Week of 4/15/13 – 4/21/13.

I had a lot of anger this week. I never managed to be genuinely afraid but I more than made up for that lack of emotion with fury. I channeled that rage into my training and had my highest mileage week since early 2010 and ran a <18 Tuesday night 5k and my longest ever training run. I will not discuss Monday’s events here. The news will tell you what was going on around here and you don’t need me to rehash all of that. Here is my training:

• Monday: 5.06 miles in 36:06.
• Tuesday: 6.41 miles in 43:27 including the Good Times 5k in 17:59. This was Rose Maguire’s Great Mill Girl Chase 5k which means that the women got a 2:30 head start on the men. This meant that once we caught up with the women we had to weave through traffic on the trail which slowed us down a bit but it was a fun run anyway.
• Wednesday: 12.41 miles in 1:28:53. I was unsure whether I should go to the d5k or the Wakefield lake 5k so instead I ran in Cambridge. There were tons of runners out showing that there was no fear among us runners in Boston.
• Thursday: 5.06 miles in 39:11 at lunch and 9.44 miles in 1:08:59 after work. I ran the No Rest for the Wicked in honor of those from Boston.
• Friday: 5.06 miles in 37:31 at lunch.
• Saturday: 10.00 miles in 1:12:39. This was supposed to be tempo, but I was out late raising toasts on Friday night so I just did an easy run off of about three hours of sleep.
• Sunday: 24.53 miles in 3:03:11. I woke up, put on my running gear and went out without breakfast or water for a long “depletion” run. I thought that by running on empty that I would be running 22 miles in 3:00:00 but thought I was running easier than that so I kept going until 1:35:00 before turning around. I was surprised that despite the distance and intentional hunger and dehydration this run felt so easy. I’m starting to feel the confidence that I had when I ran 1:00:30 at Jones.

I still have work to do, but I am starting to get excited to get after it at the Maine Coast Marathon.

14 weeks down; 3 weeks to go. It's crunch time!

Run For Boston.

Boston

I don't have words for today but I could not leave a trivial story about my training on top when there was such a horrific terrorist attack in Boston. I have no eloquent statements and I don't know how to edit my thoughts. So simply this:

This was not an attack on the Boston Marathon. This was not an attack on runners. This was an attack on humanity. Hold your loved ones close. If you are a praying person then pray. Donate blood. Keep running and spit in the eye of whoever was behind this.

Tomorrow is Boston!!!

Got some workouts in but missed some of the miles I had planned on running. The missed miles put me in a bad mood so I ended up spending most of the week just replying to trolls on RunningAhead with snarkey posts. Less than a month to go until the race so hopefully I'll be a little less sarcastic after that.

4/08/13 – 4/14/13

• Monday: took the day off to recover from the tendon issues that popped up late in my long run on Sunday.
• Tuesday: 2.16 miles warming up in 15:53. 2x 200m strides in 0:36 and 0:38. 5x 1000m in 3:18, 3:25, 3:24, 3:28, 3:29 with 2:30 rest. Target was 3:26-3:30. I wanted 6-8x 1000m but I was having toe issues with my DS Racers and tendon issues with my Cadence so I cut it short. Ended with 2.16 miles in 16:11. This was my first time running on the track at Danehy Park where my soccer career ended with an injury in 2007.
• Wednesday: The tendon thing still hadn't gone away so it was another day of rest.
• Thursday: 7.00 miles of Hills in 55:33. I wanted 10.00 miles on the Park Street hill, but in the morning I gave up eating mammals and started drinking an extra 3 liters of water while at work. The good news was that I felt much better by the end of the day than usual. The bad news is that I needed to cut the run short to pee.
• Friday: 5.06 miles in 39:52 at lunch time. I did not say it was okay to be cold and rainy out but it was anyway. I forgot to bring gloves so I ended up cold and soaked with numb hands but I was going over to the Depot for Eric's 30th birthday dinner after work so I needed to get through it.
• Saturday: 3.06 miles in 20:07. I picked Sarah up at Logan after her red-eye from San Francisco. Then we were out house/condo shopping. We looked at a super awkawardly laid out condo in East Boston so we aren't putting any offers. After that it was over to WholeFoods to get stuff to make gnochi sorentino with garlic pan seared chicken and talapia. I started the sauce when we got home and then darted out for a quick MP run before the Curriers came over for dinner.
• Sunday: 17.95 miles in 2:16:00. Mike scheduled 16 but it was so nice out that I ended up going a bit far. I felt strong on this run so at least I ended the week on a good note.

