ago I set out to do an 18 mile run with the option of adding two at the end. Unfortunately circumstances didn't work out that way. Luckily, I had the official 20 mile run to try again.

Circumstances beyond my control prevented me from participating in the official Ready to Run 20 Miler with CARA on Sunday and my group because of a wedding in Michigan.

Tangent: Before I signed up for the marathon, I asked the SigOther if we were making another trip to Michigan anytime in the fall. She wasn't sure and I counted back from the marathon and said "well this weekend is bad because it's our 20 mile run and I really need to be in town for that." 

Lo and behold one of her relatives was having her wedding that same weekend and we need to be there.

Fortunately, when you run for as long as I have, you meet so many runners and running groups that you can usually find someone to help you out. The ClockTower runners were meeting on Saturday and they have enough people atall pace groups tat I was able to find an 830 group. I wasn't sure how that would work out since I struggled running 18 miles with the 9s two weeks ago.

I was doing some of my speed work with the ClockTower Runners on Tuesday evenings but once the heat picked up, I found it easier to either run in the morning with Hugh or do it in my hood so that I still got home a little earlier.

We started off with about 10 people includeing Karl and his wife who were the group leaders. Karl was pushing a stroller with their 2 year old. Monica and Veronica -- the Hispanic sisters -- wanted to do 8:20s and Ms Karl talked about doing 22 miles. I wasn't sure what I was in for but If figured if this group could at least get me to the half way point, I could make it back on my own.

They only stop at the official water stations that Fleet Feet has set up. I had brought along a bottle of gatorade that i had picked up on the way to the meeting point because I didnt' know what the gatorade situation would be.

It wasn't long before our group spread out and apart with some who run faster than 830s takingoff. Ms Karl stayed with us so it was myself and a guy who works for Gatorade running with three ladies. I didn't catch names but one of them was a firsttime marathoner.

One of the amazing pheonomials of MT is a runner will have a terrible run one weekend. Then, a couple weeks later, they'll have another LR that is even longer than the terrible run yet have a great experience. So it was today.

Usually around mile 14, my calfs start to cramp up. That didn't happen this time. Not only that, but I actually had some juice in the tank. Not enough to do more mileage but on the last two miles I thought about kicking it up a bit to get it over with, but then I decided itwould be rude to leave the group that got me through 18 miles. Instead we stayed together and I successfully completed the most mileage I've run since the marathon of 2008.

Two weeks ago it took me 2:43:49 to complete 18 miles (9:06 average pace).  We finished the 20 miler in 2:52:17 which breaks down to a 8:37 average pace.  And while that doesn't guarantee anything on Race Day, it does give me some hope that I will do well on 10-10-10 if I stick to an 830 pace instead of trying to BQ.

I would say that is the lesson I've learned this season, from both my training and the last half marathon I ran. This isn't going to be the year I BQ or set a new PR and I have to accept that.

18 Mile Fiasco

Two weeks ago I set out to do an 18 mile run with the option of adding two extra miles at the end if I was feeling good. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately an alarm clock malfunction caused me to wake up late and not meet my group at the start of the run.
Evil Forces 1, Icarus 0.

I woke up at 6am, threw on my running clothes, and left from SigOther's place. Since we start at 6am and there are a few announcements, I figured I could meet them at the sleding hill at Soldier Field where we always stop for water. Unfortunately, my co-group leader decided to take the group north for the first time all season to Northerly Island in order to spread out the 20 mile distance.
Evil Forces 2, Icarus 0.

Not know this, I got to the water stop at about the time my group should have been there so I figured either our Site Leader had a lot of announcements or I just missed them. About 30 seconds later I saw a group coming. It was the 9s lead by my friend SHB. Someone in her group mentinoed that my group had gone north so i asked if i could run with them. Maybe going at a slower pace would allow me to complete 20 today.
Evil Forces 2, Icarus 1.

We ran south and it was uneventful for a while.  The weather was good for a LR and it seemed like I would be able to get 20 miles in after all.  Then I realized that SHB leading the novice group through 18 miles and would add 2 miles at the end.  However, her group had already run two miles before I met up with them, so that meant when we got back to basecamp, I would have only run 16 miles.  I could run two more with SHB and her intermediates, but I would have to do another two miles on my own.

