Taper Fun…..random thoughts……

It is a little over a week from the Surf City Marathon and I am as ready as I will ever be.  I have been in week two of the taper with a focus on dropping volume and increasing intensity.  If I could sustain this week’s pace (8:55 per mile) for the marathon I would be thrilled; however, I am a realist.  My PR in a road marathon is 4:42 which is a more respectable 10:46 pace and my final long run I was able to sustain a 10:32 pace.  If I can sustain that pace, I should finish in 4:35….a stone throw from my true goal 4:30.

Getting Mental Prepared

I find that there are certain things that have helped me get ready for any marathon or greater race mentally.  I like to get one new item for the race.  This time around I will be working with new socks. Ok, I know what you are thinking; however, I normally run with Champion socks I get from Target. 
 

However, last weekend we took the kids to John Muir Beach which gave me the perfect excuse to stop by the San Francisco RunningCompany.  The main purpose was to find out if they carry any FRS shots (looks like they have been discontinued – thanks Lance!); however, I was met by Jorge Maravilla one week after his win at the Bandera 100K (which I didn’t know until after).  I was able to ask about socks since I typically have problems with my Morton’s toe and the rubbing that normally occurs.  He directed me to the Injinji  2.0 mid-weight running toe sock. 

 I have heard a lot about these socks from the podcast and thought about trying them; however, have shied away from them.  However, with Way Too Cool following closely behind Surf City, I felt the time was right to try something out.  I have been running in them this week and so far so good, I love these socks.  I will post a review soon.

What I love about the San Francisco Running Company is the number of experienced ultra-runners there are that work there and there openness to talk shop.  I have been to other running stores and have gotten some poor running advice or the crazy look when I say I like to run longer distances. But just as it is common in the trail running community, everyone is there to support everyone, so it is easy to talk with even an elite runner in his shop without getting too star struck.

 So part two of my discussion with him focused on nutrition where I quickly found out that this is an area that he has struggled with in the past also but surprisingly is not on any crazy specific diet – only quality calories.  Simple but true.

The third stop, and again this kind of helps in the preparing mentally section, was to the M.H. Bread and Butter Cafe in San Anselmo for a wonderful loaf of bread.  This café is run by both Nathan and Devon Yanko who are ultra-runners themselves. In fact Devon has won the San Francisco Marathon a few times as well as was an Olympic Trials qualifier at the last Olympics.  I will have to say the baked goods here are the best in the Bay Area!  Our son Myles got a slice of carrot cake this time and with help from mom and dad quickly devoured it.  I also purchased a large country style loaf to eat over this week.  So yes, buying a loaf of bread to help with my carb loading has definitely help mentally prepare for Surf City.

Finally, I have been reviewing and going over mentally this race.  The great news is that I have run most of it as the half marathon.  I do have some question marks, especially from mile 3 to mile 8 which drops into what looks like a pit.  We will drive this section the day before after we stop by the expo.  I am pretty excited though.  Mile 2 to 3 is up hill so it should help temper me from going out too fast and knowing that I have to do it again at mile 8 going in the opposite direction should set up for negative splits, that is if I can keep a reasonable pace.

All in all, this has stacked up to be a good training session.  The only soreness is my Achilles, but that hasn’t stopped me slowing down.  I am excited to run!

Way Too Cool 50K 5 weeks later

So with all the focus on the imminent marathon, I am not forgetting Way Too Cool five weeks later.   In fact I was able to get a good training schedule from the Hal Higdon site that I will modify for my needs.  My main concern was the week directly after Surf City and not losing my endurance in recovery.  I am modifying the 4 week schedule with the 6 week schedule which allows for a good recovery, a nice build and even a taper for the 5 weeks.

Doing this research lead me to the Marathon Maniacs website.  I have heard a lot about this group over the years, and is definitely promoted on the Marathon Training Academy podcast; however, I never realized that the group is based in my old home town of Tacoma.  In fact, it is one block away from my old middle school.  What is even more exciting is that I would be able to qualify to be a Marathon Maniac if I am able to complete both Way Too Cool and the Diablo Challenge 50K 8 weeks later. The bronze level membership requires three events 26.2  miles or greater in under 90 days.  My three events will be completed in 78 days!

Really this is stacking up to be a great year of running.  Now queue the Beach Boys……I am ready to run Surf City, USA.

I Climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in December!

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

I would have to say, for the most part, December training was some of the best training I have done in years!  I completed over 153 miles of running (I haven’t been over 100 miles in one month of running in 3 years) and that was with one week off for a flu/cold. I also climbed close to 20,000 feet, the most elevation I have climbed ever in one month!  That’s the equivalent of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro at 19,341 feet! 