Tomorrow is the Boston Marathon so here's some numbers that you should be keeping an eye on:
From GLRR:

8795 Biancheri, Andrew
23248 Biancheri, Kimberly
9362 Bourne, Trish
16507 Bourque, Susan
25285 Brouillette, Ray
1031 Bui, Jason
22406 Cain, Ken
22905 Calvin, Luciana
22455 Chandonnet, Andy
23553 Coney, Aims
8855 Crane, Brian
22468 Desmarais, Ronald
5511 Faria, Fil
22419 Farrow, Chuck
7605 Flores, Carlos
10735 Floss, Peter
14222 Ford, Virginia
22948 Goodin, Ken
8142 Graham, Scott
10800 Hadley, Paul
6469 Hancock, Chris
21465 Haskell, Richard
11645 Hersey, Howard
1119 Hrynowski, EJ
15971 Jacks, Sheila
20532 Kanaracus, Steve
11643 Kasabian-Larson, Sarah
24279 Kiriakakos, Kelley
22930 Lokere, Kris
13516 Maslowski, Ally
11684 McInerny, Lori
23982 McKenney-Finn, Mary Beth
13968 Molloy, Amy
554 Morasse, Joe
7519 Mottram, Eric
25579 Murphy, Mike
20515 Ottaviano, Gerard
523 Patronick, Justin
9197 Peters, Tom
24365 Phillips, Ray
21093 Pierce, Jack
3659 Ring, Jonathan
9085 Roberts, Erin
6937 Schroth, Katie

1979 Sullivan, James
18763 Thibeault, Jocelyn
5946 Trotter, Jill
22563 Turcott, Richard
8051 Wallis, Lindsey
4101 Zaganjori, Bash

From Wicked:
F10 Flanagan, Shalane
21742 Carraro, Jason
6167 Chaves, Suzanne
21741 Hewson, Shari
5039 Paulin, Mike
23694 Tabbut, Rich
Probably missing some others but I couldn't find a list from Wicked

I'll probably be out on my lunch-time run when most of you finish but I'll be watching the results from my desk if I have time. All the best to all of you. As usual, I will not say "good luck" about Boston. It isn't about luck, it's about the hard work you've been putting in for the past months and years.

Cheers!

13 weeks down and just 4 weeks remaining until Maine Coast!!!

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

Starting to move again

My last week of training wasn’t sexy but I started doing workouts again and got in some decent mileage.

4/01/13 – 4/07/13

• Monday: rest. I ended March with a 16.44 mile run which was my second longest run YTD so a rest day was in order.
• Tuesday: 7.00 miles in 47:09. I did miles on the treadmill to start getting back into speed work. Easy mile in 7:30, mile rep in 5:45, easy mile in 7:30, mile rep in 5:45, easy mile in 7:30, mile rep in 5:39, easy mile in 7:30. This was much slower than I was doing on the track a month and a half ago but for my first speed work in almost a month I’ll take it.
• Wednesday: 9.55 miles in 1:11:00. I ran the Danvers 15k with a little add-on. I didn’t time the run right so I had too much time to cool off before the d5k started so I skipped the race and went home.
• Thursday: rest.
• Friday: 10.06 miles of Hills in 1:18:31. Ran repeats on Park Street. This was my first hill workout in a while so I was OK with it being a little on the slow side.
• Saturday: 10.00 miles in 1:13:22. First 2.50 miles were the easy run over to Porter Square where I tested out the Brooks Pure Flow2 trainers for 5.00 miles at MP (actually closer to 6:40 than 6:30, but close enough to MP for now) then ran easy for the 2.50 miles home.
• Sunday: 19.19 miles in 2:32:41. This is the farthest I have ever run without taking liquids or eating anything. It was also the farthest out west of I-95 that I’ve run on the bike path…I lost the path somewhere in Beford and turned around over by the high school. Anyone know if there is any more bike path out past the Bedford Depot? My big toe on my right foot split open ~15 miles into this one so my form was a bit off for the last 4 miles which dropped my pace quite a bit but I put a Band-Aid on so I think it is OK now. After I got home, Sarah and I went for a hike in the Fells with Sarah and Harold; I think this helped shake out any lingering soreness from the long run.

