spaghetti legs

Thank you so much for everyone's support over the last couple of months. I finished in 3:20, missing my first two goals of 3:10 and 3:17, but at least met my fallback goal of 3:25. I'm totally happy with that. After experiencing the whole 26.2 mile race, I'm just happy with myself that I didn't walk.

My legs havefelt like spaghetti for two days straight. I have been wobbling around campus like an old man since Sunday. It was just muscle exhaustion though, no joint pain. This morning was the first day I could navigate stairs and only feel like I was going to fall, rather than actually getting a death grip on the railing to prevent disaster.

I made two mistakes, one in training and one on race day. In training, I don't think my mileage base was high enough and that's why the last 6 miles were so unbearable. If there is a next time, I'll start preparing a month earlier and make sure I get a minimum mileage per week in running without soccer substitutes. My race day mistake was going out too fast. For the first 13 miles, I was under 7 minutes per mile. For the last 6, I was at almost 10 minutes per mile.

If I get time I'll post a few pictures later. I think there's going to be a good one of my bleeding nipples as I crossed the finish line.

rest days and revised goals

10 days left.

Took another day off today. I'm taking a very, very relaxed approach to this tapering thing. All of the literature I'm reading warns me against working too hard during the last few weeks, saying that I'll be tempted to run too much and too fast. I suppose if I hadn't read the advice, I would not have begun to slow down so early. But, knowing that it's supposed to be good for me, I've really got no problem running fewer miles. The slow thing does bother me a little bit, but not as much as these coaches I've been reading tell me.

Actually, when I finished the final 20 mile run almost two weeks ago now, I was a little worried because of how difficult it was. I ran it at 7:50/mile pace, a little bit slower than my previous long runs, and it just felt harder. I still went and played soccer at the rec center the next day and that felt all right. But the day after that, I was totally exhausted. In the days leading up to the 20 mile run I had not slacked off at all, and I'd run 5 miles the Saturday before. For my other 20 mile runs I'd always taken the Saturday off. But the exhaustion I felt on Tuesday seemed too extreme to me. I didn't run Tuesday, or Wednesday. This was supposed to be the first week of tapering, but according to the official advice you're only supposed to cut down a little bit that first week. I was cutting down quite a bit. By Thursday I thought maybe I was feeling better, so I went out to run 7 at a good pace. after a few miles, I had to slow down because my legs felt like dead weight. I took another day off on Friday, and then Saturday I ran 5 slowly. Those 5 weren't quite so difficult, but my legs were STILL feeling pretty tired. That made me worried, because I'd taken 3 days completely off that week and I was still not rested. I had been planning to run 12 on Sunday, but I changed the plan and took Sunday off, then Monday as well. That means I had only run two days out of the last 7. My first week 'taper', supposed to be a slight reduction in mileage, was really more of a complete halt to running.

Wednesday I went back out and ran 5 more easy, and that felt better. Finally. Thursday I went out for the pace run which I wrote about yesterday. That went well and got my hopes back up for the marathon. I'd been pretty worried there for a while with how tired I was. I still don't know how it will all come together on November 30th, but the plan is still to go out on that day at 7:00 - 7:10 pace and just see what happens. If I just feel like I did on Thursday, I'm pretty sure I can at least go more than 10 miles at that pace. In my mind, that's respectable. When I tried to do that 7 miles at a decent clip and had to give up after 3, these horrible thoughts started going through my mind. Wouldn't it be bad if I started the race at my pace and hit the wall by mile 5? That's just embarrassing. I feel that as a first time marathoner who claims to have little experience and to have followed no conventional training schedule, I have some leeway this time around. I can suck and I will not be too hard on myself. I can hit the wall at 20 miles, or miss my time by 20 minutes. But, I don't want to suck THAT much. I'm ok with a Jamaican-bobsled-team level performance. I'm not ok with a 2008-WSU-football-team level performance.