Alas, I did not run those two extra miles on my own. By the end of the 16 I was already dragging.  I managed to do 2 more miles to make it an even 18 (technically 18.5 since I did run the half mile from SigOther's place to Soldier Field Sledding Hill) but couldn't do much more.  When I threw up gatorade, I figured it was time to call it quits.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Marathon Training

This part of the season is a mixed blessing. The Good is that with only four weeks left until the marathon, the end is in sight. For me it's easier to map out my running/workout schedule and make plans with friends after work.  The weather has also cooled enough so that running midday isn't very different from running in the morning or evening. 

The Bad is that  there isn't a wide latitude of room for improvement. Sure if I slack off now, I'll pay for it in October. And the upcoming 20 mile LR will solidify my endurance and running ability. But I'm not gonna suddenly move up a pace.  My 18 miler demonstrated that while it humbled me.  In the back of my mind, I always keep the idea of attempting a BQ (Boston Qualifying), but it doesn't look like this is going to be the year.

The Ugly is that this is the part of the season known as the Post-Labor Day Blues. That's because around this time you start to feel the urge to rebel. Giving up all your Friday nights so you can get up at the buttcrack of dawn in order to run your LR starts to get old. It's a little harder to get out of a comfortable bed, especially if Autumn Sleeping Weather has arrived.

Group Leader Confidential

Every summer thousands of people train for the Chicago Marathon and many of them join running clubs like CARA. I've been a group leader since 2003 and have trained for both fall and spring marathons, so I've led a lot of different groups of runners over the years.

Two of the biggest scandals we group leaders encounter are pushing the pace and too many water stops.  The pace groups are split in 30 second increments, e.g. 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, etc. and the goal is to run the LR (Long Run) distance no more than 5 seconds off pace per mile.

As we go deeper into the season and the LRs increase, stopping for water becomes an issue. We're encouraged (or is it required) to stop approximately every two miles or so for a water break. CARA and Fleet Feet have set up gatorade stations along the lakefront as well. The issue is that stopping and waiting for everyone to get water takes time if your group is large and it's sometimes hard to start back up again, especially once the LRs get into double digits.

For years these two scandals were things I'd hear other group leaders talk about but really didn't experience first hand. I was leading an 8 minute per mile (8mm) group at the newly established downtown site and usually only had 2-3 runners at that pace. Between our egos and low numbers, it was pretty easy to get along. Water stops didn't take very long and pushing the pace was rarely an issue as we were already running as fast as we could.  Now that I'm a bit slower, I'm leading an 8:30 mm group and the griping has increased a bit.

One runner in particular was a problem child and let us know about it. She was complaining about pushing the pace, and running extra miles, and water being wet. Wanting to do my due diligence as a group leader, I dropped back and ran with her the following LR, listening to her gripes. Apparently we were guilty of pushing the pace for the first mile of our LRs over 30 seconds too fast. This winded her for the rest of the distance and "it wasn't enjoyable."

I seriously doubted we snuck in an 8 mm but even if we did, it shouldn't wind a person for the rest of the afternoon. I apologized that our pace might not always be on target but pointed out that our average pace was coming out to be around 8:35 each week, which meant we were actually running some of those miles slower. She didn't want to hear it. After talking with her for a while, I could tell we were not having a meeting of the minds. I spoke in English, she spoke in Total Disgust, a cacophonous dialect of F-You.

Problem Child opted to train at a different site for the rest of the season.  I hope that she found a group she can run with and a group leader who can hold pace better.  But something tells me she'd just find something else to complain about.

Beating myself up over missing a running opportunity

Thursday was one of those rare summer days when you could go for a run early, midday or late and not notice much different temperature wise. and I blew it.

I didn't go for a run before work, even though I did wake up on time -- thanks in part to SigOther's cat. I didn't go during lunchtime because we had a crisis at work and I needed to be nearby. And I couldn't go after work because I had invited some friends over for a low key cookout and needed to get things ready.

Over the course of an 18 week program, missing a run or two will not impact your marathon results. Even missing consecutive runs shouldn't substanially derail your training. However not starting your weekly running until Thursday, I can personally attest, will make Marathon Day a lousy experience.

It is that first marathon experience that has taught me to not skip runs unless I have to and to get them over with sooner than later when the opportunity is there. Nevermind that it usually takes me two months into training season to wake up early enough to beat the heat.