Looking over the calendar, I think that I will only have two more legitimate long runs before I have to start cutting my mileage back for Maine Coast…I’ve got to make those two runs count!

 

I'll need to actually post my weekly update on time next week so I can focus on the Boston Marathon on Monday (which I'm not running)!

12 weeks down and just 5 weeks remaining until race day!!!

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

Well, this hasn't been going the way I wanted since the end of January...

The last I posted was right after the New Bedford Half Marathon. I was beat up from that race but feeling optimistic based on the 1:20:50 result. Since then two weeks have past and March has come to an end. Only a month and a half now remains before I put my toe on the line for the Maine Coast Marathon and all I can think about is how far below my targets my training has fallen since January.

I’ll start with the quick review of my training since my last post:

3/18/13 – 3/24/13

• Monday: 3.06 miles in 22:55. Easy recovery run around Spy Pond in Arlington.
• Tuesday: rest.
• Wednesday: rest.
• Thursday: rest.
• Friday: 7.52 miles in 59:00. I ran down the bike path and around Fresh Pond. My right Achilles and my left calf were still in agony for the entire run. After the run, I noticed that the sole of my Adios had completely worn off the outside of my strike area. I guessed that this meant that I was torqueing my ankle with each landing so I decided to retire the Adios and get some new trainers to keep going in.
• Saturday: 10.00 miles in 1:17:51. I ran to City Sports in Porter Square in my old NB880s (2.5 miles) and bought new Brooks Cadence (1^st generation because they were on sale for $59 and change) and did the 5 mile run club route then ran home in the Cadence. They felt a little better than my end-of-life Adios but the damage had been done by racing New Bedford in dead shoes so my Achilles still wasn’t elated with the idea of running.
• Sunday: rest due to Achilles pain.

3/25/13 – 3/31/13

• Monday: 10.17 miles in 1:19:01. I ran this one on Mass Ave, the bike path and Fresh Pond. I still wasn’t feeling 100% but I could tell that my legs were healing up now that they were in new shoes.
• Tuesday: 10.17 miles in 1:18:07. This was the exact same route as Monday but a little bit stronger.
• Wednesday: 10.17 miles in 1:16:04…in keeping with the trend for the week.
• Thursday: rest. Sarah and I went out to the Painted Burro in Somerville; it was pretty good but nothing to write a post about.
• Friday: rest. I thought about doing the hill workout that had been scheduled for Thursday but was le tired so I took a nap.
• Saturday: 10.00 miles in 1:11:28. Started with an easy 2.5 miles to Porter Square where I hooked up with the City Sports Run Club for a Marathon Pace 5 miler (I ended up running the 5 in more like 6:40 than 6:30 but it was my first real MP run off the treadmill and first workout since New Bedford, so I’ll take it). After the 5 with the Run Club I ran easy for the last 2.5 home. It was super nice out so in the afternoon, Sarah and I walked from Arlington Center through Harvard Square, along the Charles and over to Copley Square with a stop for beers in Cambridge, coffee and shopping on Newbury Street and Sushi on Boylston Street. It was a really nice first day that felt like spring!
• Sunday: 16.44 miles in 2:08:15. I ranged all over on this one. I started heading north on route 3 until I ran out of sidewalk in Woburn and did a loop through the Wholefoods parking lot before coming back south on route 3 until Wildwood Street which I followed to Church Street in Winchester. Church took me to Main Street through Winchester Center. I was completely lost and went north on Main Street until I saw a sign for 38 South towards Somerville. I took 38 South past the Oak Grove Cemetery to the Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford which I followed through Somerville and a bit of Cambridge to get back to Mass Ave. I took Mass Ave back to my apartment but only had about 1:46:00 on my watch when I got home so I decided to add on the 3.06 mile loop around Spy Pond which added Belmont to my list of cities that I passes through on this run.