A book on running I picked up at a used bookstore recently recommends having 3 goal times for your first marathon. One is your ultimate time that would make you ecstatic to achieve. The second is a good time that you would be happy with. The third is an acceptable time that at least would not be disappointing. I decided this was a good idea, since I set an ambitious time for myself and there's a good chance I won't make it. It's good to have that ambitious time, but I can see where he's coming from that it does set me up to feel diappointed if I don't get it, even though it was a long shot in the first place. So, here are my modified goal times.

Acceptable time: 3 hours 25 minutes, a pace of 7 minutes 50 seconds per mile. This is the pace I ran my final 20 mile run at. I know 26.2 and 20 are a lot different, but I went into that 20 mile run tired and I'll be fresh for the race in a week and 3 days. I would be disappointed if I did not at least match my last long run pace.

Good time: 3 hours 17 minutes. Seems like an odd time to choose, but this is the time that I was marked for by the McMillan running calculator. I think I've explained it in an earlier post, but the calculator lets you input a previous race time, in my case for the 10 kilometer distance, and it makes predictions for your race times - with proper training - at other distances. I haven't exactly had full marathon training, but I'm hoping it's close enough. I would be pretty happy if I beat this time.

Ultimate time: 3 hours 10 minutes, or 7 minutes 15 seconds per mile. I adjust this to 7 minutes 10 seconds per mile since the last 6 miles have a lot of uphill and I know I'll lose time there. This is the Boston Marathon qualifying time for my age group, and a good bit ahead of what the McMillan Running calculator predicted I could run. In a training run almost 2 months ago, I ran 17 miles at this pace. Why not 26.2?

I believe I can run a marathon in 3 hours 10 minutes. Ability is like the prize that comes in only select boxes of I Believe cereal. I am excited for next Sunday.

pace day

Well it turns out that with school getting crazy I've been a crappy blogger. So be it, but I did have an encouraging run today. I'm in the middle of the so called taper, the gradual reduction of intensity before the race. For a marathon it's supposed to be a gradual three week reduction. I kind of screwed the gradual part up, but I'll talk more about that if I have time for another post. Today, I went on a run where I went slow (all runs are supposed to be slow in the taper) for a mile or so, then got to the track to do some pace work. It's been a while since I was on the track so I wanted to do a couple of miles there at my planned race pace to feel what that's like and get it into muscle memory. Planned race pace is 7:15 min/mile overall, but I'm shooting for 7:05 or so for the first 10-15 miles because the last 6 are uphill and I know I'll be a bit slower for those. Sure enough, I hit the track and cranked out the first lap right on pace for 7:10. Score! Plus it felt really good. I've been having some worries lately about my ability to achieve that pace, stemming from the way my last 20 miler felt and the extreme exhaustion that set in after that last hard week. Again, more about that later if there's time, but for now school and social obligations call. Today was a good running day!

hills fartlek

Well, the rest of the week has been busy but not with running. I made it out for a hills workout on Thursday, an easy 40 minute fartlek where the base pace was slow and I sped up a little every time I came to an uphill. For anyone that is wondering: yes, 'fartlek' IS the most hilarious word in the running vernacular and I use it as often as possible. Aside from that, it apparently comes from the Swedish for "speed play". Personally, I think that someone with a sense of humor must have checked the word for "speed play" in several languages before choosing the best one.

When you do a fartlek, you choose some pace that's not too fast and then do short bursts of effort throughout the run. A fartlek can be easy or hard, depending on how often and intense you work during the bursts of energy. I did the bursts on hills because I'm trying to avoid "bonking" on that hill at mile 22 in Seattle ('bonk': the second most hilarious running word; to hit empty at the end of a long run). But, they were light bursts so the run was easy overall.

Friday was Halloween, an excellent time but that's another story. I did manage to get to the rec center for about an hour and sqeezed in a few soccer games, but nothing like the usual Friday endurance soccer session where we show up at 6 and stay until our legs stop moving or 10 o'clock, whichever comes first.

