99 Days

99 days. Just a little over 14 weeks. That's the countdown to the 37th Marine Corps Marathon, on October 28th. My first marathon, and with any luck, not my last.

My training has been going surprisingly well, knock on wood. I'm keeping my heart rate in check on my easy runs, my long runs have been productive, and I'm throwing in some cross-training for good measure. Last night, I took it up another notch.

The distance training group I belong to has a weekly track session on Thursday nights for speedwork. The sessions are optional, but I was finally able to have my schedule accomodate one of these sessions last night. The prescribed workout was 2 to 4 sets of the following workout: 800 meters at Threshhold pace, a 400 meter jog, and then 400 meters all out. Our coaches say your threshhold pace should be 10-20 seconds slower than 10K pace, which for me would be an 8:45-ish pace, or 4:22.

After a 4-lap warmup on the track, we got to it - and the results were surprising. I ran my first 800 in 4:17, which was not that far off from my plan. After my 400 jog, it was all-out for the next 400. I ran that 400 in 1:45, which translates to a 7:00/mile pace. Now, if someone had told me 4 years ago, when I started running, that I would be able to break off a 400 in 1:45, I'd have said you were crazy. But there it was, the pace on my Garmin read "7:00".

After the set, we were told to recover for 2-4 minutes, then start the next set. I broke off a 4:08 on my next 800, which was much faster than I had planned. I jogged a 400, then ripped a 1:52 for my all-out 400, a 7:28 pace. Man, I'm liking this speedwork. The paces for my final set mirrored set #2, almost to the second.

What does this prove? For one, it's that I'm more fit (and faster) than I imagined. Second, how much faster could I be if I dropped the few more pounds I need to get my weight under 200? And third, I don't hate speedwork - really, it was nothing more than sucking it up for 8 minutes before taking a short blow, and repeating it. This was my first "official" speedwork session (previous ones had been by myself, unstructured). I know that this is going to benefit me in 99 days.

I know that there are some out there who fear the marathon, especially the "what have I signed up for??" reactions, but not me. I am very much looking forward to this new challenge. And this is all because I'm training right, training smart, and training well. My confidence is brimming right now - these next 99 days are going to go slowly, but I need to keep this adrenaline in check and continue to train the right way.

99 days.

The Hills Are Alive

This morning's mile repeats were difficult, to say the least. And it wasn't because of my running fitness. It was because of the hills.

My training plan for this week included a 7-mile run today, 3 miles of which were mile repeats. It's hard enough for me to map out a 5-mile run in my neighborhood, much less a 7 mile run, but I did it anyway. And what I found was that there's really nothing more than a half-mile in my neighborhood that's anything close to flat (i.e., anything between a 0 and 1% grade). There is a track at the middle school near my house, but at 4:30 in the morning, it's completely dark there, so that's out.

So I took to the streets. A 1-mile warm-up, and then I shifted into a higher gear. I was keeping about an 8:20 pace until I got to about the 3/4 mile mark, at which point the incline was quite severe. I finished that mile in 8:32, and took to my recovery jog. The next repeat started off with a gradual incline for the first half-mile, a .15 mile downhill, and then the rest of the run was flat to moderately uphill. Finished that in 8:34. This is where it got hard.

I did my recovery jog, and just couldn't get going good for the third repeat. Flat to a more moderate uphill, with the last quarter mile or so downhill, and I clocked an 8:55 pace. My legs were close to being fried from the previous 2 hilly repeats. I finished with an easy 2 miles, and did the entire 7 miles at a 9:31 pace, including the repeats.

I was completely drenched, head to toe, in sweat when I finished. But I’m really getting tired of the (4 times weekly) 5-to-10 mile runs on this hilly course in humid, pre-dawn weather. I have no choice, though, if I want to get my runs in. I’ll just be happy when the weather starts to break and I can at least do my weekend long runs on the W & OD trail without having to worry about dehydration.

If there’s a positive in all this, it’s that the Philly Half Marathon will be on a much flatter course, and hopefully the hill work will translate into some speed on the flats. I keep telling myself that.

Keeping the Tempo

In typical yo-yo fashion when it comes to my training, today was Tempo Day. Three 1-mile repeats, at a slightly difficult pace, but no pace goal. I ust wanted to see what my threshold was.

Here are my splits: 8:20, 8:32, 8:38.

I like those numbers.

That pace translates into about a 26:21 5K time, which would easily be a PR for me. So I've got the Twilight Festival Four Miler on Saturday night, June 19th. I'm going to do my tempo run next week on the course to judge the terrain, and hopefully I can turn in a fast time.

It's obvious to me now that my Saturday long runs at half-marathon pace are making my short-distance speeds drop significantly. Now I just need to work on my 10K pace.

Did I Really Run That Fast?

This morning was my scheduled speedwork. Last week, I did fartleks; this week, I figured I'd do intervals.

Since I run on the street and not a track, it's kinda difficult to accurately gauge 1/2 mile runs, so I did three 1-mile intervals with 1/2 mile jogs. I have a 5-mile loop I'm pretty familiar with, and I have a rough idea of where the "mile" markers are.

My first mile actually was 1.02 miles, and I ran that in 8:46 (an 8:35 pace), which was slightly faster than my goal time. My third mile was also 1.02 miles, and I did that in 8:40 (8:29 pace). Not bad. What really surprised me was the middle interval.

When I measured it out this morning on www.logyourrun.com, the distance came to 1.09 miles. But that stretch of the neighborhood is loaded with rolling hills. I was saying to myself as I was running that I wouldn't be surprised if that was my worst of the 3 intervals, since I was really pushing it. I guess I really pushed it, because I covered the 1.09 miles in 8:26, according to my lap counter on my watch. That translates into a 7:44 pace!! I don't think that I have ever, in my 20 months of running, run a mile in under 8 minutes. Ever.

So, to recap, I ran 3.13 interval miles (basically, a 5K) this morning in 25:52. That's an 8:15 pace, on a severely rolling course. I'm extremely happy with that.

I am very confident that if I can find a flat 5K to run this fall or winter, that I can indeed reach my goal of running a sub-8:00 pace 5K. I know now I can do it for at least 1 mile on rolling hills.

Pardon Me While I Fartlek

Speedwork is an essential part of any runner's training program, especially for someone like me who isn't going to win any races but is competing against only myself for time. (Side note: I passed up a 5K in my neighborhood on Mother's Day, and after looking at the results, would have won my age group had I decided to run). Tempo runs, track running, and intervals are all part of it, and so is a type of speed run that has an interesting name: fartleks.

Fartlek is a Swedish word for "speed play", and is basically short bursts of sprinting followed by recovery. In short, they are "micro-intervals".

This morning, I had a 4 1/2 mile run planned, and I wanted to shake it up. I had never done fartleks before, relying mainly on tempo runs and tempo intervals. So I gave it a shot today. I ran a half mile warm-up, then got into it. What I found was gratifying - my short distance sprints were followed by long recovery jogs, but when I finished, my time painted a nice picture: 41:24 for 4 1/2 miles, which equates to a 9:05 pace.

What that meant to me was that I was probably running my sprints at about an 8 minute per mile pace; much, much faster than any training run I've done before. My goal this year is to run a 5K at an 8 minute per mile pace or better, so there is hope that I can achieve this. I will still need to sustain that pace over 3+ miles, though.

But that funny word, fartlek, is now a permanent part of my training vocabulary after this morning's performance.