March as a whole was a difficult month to characterize so I invented some math to compare it to other months. My gut feeling was that it was a particularly bad month of training due to all of the time I had to take off because of the Achilles problems. I ran 194.78 miles in 24:10:22 this month which is definitely up in distance since February (146.72 miles) but my pace was down from 7:10 min per mile to 7:27 min per mile.

I decided that there are three things that are important to any runner’s training: volume, intensity and frequency. I defined volume as the average distance per run (monthly mileage divided by the number of runs during the month). I defied intensity as the equivalent age graded percentage of the average run distance and time (monthly mileage divided by number of runs during the month, monthly time divided by number of runs during the month, age during the month all put into a age graded calculator to get a decimal from 0.00-1.00). I defined frequency as the percentage of days during the month that a run was completed (total number of runs divided by total number of days; this is expressed as a decimal but can exceed 1.00 if you are running doubles etc).

These three variables (volume, intensity, and frequency) are combined by taking the geometric mean to get a raw training score. The geometric mean is used because it allows you to calculate a meaningful average for multiple factors on different scales. The raw score will typically fall between 0.00 (for a runner who does not complete any run in a given month) to 2.971 for a runner who runs a World Record marathon every day during the month. As the quality of workout clearly does not scale linearly between these two boundary conditions, I raise e to the power of the raw training score to get what I’m calling (for lack of a good name) the ζ-value (zeta). The ζ-value ranges from 1.00 for a runner who does not complete a run to 19.5 for the runner who runs a world record marathon every day.

I went back and calculated my historical ζ-values since I started logging my running in January of 2010 (I actually started in December 2009, but January 2010 was my first month with the entire month logged).

zeta-value Control Chart...I need to clean this thing up...

 

The SPC control chart of my running over this 39 month period shows that my training has been very poorly controlled. My month-to-month 1σ non-uniformity is ~22.6%. The good news is that 12 of my past 13 months have been above average. The one month in that set of 13 months that fell below the SPC chart centerline was November 2012 and I spent two weeks of that month in South America with Sarah on our honeymoon. Also in November, I ran a marathon on the 4^th and then basically took the rest of the month off.

According to my ζ-value, this past March was my 4^th best month of training. While I don’t feel like it was my fourth best month, it does help to explain how I ran a 2:31 PR at the Half Marathon on a swollen Achilles. Looking at my moving average, I think I should be on track for some more PRs:

6 Month Moving Average of zeta-value since January 2010.

 

So March wasn’t everything that I wanted it to be, but the math suggests that if I keep working in April and get my ζ-value for the month over 5.0 then I should be in good shape for the marathon.

I should note that the failure of the ζ-value as a quantification of training is that average distance is incorporated into the result twice: once directly in volume and once indirectly in intensity. Also distance can very on a much larger range than either frequency or intensity. Were a runner to run one mile at World Record pace every day for a month, the equivalent zeta value would be ~2.72. This suggests that my current training is better than the theoretical mile world record every day. I’m still working on a model that will better account for this, but for the time being I am okay with my ζ-value model as it stands as far as marathon training goes. Due to the demands of the marathon for high volume training, the type of training that I am doing right now is probably more effective at preparing for a marathon than running a single mile every day even at World Record pace.

I’m also thinking about how to merge total elevation gain into this model so that there is some sensitivity to hill workouts. The drawback is that almost all of my runs start and end at my front door so my net elevation change while running over the course of the year is essentially zero and because of this I do not track elevation in my log. Lacking data to manipulate, it is difficult to develop a model that uses elevation as a parameter. Confounding this, I would need to track total elevation gain and total elevation loss separately as well as grade because clearly running up a short, steep hill is different than running down a long gentle decline.

Aside from this weekly/monthly update I am due for a postmortem on my Adidas Adios and an introduction of my Brooks Cadence. We’ll see when I actually get a chance to write those up though.

Here's another picture of a graph that I'm inserting here so that I have a URL for it elsewhere. It is a natural log regression of my racing speed as a function of distance for my recent races.

 

Happy running!

11 weeks down and just 6 weeks remaining until race day!!!

 

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!