Week 37 Status Update (Halfway There)

Monday: 6mi (easy run)
Tuesday: 7mi (5mi marathon pace run)
Thursday: 7mi (easy run)
Saturday: 18mi (long run)

Total: 38mi


Three weeks after the 17-miler that put me temporarily out of commission, I was able to get my long run mojo back and put up a solid 18. And the best part is, my legs feel great (knock heavily on wood)! Since I'm already halfway through my 16 week training program, this is just the confidence booster I needed.

I'm still doing my long runs at a snail's pace, so I'm anxious to get some speed back into my weekly routine, but I have to admit it's been nice taking a "no pressure" approach to my runs and enjoying some New York City scenery with my biking bride.

This one took us from what seemed like one end of the earth to the other, starting on the Hudson near Riverside Park, and continuing all the way around Manhattan to Chinatown, before crossing over into Brooklyn and eventually on to Queens. Pseudo-map below, and pictures to come!

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Have I Been Sleeptravelrunning?

This past weekend when I uploaded my Garmin watch data to the web, a mysterious extra workout showed up. It was approximately the same distance and the same length of time as my most recent long run, except that it was at 2am the next morning and was done right outside of Amsterdam. Not New Amsterdam, actual Amsterdam.

I'm pretty sure I was in bed at that time, I think...



(click the picture for full details)

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Hitting the Berliner Mauer

"One of the scariest things about running a marathon for the first time isn't the distance, the muscle pain, the chafing, or the blisters. It's not knowing what's going to happen."

- Runner's World UK

Whether it's your first or your fiftieth marathon, and no matter how well you've prepared, you never know what's going to happen on race day. When you're on your feet for that long, subjecting your entire body to hours of "fight or flight" stress responses, it doesn't take much to throw everything off the rails. And especially when you're racing some of the fastest athletes in the world, the stars really have to align for you to come out on top.

Unfortunately the stars didn't quite line up for Kara this weekend, right after I posted about her training regimen and lofty aspirations. Apparently she was stricken with stomach problems around the six mile mark that stayed with her the whole race and made her unable to keep down any fluids. With dehydration setting in, she wasn't able to stay with the lead pack when the pace picked up, and she ended the race in tenth. Though this made her the highest placing American female finisher in a world championship marathon since 1995, it was about nine places south of her goal.

She and her husband Adam Goucher were planning on starting a family next year, so that she would have time to train for the 2012 Olympic marathon. In the meantime she was hoping to use this race to go out with a bang since she wasn't satisfied with a third place finish in Boston. It's hard to imagine she's happy about how it turned out, and she's a pretty fierce competitor, so it'll be interesting to see what she does next...

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Week 36 Status Update (Like the Tortoise)

Monday: 7mi (easy run)
Wednesday: 6mi (easy run)
Thursday: 6mi (easy run)
Saturday: 15mi (long run)

Total: 34mi


With this weekend's long run, I validated my theory that falling back on some basic easy running would allow me to maintain my mileage and continue to build up to those 18-22mi runs that are the cornerstone of marathon training. Since it was the last weekend of Summer Streets, I had the chance to run right through the middle of Manhattan, from the lower east side all the way to Central Park. And when you add in the run to the Williamsburg Bridge, and the run home across the Queensborough Bridge, I did a total of 15 miles, all with no knee pain. It was dreadfully slow, but if that's what it takes I'll do it. With my knee pain gone, I'll try working some tempos back into the routine and will have another go at the 17mi distance this weekend. Wish me luck!




Fundraising update - as of this weekend, I have met my $5,000 Robin Hood goal, so I am officially finished (and with 2 1/2 months to spare!). The best part is how it played out. I was at a bar with some friends for my standard post-run recovery drink (gotta replenish those glycogen stores), when the topic of the marathon came up:

Friend #1: "So how much more money do you need?"
Me: "As of now, I'm just $140 short."
Friend #1: "Ok well here's all the cash in my pocket."
Me: "Nice! Let's see, there's $130 here, and I'm pretty sure I can raise $10 before November."
Friend #2: "Here's $10."
Me: "Well there you go. Done."

And we all drank happily ever after.

Now that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to stop fundraising. In fact, it definitely doesn't mean I'm going to stop fundraising. I've still got a few pledges out there I haven't collected on yet, and I still need to "true up" my own pledge, since I owe a few hundred dollars at this point. So I'm going to celebrate reaching my goal by splitting what I owe between Robin Hood and Room to Read.

Have to say, it feels good to be done!