Tomorrow is a step back in mileage for the long run, 11-12 miles. I'm planning to include the hilliest area I know of, 5 miles or so of dirt farm road through the wheat fields. Next week is the last week when the workouts will give me any benefit during the marathon; after that, if I do anything too hard I'll just be making myself tired. So I'll try to really go strong for this next week and then gradually ease up and cruise the last three until November 30.

easy day

Was going to play soccer Tuesday, but got to the rec center and as sometimes happens no one else was there to play. I'd brought the running shoes just in case, but relegation to the 1/8 mile track above the basketball courts does not inspire me to run great distances. Bumped into a friend who usually plays soccer now stuck in the same situation, so we jogged together for a bit. Having a running buddy made the time go faster, but I still only managed a half an hour. It was just as well because the legs were asking for another light day. I'm still planning on some hills this week, but today is looking downright packed so I'm not sure I'll make it to any kind of exercise. Hopefully I can though, this week and next are supposed to be the peak in training - I'm thinking of them as analogous to weeks 14 and 15 of this 18-week marathon plan. I'm already doing a terrible job by those standards though, so one more day is nothing.

monday off

Normally I'd play soccer on Monday, but after the long one I just didn't feel up to it and took a rest day. There's soccer again Tuesday so I'll probably do that, and maybe add a shorter run as well. Later this week I want to do some more formal hills training. I've been running courses with hills by default being here in Pullman, but after reading more about the last 6 miles in Seattle I don't think I can be too prepared. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday when the legs are feeling more up to it I'll find a good hill and really hit it hard.

twenty

The big two oh today. As per my usual upside down sleep schedule, I got up at 4pm and had to hustle just so my entire run would not be in the dark. On the upside, my cold had noticeably improved so it seemed like that would not be a factor after all.

This was my second time on the route, which (for those of you who know Pullman) starts from my house on Colorado, winds past Reaney Park to Bishop, then cuts off onto Johnson Road, (across from the professional mall) and out past Old Moscow road to Sand. This part was new territory for me until I started running it, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one else reading this has been out there. It's basically a back way to Moscow, through the wheat fields with the occasional farm house. After a mile or two on Sand, I hang a left onto Brown Road which is unpaved gravel but other than that basically more of the same. After another few miles, Brown rejoins with Old Moscow road and the University of Idaho water tower appears over the rolling hills. The gravel gives way to pavement about the same time as the wheat fields turn into the U of I golf course. That road spits me out at the traffic light by WinCo, then I merge with the Bill Chipman trail between Pullman and Moscow and head back to Pullman.


If you want a closer look, here is the actual google map.

My routine for these long runs - anything that will take me more than an hour and a half - is to first drive the route and plant water and energy along the way. I expected this one to take about 2 hours 40 minutes since that's what it took last time, so I laid out two pit stops along the way, one just before Moscow and one three quarters of the way back along the Chipman trail. There are these energy packets they make especially for long distance runners and cyclists that are supposed to have the right balance of suger and other things your body needs, in carefully measured doses. Maybe I'll use those eventually, but for now I'm cheap so I use plastic bags with two orange slice gummy candies. I was reading this running magazine that questioned several elite runners about what they use to refuel on long runs. Most used different varieties of those energy packs, but this one Olympian said she just sucks on a couple of Swedish fish. I figure if she can make it to the Olympics doing that, it will work fine for me.

The pace for a long run, according to the online literature, should be 30 to 60 seconds slower per mile than your intended marathon pace. Now, I don't know how long it will take me to run the Seattle marathon, but I do have a goal. When I was trying to predict my marathon time, I came across this running calculator that lets you input your race times at any distance and spits out predictions about your times for all other distances. The caveat, of course, is that those are your predicted times in other races after proper training. For instance, if you can run a 5 mile race in 40 minutes, the running calculator predicts you can run a marathon in just under 4 hours. But, of course running 5 miles doesn't mean you can finish a marathon - you have to do the training, which ideally takes 18 weeks plus a pre-training mileage buildup stage.

