Putting in the work

This week I've run over 100 miles without even thinking about it. Like I've said in previous posts, I barely think about mileage anymore. Here's a quick snapshot of what I've done this week. You know, nuts and bolts stuff. I'll delve into the details later.

Monday- No running; 40 minutes of hip and glute strengthening on my own
Tuesday- 2:45 of low zone 2 running (~27 miles); 2.5 mile shakeout in the evening
Wednesday- 5x10 minutes at tempo (high zone 3, roughly 5:10 pace) with 3 mins rest between each
Thursday- 8.5 miles easy
Friday- 8.5 miles zone 1/zone2 early AM; 3x5:00 @ zone 4-5 (4:45-5:00 pace) at noon; 5 miles easy in evening
Saturday- 5 mile tempo time trial on track at 167-169bpm followed by long cooldown totaling 16 miles. 26:32 for 5 miles
Sunday- Easy 1:30 on trails
Total mileage = 103 (6 days)

Holy moly. That two day stretch with a 27 mile long run followed by 50 total minutes of tempo the next morning felt borderline suicidal at the time, but I did it and kept myself in one piece for the most part. It was an empowering two day stretch-- I knew I was pushing myself in a way I never had before. Sometimes risks need to be taken to find that next level, and I was very aware of my body's desperation as I pushed through the 10 minute repeats.  

With the addition of more up tempo stuff this week, especially the 3x5:00 in zone 4-5, I'm feeling stronger and notably faster. Interestingly, too, and probably related, I am finding it easier than usual to push myself to a high heart rate zone and hold it there. Last year I remember finding it hard to hold a heart rate of, say, 172+ for an extended time. I was surprised and happy that 5 minutes with my heart rate north of 175 didn't feel particularly hard.

Little aches and pains continue to be ever present in my life. There's always something new that pops up. Managing these issues, even when they're small, has to be one of the hardest things for me to deal with. As gratifying as highly competitive training and racing can be if things go well, worrying about and dealing with injury dominates the overall timeline. The end goal usually justifies these hardships, but they are ever present in the daily grind. As an example, on Tuesday and Wednesday I felt like my training thus far had come to a mini peak. I was feeling tired but undeniably strong. My long run had gone supremely well and I finished it with more energy and vigor than my previous long runs. Even when it seemed impossible to dig down and run tempo pace the next day, I did. I felt accomplished and ready to take anything on. Then on Saturday (following the 5 mile tempo run on the track), the soreness I'd felt at times on the top of my right foot felt more painful than usual. I dragged myself through that 16 mile run, soaked in the cold, driving rain with very noticeable pain on my foot at times. It varied, but there's no doubt it was a scary pain. Pains like that, even if they last an instant, can rip confidence away from you pretty quickly. As well as things had been going, and as insignificant as that pain will likely end up being, it was there. It reminds me of The Matrix when Morpheus says something about a "splinter in your mind," ie something that you can't help but obsess about a little more than you should. I try as hard as I can to not let it get me down, but it's easier said than done. Staying even-keeled is the key. I find myself wondering how truly elite level people who run for a living handle problems like this and if it's just a part of the gig.

Coming off a semi-dark 24 hour period where I was wondering how serious the foot problem was, the trail run I did this morning at Stratham Hill Park was rejuvenating. The pain wasn't sharp and was a total non-issue most of the time. I ran slowly and reveled in it. And even though I still feel some pain there, just like that, I feel like I've figured it out and am on the other side of it. At least from a mental standpoint I am, which is sometimes the most important one.

AH

PS- Ali and I got a Christmas tree today! The cat is clearly excited

Signing up

I signed up for the race today....

That's all for now.... 

Seacost Half race recap

My legs are totally dead today as I write this. I rarely question SC and his coaching, but I found myself wondering why I was doing a 2:15 minute run this morning at a 150 average HR over a hilly course. My legs felt pretty shredded for the last 30 minutes. I covered 21.9 miles @ 6:12 per mile. Coming off a hard run half marathon two days ago, I'll take it! Hopefully my body won't break into a thousand pieces now. Here we go-- as I try and break down the finer details of my race at the Seacoast Half on Sunday in Portsmouth.

I knew it would be between myself and Leuchanka for the win. I also knew we were both readily capable of breaking the course record, it was just a matter of who would come out with the win. A week prior to this race, on Saturday morning, we met up at the Newfields-Manchester rail trail and did a 5x6:00 tempo workout with 2:00 rest between each repeat. We were both running pretty hard, potentially testing the limits of each other and our respective "tempo" zones, but regardless, I got the sense that we were pretty evenly matched in our current fitness levels. I got the feeling that he'd be a tough guy to beat in a race-- someone who can latch on and just hang for dear life, and for a long time if need be. I took a lot from that workout both mentally and physically-- I enjoyed the element of having someone else there alongside me as we cranked through the minutes. It was an otherwise cold, thankless early morning (7:00) workout in the woods. From a training perspective, that was my last hard run before taking a few easy days to get myself ready for the race. 