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Golden Gate

Anyone outside of New York might have trouble imagining it, but we city-dwellers love running around this city. I've been able to explore the varied neighborhoods of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Roosevelt Island in ways that I wouldn't have been able to from the subway or the back seat of a cab. And there's always Central Park, the New York runner's mecca.

But I think I can also speak for us city-dwellers when I say that sometimes it's still nice to run somewhere with less cars, less noise, less people, more trees, more dirt paths, and maybe a beach. So I did just that when I was recently in San Francisco. I visited Golden Gate Park for the first time, and the family biked along with me on a ten mile run.

Golden Gate Park was quite a departure from Central Park. While both are about the same size and share many of the same features (trees, water, ball fields, etc), CP actually feels like an urban park, while Golden Gate feels more like a nature reserve. It's quiet and less crowded, and the lack of tall buildings surrounding it make it easy to forget that you're right in the middle of a city. And there's definitely something to be said for emerging from the woods into the ocean air and being able to run along Highway 1 (The Great Highway).

Below are some highlights:



Evergreens and palm trees, in the same place


One of a few different waterfalls around the park


The ocean in the distance


The Great Highway, where you could run, bike, or drive down nearly the entire coast of CA


Probably the first windmill I've ever seen.


We called this "The Tree of Life"


The de Young Museum of Fine Art


And the entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden

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Back to Basics

A couple of months ago I wrote about a few examples of very successful distance runners who all share the same secret. The "secret" of people like the Tarahumara Indians, as I pointed out, isn't gadgetry, or new age diets, or sophisticated training methodologies. They just run. They run hard, and they run a lot.

Apparently I left out a very significant example, because the WSJ this morning published an article about Kara Goucher, describing her training regimen in the subtitle as "Run More, Think Less." The article is worth a read, so I won't summarize it all here, but the gist is that by training in this manner, Kara has quickly become the only American female distance runner of note since Joan Benoit Samuelson won the Olympic marathon 25 years ago.

She jumped into the spotlight last year by placing third at NYC in her first marathon ever, and then followed it up with another third place finish at this year's Boston marathon, helping to put America on the marathon map once again. She made headlines a few weeks ago by winning the inaugural Rock 'n Roll Chicago Half Marathon outright, beating both the men and the women, and will be competing again this Sunday at the World Championship marathon in Berlin (tune into NBC in the afternoon to catch it).

As the WSJ article's title points out, "The Africans are Hearing Footsteps." So for the sake of American distance running, go Kara, go!

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Week 35 Status Update (Phew)

Tuesday: 1mi (treadmill knee "test")
Wednesday: 4mi (to gym and back)

Thursday: 6mi (easy bay run)
Friday: 10mi (longish run)
Saturday: 9mi (long run pt 2)

Total: 30mi


Since I banged my knee up the previous Friday with that over-ambitious long run, I wasn't actually comfortable running again until Tuesday of last week. I was able to make it to the gym in the meantime to aid recovery with some biking and stretching, but I wasn't really running again until Wednesday.

Once I got to that point though, I followed the advice of my unofficial running coach and mentor - that "most problems can be solved with more mileage". And since I was fortunate enough to be on vacation in San Francisco, I took advantage of the weather and scenery and squeezed in 30 miles in the second half of the week.

Seems like that was exactly what I needed. More easy miles. I'm still not at 100%, but I've found that as long as I keep a cap on the hills and take it slow, there's no pain. So I've put together a more moderate training plan for the time being and hope to be back in long run form this weekend.

Fingers crossed...

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Week 34 Status Update (Oops I Did It Again)

Sunday: 4mi (recovery run)
Wednesday: 3mi (easy run)

Friday: 17mi (long run)

Total: 24mi


I'm a few weeks behind on my updates here, but this was the week that I took it easy after the long run blow up, with the intention of giving that distance a second shot. I was somewhat confused because as much as my knee hurt that Saturday, it was mostly fine the next day. And within a few days there was no pain at all. Just to be safe, I focused more on cross training (including some hot yoga!) and laid off the intervals and tempos, so that I could tackle the 17 miler head on.

In retrospect, that was a mistake. My knee was giving me problems for about half of the run, but it wasn't a sharp pain and it wasn't impacting my stride at all. If I focused on relaxing my legs, I barely noticed it, so of course I just kept going. I thought I'd be in the clear after a lot of ice and some rest, but I only had time at that point to get in four hours of sleep before an early morning flight from EWR to SFO. And I'm pretty sure that's what did me in.