My 10k race time at the end of the summer was around 42 minutes, so the running calculator tells me that I can run a marathon in 3 hours and 17 minutes. That sounded like a pretty good goal to me, until I started reading a bit more and realized that there's this big deal in the marathon world: qualifying for the Boston marathon. Apparently this is one of the more prestigous marathons and since so many people want in they make you qualify by running a certain time in another marathon first. The qualifying time changes based on age and gender. Of course, as a 23 year old male they're not cutting me any slack, but qualifying for the Boston is still a far cry from going to the Olympics. The time for my age group is 3 hours 10 minutes. Now, I don't have any particular interest in running the Boston marathon at this point. I've never really thought about it. But, that time is only 7 minutes faster than my own predicted marathon time. My competitive nature just won't let me settle for a goal that some running calculator spits out - I've got to give 3 hours 10 minutes a shot.

As you may remember from my last post, however, my training for this marathon is anything but proper. I therefore have little to no idea whether I will be able to achieve 3 hours 10 minutes. To be honest, it doesn't matter that much - this is my first marathon, so what have I got to lose? If I go out too fast and crap out at mile 20, it will just be a rookie mistake and no big deal. If go out and easily finish in 3 hours 20 minutes, though, I would always wonder if I could have pushed just a bit harder and qualified for the Boston marathon during my first time ever running 26.2 miles. Seems like a no brainer to me.

So, I have my goal marathon pace. It turns out that 3 hours 10 minutes in a marathon translates into about 7 minutes 15 seconds per mile. Since the Seattle marathon has a series of wicked hills that start at mile 20, I'm going to assume I will be slower for those last 6 miles, and I'll have to go faster for the first 20. Let's make it a nice round 7 minutes per mile. That means I should be running my long runs, like today, at about 7:30 or 8:00 per mile.

I cruised the first 5 miles or so out to Sand road. It's kind of hard to know how fast I'm going exactly, because I haven't measured out any distance markers. It's all just estimates. It was light out until I hit Brown road, and then dusk started settling in. The first 10 miles of a long run are pretty nice, more like going for a walk because the point is not to exert yourself too much. I was really enjoying a beautiful fall day, I think the temperature was warmer than it has been recently. My shorts and two layers of shirt, headband, and gloves were perfect. I ordered some long spandex for the colder weather and they should be here in the next couple of weeks, hopefully just in time for the nasty weather.

I was kind of worried about this one house on Brown road, because last time I ran some dogs chased me there. It was just twilight when I passed today, and the thankfully the dogs were nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were four kids in the yard playing football. It was really awesome to just watch them play as I went by. It reminded me of my brother Scott, because they were about his age, and then they reminded me of myself. I could remember when I used to play in the yard, watching the traffic on the road go by. Today I was the traffic watching the kids go by.

The hills on this route are negligible until Brown intersects with Old Moscow road, and then there are a few nasty ones. I powered through them as full dark set in, then picked up my first cache of goodies and descended into Moscow. I was still running fine, but the legs were definitely feeling fatigued after the hills. Last time I ran 20, I felt it all over my legs but especially the quads. This time, it was all in the butt. I guess that's good that the focal point of muscle fatigue changed places, maybe that means my legs are changing.

Running past the Palouse mall is probably the most disheartening point in the run. My legs are tired, but I realize that I'm still in Moscow. This is not close to home. This is where I don't come very often, despite five dollar blocks of cheddar cheese, because it takes a bit of effort even with a car. But, I don't have a car, it's dark, and there's only one way to get home so I keep running. One distraction in this section is that the Chipman trail has mile markers. This allows me to measure my pace. I determined that I was still cruising along. My first mile on the trail came in at 7:10.