I did have the benefit of taking a week and a half off for the holidays, and since we don’t participate in the festivities, it was pretty easy to wake up early with my wife and get the mileage in.  She also is training for the Way Too Cool 50K in March and is really working on building her base and endurance.

I will say, though my cycling during December was non-existent.   I normally put in between 150 to 250 commute miles per month; however, with the sub-arctic temperatures (in the 20’s and 30’s in the mornings – cold for this California boy) for most of the month, getting sick one week, and having the rest of the month off, well this means I will have to working back in this volume into my training in the short term.

So why all of the elevation gain when the first up race, the Surf City Marathon, is flat?  I am working on both strength an thinking in terms of the Way Too Cool 50K 5 weeks after and Diablo Challenge 50K in April.

This is the elevation profile of each race:

Surf City Marathon (February 2^nd)

Source: runsurfcity.com

Way Too Cool 50K (March 8^th)
 

Source: Way Too Cool 50K

Diablo Challenge 50K (April 19^th)

Source: Brazenracing.com

To be honest, I was a bit afraid that with my focus on trail and steep hills that my pace would be affected for road running.  I have made some gains in the past couple of months, especially when taking advantage of the Wednesday group runs.  However,  I found that my road pace has continued to drop, with the most recent 7.7 mile road loop on the Ygnacio Valley Canal trail averaging 9:22. Take out the first mile “warm up” and the pace is 9:02.  Much better than the 9:47 that I had settled into.  So the trail running actually helped instead of hurt this time.

While I felt that I might have bit off more than I could chew with this schedule, it is looking more and more as if things are going to work out fine.  Let’s see how January goes.

Surf City Marathon Training has Begun!

Well, I really meant to begin my training for Surf City three weeks ago to give me a full 16 week schedule.  However, due to other circumstances, strep throat (how many times can I use this excuse in a post before it gets old?), BART strike, etc., I am now on a compressed 13 week schedule.  And if my performance at the Diablo Trails Adventure half marathon is any indication, I have a bit of a uphill battle to be at peak performance.

This being my seventh road marathon, my primary goal is to PR my Napa Valley Marathon time of 4:42:29.  I am pretty sure I can do this; however it will require me to really bring my speed down past my current 9:30 per mile road pace, really increase my running endurance, and improve my core fitness.

So this is my schedule:

 

I have a very supportive wife and my kids are great with my training.  The challenge is that this is the first marathon after the first six that I will not actually be running with my wife.  And while she will be there with me on most of my training runs, she will be riding my bike with the kids.  Yes our kids love marathon training because of the amount of time they can spend on the bike.  So I will not need to focus as much to her aches and pains and getting her through a training session as a diversion to my own aches and pains.  Not to suggest that she in anyway would complain about her pains in training, we are both mentally tough people especially when it comes to training; however, my concern for her and getting her through a long run or a marathon allowed me to ignore my own challenges I was facing.

The second challenge will be that this will be the first marathon training schedule that I will not be pushing a double jogging stroller. I don’t know why I am psychologically fixating on this; however, while the training with the jogger was a bit of a hassle pushing it for the full 22 miles, it was also nice to know that I could pretty much carry as much water and food as I needed.  I know also that pushing the stroller contributed to my running mechanics which will be different this time. But training on long runs, not holding onto a handle bar for 4 or 5 hours is going to be fun.

My third challenge has more to do with my commute.  When we did 5 out of six of the last marathons, I was riding my bike between 30 to 50 miles a week.  I am now riding between 48 to 83 miles a week.  While this will be awesome cross training, I am not sure how the overall mileage is going to affect my training.  I have read that 3 miles of cycling is roughly the equivalent of 1 mile of running.  There are a lot of other factors (hills, weather, traffic, gearing) that go into the actual ratio so it far from perfect. However, to ignore this aspect is looking for another injury.

What I do not want to do with my training is to stick to the roads.  I need some input here.  Basically, my training during the week will be on the road here in San Francisco.  And it has been suggested that my long run should also be on the road to match the event.  My schedule does not take into consideration any trail runs which also throw in some hill would work to break up the monotony.  I sorely desire this.  I even was considering dropping my long run for a more time based run (5 hours no distance limitation on Mount Diablo for example)  I know that is how quite a few ultra-runners train for most of their distances, timed over mileage, however they do cover greater distances because their pace is much more efficient than mine.  The problem is that I know I will finish the race, if it means walking however many miles, which is how I know how to pull out an event.  This is different though, I need to be able to run the entire event as I have for the other 5 out of 6 (our last Napa Marathon was a fun challenge with walk/running on the last 5 miles).

So I am ready to go, have my shoes laced up, and a sound training schedule.  The challenges are less about obstacles and more about adjustments to how I have trained in the past.  But I am really looking forward to a nice run, Beach Boy, Jan and Dean, and the Ventures music blaring and a great trip to Surf City U.S.A!