The good news is that I had a decent LR on Saturday. The bad news is that according to the weather forecast, it will be a while before there is another day like Thursday. I was supposed to do a 9 mile tempo run and I could not have asked for a better day weather-wise, which the Running Gods delivered. I cannot ask for a make up day and will just have to accept whatever Mother Nature throws my way for the rest of the season.

The Price of a Run

I often post on Facebook my success -- or more often my lack thereof -- in getting up in the morning to go for a run before work.  In all fairness, it's harder than you think, especially when you are training for a marathon.   For the record, I'm not the only runner who faces this challenge.  Many of my running friends have to walk the line between sacrificing sleep and getting in their required run.

To figure out if it's even worth putting on your running clothes, you have to work backwards. Let's say you start work at 9am and your average door-to-door commute is one hour. Let's say you also take 30 minutes to shower, dress and otherwise get ready for work.

If you run a 9MM (Minute Mile) and want to get in a 5 mile run before work, you have to be up and out the door, hopefully in your running clothes by 6:45am. As an 8MM, I can sleep about 5 minutes longer. I also can get ready for work in less than 20 minutes providing it isn't a Shave Day.  On the other hand, I tend to hit the snooze a few times so that quickly negates any extra time.

Keep in mind that you probably should factor in some cushion time into your pre-work run.  You cannot assume you'll finish your 5 mile run at whatever pace you normally run.  It might even take you longer to shower and get ready since you're a little tired from running 5 miles. And woe is the day when all of this plus issues with your commute make you extra late for work.

Trying to sneak a run in during lunch is even tougher because while you may not have to worry about the travel time, you probably cannot fudge much beyond the 1 hour lunch and you definitely should shower. So somehow you have to change clothes (twice), run and shower all in an hour. Not realistic unless you can run really, fast or have a flexible boss/work environment.

It works the same in the evening. You leave work as early as possible but you cannot control how long it takes to get home. You donn your running clothes before you talk yourself out of it and head out. Let's assume leaving work at 5, get home at 6 and have your act together enough to get back out the door by 6:15pm. You finish your run by 7 and then a quick shower gets you ready for whatever is left of your evening by 7:30 ish.

Which brings up the next point. This is based on a relatively fast runner. If your running pace isn't what might be considered Speedy Gonzalez territory, then you either have to get up earlier or run fewer miles. Most avid runners agree that it isn't worth the effort of donning running clothes to run anything short of 3 miles and if you are training for a marathon, your daily mileage shoots past that fairly soon.

So if you are lucky enough to have a flexible work schedule, take advantage of it and run when you can.  Otherwise, make the effort to get up in the morning and catch up on sleep by going to bed earlier, so deal with the fact that your evening is gonna be shorter than you'd like because you are making up mileage.

MT: Week Four -- By The Book

It's my fault that I cannot remember all the little details about last week's training because I waited too long to post this blog.  Part of the reason for the delay is I split my time between my place and my girlfriend's condo and last week was one of those times when it was more 70-30 than 50-50 her place. 

I do recall that on Tuesday we did our tempo run and then got together for post-speed workout drinks and food.  Even though it made for a later evening than I had planned, I felt it was important to bond with the other runners.

On Thursday Adrian, Tracey and I met for quarter mile repeats at the track behind the Water Tower Mall. It's a little known track that is situated behind several tall buildings such that in the evening, you are seldom if ever in direct sunlight.

Saturday's LR was uneventful for me, though my girlfriend had an adventure.  Our friend Ginger suffered an odd injury -- she slipped and cut her lip and face up a bit.  It was at the 7th mile of a 9 mile run and my SigOther asked "would you like me to stay with you?"

Even though the group leader did everything by the book and stayed with Ginger the entire time, she still took the SigOther up on her offer.  My girlfriend was a little upset because she was looking forward to completing the longest distance of her life at that point. 

I had felt some guilt in week three because I cut some runs short, so I know exactly how she feels.  I did what I could to convince her that those two miles won't come back to haunt her as long as she gets in all her runs this week and makes it to whatever distance we are doing this Saturday. 

Still, I was really proud of her for being upset at not finishing her mileage.