Side note for everyone who hasn't been reading about long run strategy recently, long runs build endurance and apparently you don't get any extra endurance benefit out of running them faster. In fact, you get less benefit. Endurance is built by getting your effort level up to a fairly minimal benchmark, then maintaining for a long time. By going faster on long runs, you spend less time on the road meaning less endurance building.

So, my 7:10 mile was a bit fast for a long run, but no matter how many times I read that I SHOULD NOT RUN TOO FAST ON THE LONG RUNS I can't shake the desire to test myself and try to feel whether this marathon is going to be possible. So, I don't slow down.

Running on the Chipman trail after dark is a surreal experience. The temperature was much lower than it had been earlier, so I was very thankful for my headband and gloves. Strangely, my left toes felt like they were sweating profusely because they were squishing and squelching around in my sock. I made a mental note but didn't think much of it because I was too focused on the trail. Whenever a car's headlights hit my eyes, the path itself became invisible and only the tall grass on either side could be seen framing the way ahead. When those lights were in my eyes, all I could see was that grass stretching ahead with a black soup floating between and stretching into the distance. Then the headlights would leave, the gray path would come into focus, and the stars would become distractingly brilliant until obliterated by the next car. This was the pattern for 6 miles of trail.

Even though I did not try to slow down, I apparently did because the next few miles averaged between 7:20 and 7:30. By the time I crossed the Pullman Moscow highway and started towards the bear cages on Airport road, I was really hurting. That last water bottle and orange slice didn't rejuvenate me like the first ones. But, the lights of Pullman were in sight and that's some good motivation.

I finished out the run in 2 hours 36 minutes, about 3 minutes slower than last time, with an overall pace of about 7:30. I didn't slow down much at the end, so either my total distance calculation is off (a definite possibility, because I just use the google maps figure) or I was going quite a bit slower for the first half of the run. My pace was fast, which encourages me about my marathon goal, but then again my legs were completely exhausted. Extreme exhaustion is not really supposed to happen on long runs if they are properly executed. Proper execution involves the right pace and the right build-up, both of which are questionable in my case. My correct pace, based on my actual predicted marathon time, should probably not be faster than 7:45 per mile. And, I have certainly not built up in the recommended way to my long runs. My weekly mileage has been erratic. On the one hand, I feel proud because I can still handle them even without the right preparation, but on the other hand I know it's a risky. The point of building up slowly is not just to make the runs possible, but also to avoid injury and to get your joints used to the long impact sessions. Apparently, your knees and ankles can actually be conditioned to perform better as well. Don't get me wrong, I have worked up to these 20 mile runs, but not as slowly as is recommended. As I write this, my legs are spent and although my knees don't exactly hurt, they are also weak in a way that's difficult to describe. I'll just have to cross my fingers and pay a lot of attention to how I feel over the next few days and weeks to avoid injury.

When I began the cool down walk, my attention was again drawn to the squelch in my left toes. As I passed under a street light, I realized that my left foot was not sweating any more than my right. Panic struck when I saw this.

I couldn't believe it was my foot, because there was nothing that hurt. Even when I went inside and took the picture, nothing was hurting. But to look at the blood, you would think a toe was missing. I'll spare you the pictures of my bloody sock and toes, but when it was all cleaned up all I could find was the tiniest of scratches on the side of my middle toe, the little piggy who had roast beef. It had been getting nudged by the nail of the littler toe next to it, the little piggy who had none. Poetic, isn't it? After a conversation with Naysa the conclusion was that the capillary beds in my tissue were activated by the running, and that just made it keep bleeding despite the miniscule injury. Anyway, I'm happy because it's a great running wound story with a convincing bloody shoe visual aid, all in exchange for very little actual pain.

So, that's it for now. Big landmarks remaining are the 20 miler planned for two weeks from today, then the marathon 3 weeks after that. I'll keep posting here, perhaps more briefly, as the littler runs happen through the week. Check back in if you need a good procrastination tool, or in the unlikely case that you have an inexplicable interest in my training run times and thoughts.