By the time we touched down in CA, my knee was stiff and slightly swollen, putting me back on my ass for a couple of days. This is the final nail in the coffin for the FIRST training plan. I think it's time to get a bit more traditional.

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Some Like It Hot

I've mentioned in previous posts that I often cross train with yoga on my non-running days. A typical yoga class covers all the things we runners need (but that we rarely get enough of), like balance, core strength, and stretching, without having to pound the pavement. Classes run the gamut from a restorative class to loosen up on a recovery day, to a Vinyasa (or "flow") class for a little more strength and cardio work. And to top it off you don't have to spend 90 minutes channel surfing while on the stationary bike.

After my long run blow-up a couple of weeks ago, I turned to yoga to sidestep my self pity. And dissatisfied with my performance that day, I decided to push myself a bit by trying my first hot yoga (or "Bikram") class.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, hot yoga is what happens when you take all the intense back-bending, one-leg standing, and ab crunches of a normal yoga practice, and Emril Lagasse them up by turning the thermostat to 90+ and kicking on the humidifier. Yoga purists tend to roll their ideas at the concept, but for anyone crazy enough to do a long run on a July afternoon in New York, it doesn't seem that extreme.

At least that's what I thought going in. After 75 minutes of this, I felt like every bit of moisture had been squeezed from my body; all of my muscles were shaking, deep down into places I didn't realize existed; and I was lightheaded to the point that I didn't feel comfortable closing my eyes during "savasana", for fear I would black out.

Most would view these as bad signs, but to me it was a revelation, and I'm here to spread the gospel. So to any runners like myself who are always seeking ways to become stronger, faster, and more bullet-proof, or are just trying to become more well-rounded athletes, I would recommend hot yoga without a moment's hesitation. You get all the benefits of a standard yoga class, plus the heat pushes your heart rate up to tempo levels while loosening your muscles up even more.

As a disclaimer, there were moments during class when I thought I wouldn't make it. But if it were easy, it wouldn't be worth the time. So once I finally stepped out of that abusive sauna and was able to rehydrate and take a cold shower, the morning's long run debacle had become tolerable, and I was able to face myself for the rest of the day. If my knee continues to try to stand between me and the finish line, at least I've found my new favorite running-replacement workout in the meantime.

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Week 33 Status Update (Meltdown)

Monday: 4mi (recovery run)
Tuesday: 8mi (track workout)

Thursday: 7mi (tempo run)
Saturday: 11mi (long run cut short)

Total: 30mi


This is the week that ended with the blow up I mentioned in my last post. The following week involved less running and more cycling and hot yoga, followed by a make-up Long Run.

More on that to come...

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The Long Run

As a distance runner, you become intimately familiar with the ritual of The Long Run. It generally sits on the calendar at the end of each week, serving as a regular dress rehearsal for the main event. Some runners love it, since this is when they get out on the weekends with their running buddies. And some runners fear it, because it brings with it all the uncertainty of race day. No matter your disposition though, you have to respect it.

As a marathon runner, The Long Run becomes much more controlling. You love it because when you succeed, you feel like you're ready for anything. No matter what the marathon throws at you, you will conquer. But you fear it because it demands discipline. It makes sure you make your bedtime and eat your veggies, and when you misstep it jumps up and bites you on the ass.

A couple of weekends ago, I underestimated The Long Run, and it pimp-slapped me good. My training plan had me doing 17 miles, so I went out for the NYRR's second long training run and started taking on the Central Park loops. However after about 11.5 miles, I stopped to grab some Gatorade, and the knee problem I've been having suddenly turned from a minor hurdle into a full-on brick wall. No amount of stretching would loosen it up, and running was out of the question. Dejected, I limped out of the park and into a cab home.

Unable to take something like this lightly, I told myself that by any other training plan I was already way ahead of schedule on the long runs, so cutting a long run short this early in the cycle won't necessarily keep me from finishing. I jumped in an ice bath, took a nap, and then made my way to a hot yoga class to make up for the lost time. I realize that my approach to this race has been aggressive, and that there are risks incumbent to this approach, so I have to suck it up and work out a solution.

For the time being, that solution means cross training, more easy running, and dialing back the throttle on speed and hill training. Not to mention lots of ice, lots of stretching, and lots of foam rolling. In fact, I may have to ease into the long runs again, abandoning the FIRST training plan altogether (sorry NY Wolve, you're on your own now).

Having your ass handed to you by any given workout is heart-breaking, but the clock is ticking, so I don't have time to cry about it. Time to form a plan, make it happen, and not let The Long Run win...

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- Jake