MT: Week Three -- Head Games

Last week's training started out as strong as Week2 but faded a bit at the end.  For one thing, the summer weather arrived bringing Heat and Humidity, the problem children of Summertime. My easy run Monday evening wasn't bad, though I cannot say the same for my running mate Hugh. Hugh had his knee scoped in early April and while he has been cleared to run, he is experiencing the same post-injury issue I am going through: re-establishing his running endurance.

When you run as many marathons as we have, you get use to logging a high amount of miles per month. While we always Respect the Distance, we also expect an easy 5 mile run to involve more effort putting on our running clothes than actually pounding out the mileage.  So when you miss a significant amount of time through injury or other inactivity, you are back to square one with regard to your running capabilities. It's frustrating enough re-teaching your body to run the mileage you once ran without thinking about it. But humidity doesn't help and in fact zaps your energy reserves at twice the rate of a normal run.

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On Thursday I got a couple of running friends together for hill work. Hills are generally hard to come by in Chicago and the marathon course doesn't really have any, unless you could a couple of overpasses on the last two miles of the course, including the PR-killing Roosevelt Rd at the course's end. However Hill Work is a tried and true part of speed conditioning, one that I've avoided for the last few years. So I decided to incorporate a hill workout every third week, to coincide with the standard marathon training cutback week.

We met at the sledding hill behind Soldier Field to do two sets of hill repeats. As typical, before we started the mindset was "two sets aren't worth my time coming out here...I'm gonna have to do 3 or 4 sets." A set is running up the hill at 5K pace, with a return job back down the hill (pseudo-recovery) and then right back up the hill again. This is repeated four times to make one set (about half a mile of total distance). Two and a half minute rest and then another set. After running the first set, everyone was like "one more set is plenty."

And keep in mind we skipped our two mile warm up because my runners showed up with bikes and backpacks and no way to safely secure them. We counted their bike ride over as their warm up but I was essentially cheating myself out of some mileage since I only got in a quick half mile warm up. My two runners want to do something every week so we decided we'll alternate between hill work and track work every Thursday. We'll see how this goes.

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On Saturday my LR was supposed to be 10 miles but because of the muggy conditions and my co-group leader having some stomach issues, we cut it to 8 miles. I could have done the extra two on my own, but I had some things to do later in the day so the sooner we got home, the better.

And this is where the mental games begins. Intuitively, I know those missing miles from Thursday and Saturday won't really mean much as long I don't continue cutting runs short. But it is too easy to fall into a routine of cutting some miles here, missing a run there and not doing my cross training. Add in the summer cookouts, street fests and other events with temptations to eat bad and stay out late and before you know it, Autumn arrives and the marathon is just around the corner.  You feel unprepared and you tell yourself that you won't finish the marathon/set a new PR/qualify for Boston because you slept in one Saturday in June!

Just a little bit more to go

This week I finally reached my target weight of 200 lbs.  When I got injured last year, I gained some weight because I was still eating like someone who ran 100 miles a month even though it was more like 30 miles a month.  If you look at the calendar I use to log my miles, in Febraury I have entries showing my weight to be 211 lbs.  What it doesn't show is January when I was as high as 218 lbs, but didn't log it because I was embarrassed.  Naturally some of it was water weight, but it is safe to say I was at least 215 lbs. 

It took signing up at the gym, eating better, consistently averaging 7+ hours of sleep and increasing my weekly running mileage to get those 15 lbs off.  I wanted to get them off before marathon training began because contrary to popular belief, you don't really lose weight training for a marathon.  In fact, your appetite increases because your body needs so much more fuel to handle those weekend LRs.

Could I have got the weight off sooner?  Probably.  But keep in mind that during the winter, your body is designed to store fat, not shed it.  And while I did scale back on the comfort food, I didn't go crazy on the diet changes.  Soup and Salad for lunch was a stable, but I would still grab an Italian Beef & Fries with co-workers to conduct Social Maintenance at the office.  So I believe that I made the best compromise between losing some weight and also still enjoying life.

Optimally, I would like to get down to 190 lbs.  I believe 195 is realistic over the course of the summer if I can keep up with the eating habits I invoked this year.  The summer cookouts, street fests and trips to Ravina will compete with that, but the increase LR should also help.  It's really gonna come down to having one or two solid weeks of pure discipline followed by relaxed but vigilant adhereance to my diet.