In the week leading up to the half, post workout with Leuchanka I felt less than ideal. Let's say garbage actually. I had seemingly strained a muscle, albeit very slightly, in my glute doing hill repeats the week before the race. I took two days off to let that heal, then did some shorter distance runs with pickups to try and keep my legs ready for the race. My legs felt heavy and soft. Going from running 110+ miles a week with multiple workouts to single runs of 5-8 miles a few days later is a huge change and makes it a nightmare to stay positive, especially going into a race that you know won't be easy. The physical and mental shock to the system was hard for me. I was having doubts and plenty of weird aches. Deep down, I knew I needed it though, both from a mini taper perspective and a health perspective, and I tried to focus on that aspect of it. Sometimes you have to go through those weeks when there's a bigger goal down the line. I was glad once Friday came around that things were starting to come together for me.  

I knew going into the race that I had been doing a lot more volume that Leuchanka, which gave me a sense of confidence that I didn't quite have when we raced Great Island 5k a few weeks prior. I also knew my overall fitness had improved since then. Were those two things enough to beat him? That's where the race starts.

As the gun went off, Leuchanka and I sprinted down the hill from the high school and basically kept sprinting (or what felt like sprinting) until we hit the mile mark. We went through that mile in 4:57 if I remember correctly, which was certainly helped by the downhill and overall excitement of the race going off. Over the next few miles we clicked off some 5:00-5:09s and I was starting to felt pretty confident about how I stacked up. He seemed to be working a little harder than me at that moment, although that's impossible to gauge with real confidence. As I said before, I felt that racing a longer distance played into my strengths, and I wanted to play up that perceived advantage as best I could. I wanted to press the pace early and often, and just hope I had enough in the tank to make it home. Around mile 4 as we took a turn along the beach, I sensed our pace slow down almost imperceptively, at which point I picked it up to test Alex and see how he responded. I grabbed a slight gap, and knowing the wind was brutal I kept pressing on and tried to establish a little more real estate so he wouldn't be able to draft off me. Before I knew it I was running by myself. I didn't have a great idea of how much distance I had put on him, and not wanting to look behind me, I kept pressing the issue and pushing forward. People told me I had 50-200 meters on him at different points, but I think he stayed pretty much 10-20 seconds behind me for the rest of the race. Not enough to relax by any means. 

My race plan was to run roughly 5:05 pace for the first few miles, check my pace slightly going through New Castle at about the 7-8 mile mark (gets a little hilly), then crank it home back around 5:00 pace for the last couple miles. I think I'm probably fit enough to run a half in the 66-67 minute range but the issue I had at Seacost (that was shared by everyone) was that very windy conditions prevented any super fast times. In a way, the race plan faded out of my mind once I was crossing the causeway in New Castle and felt like I was getting punched in the stomach by the wind. 

Things got a little desperate feeling at that point as I wondered how much cushion I had. My legs were screaming at me and I felt like I was running sideways. Luckily we both slowed down at basically the same rate-- I had a couple 5:20+ miles in there that felt particularly awful around miles 9-12. I checked behind me taking that final turn toward the high school and was finally able to relax. I saw Ali as I turned up the hill and seeing her standing there smiling was the best feeling of the day. Crossing the finish line was great, but not as good as seeing her and turning up the hill. Even though my time was a minute or two slower than I was hoping, the effort was there and my body responded when it needed to. There's not much to be disappointed about.

 Ali and I at the finish. She's usually stuck with holding something of mine at the end of races

                                             I know I just posted this photo, but I couldn't resist

    My mom came to watch! Loved seeing her there

On a side note, I felt so happy to hear so many volunteers and racers cheering me on. Seeing so many people I knew made the race that much more enjoyable. Definitely a positive to running a local event!

As I'm coming off this race and looking ahead, the real training begins.

Onward!

AH

Seacoast Half

The Seacoast Half Marathon was this morning, which, after all is said and done, ended up being a pretty satisfying day for me. There's a lot I want to say about the race as it unfolded, specifics on strategy and the mental battles going on in my brain, but I want to leave that for my next post when I have the chance to digest the race for 24-48 hours. I wanted to stick with the basics and say that I'm feeling especially grateful to be able to run at this level again. That's about it. No doubt I have a long road to keep improving, but this was a major stepping stone for me in both a mental and physical sense. I know deep down that I have a higher ceiling that I haven't touched yet. I have a lot more to give. Now things will really start to crank up for me as I head into the real marathon building phase with about three months until the Trials. I'll leave it at that for now.

AH