I haven’t been blogging a whole lot this year. I don’t know if you guys are interested in what I do to train on a daily basis or not, but I presume not, because it’s pretty boring. I get up, I run hard, and then I go on with my as a husband, father, employee, etc. Kind of boring stuff. But I’m one week away from running a race that I’m really prepared for, and that hasn’t happened in about two years, so I figured I’d throw y’all an update.
Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here, I ran 61 marathons and a couple of ultramarathons last year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. I’m a father of three and my middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I wanted to try to make a difference in the world, so that was my first attempt. I named the endeavor Operation Jack, after him, and it went fairly well. I figured it would be back to normal this year, and in a way it is with my routine, but my heart is totally into charity marathoning now. I’ve been gifted with legs that do some good things and I’ve really enjoyed using that gift to help others. That being said, …
San Francisco Marathon
If you didn’t see my blog last week about what I’m doing in the San Francisco Marathon, TAKE A LOOK! I’m really excited about this, although I need your help, too. Yes, I’m raising money to. That’s what I do. This time, it’s to fight cancer. Check out what I’m doing, how I’m doing it and why I’m doing it. I’m really excited about this one. If you can’t support this, I totally understand — there’s a lot of charity runners out there trying to help causes. But could you spread the word? There are really-easy-to-use share buttons right above this blog (and every page on this site). Help a guy out!
Before San Francisco, I’ve got one “me” race on the schedule. After 62 not-for-me races last year plus a couple of pacing jobs earlier this year, I’m actually going out and having fun and pushing hard for no other reason than to have fun and see what I can do. It’s Boston, it’s next Monday and I’ve been training pretty hard for it. I haven’t really blogged much about that that’s gone, so …
What I’ve Been Up To
I went through a good training cycle for the Boston Marathon, which is coming up next Monday and is my favorite race. I knew coming out of last year that I’d attack this one with a strong training cycle and I had a pretty good feeling I’d hold up well. Last year, I built up my endurance base and I think I developed a solid ability to recover well and run through pain.
I’ve done the training cycle I completed in the past (Pfitz 12/70+, which has peak distance of roughly 95 miles in a week and is always above 70). I’ve always gotten banged up and broken down. I slow down throughout the cycle, lose confidence, then taper, show up and race and have an awesome run. This time, I never got banged up. In fact, I got faster as the cycle went on. For the same effort for each run, I’m averaging 30-40 seconds faster per mile. I tacked on mileage to my long runs, also. Even if they called for 18 or 17 or 19, I always tried to go at least 24. I just like long runs. I went at least 26.2 a good six or seven times. The mileage was there.
My best long run was two weeks ago. I wasn’t fresh (I ran a fast 15-miler on hills the day before), but decided to go for it anyways. I started out with 12 miles at goal marathon pace (6:52), although I did them in 6:46/mile. My heart rate was 160 beats per minute, which is considerably lower than what I typically run marathons at (170). I backed off after 12 and went into a moderate effort and averaged something like 7:35s the rest of the way with nothing slower than 7:39 after mile 15. I ended up hitting 26.25 in 3:08 and didn’t even feel like I went anywhere close to all out.
So, my confidence boomed. But then it deflated the following weekend, when I ran a 40:55 10K. For me, that’s a terrible time. I went into self-doubt mode. I didn’t hit my speedwork numbers during the cycle, and then I failed miserably in my 10K. But then this past weekend, I had a track workout where I test by heart rate and as I expected, I was about 45 seconds per mile faster than I’ve ever been.
My confidence is there again. But my new problem is that I don’t really know how to run the race now. I have no doubt I’m physically faster than the sub-3 mark I’m chasing (my PR is 3:00:05 and I really want to run a 2:xx:xx). But I don’t know by how much, and I’m not going to even consider going near my target heart rate, because even though I hit 6:05 for that level, I know there’s no way in the world I could anywhere close to that for a marathon. I think I’m going to go out at about 160 bpm instead of 170 and gradually ramp it up to 165. I ran at a 6:39 pace at 160 in my test and it felt comfortably hard, ilke I could hang onto that for a long, long time.
So, we’ll see. I really don’t have much of a gameplan going in. But I think that I’ll have enough speed to build a good margin at 160 bpm, and at that level, I think I’ll conserve enough energy to be able to accelerate once I finish the hills at around 21.5 or wherever they are. At this point, anything less than sub-3 will be a disappointment. My C goal is a 3:05, since that’s 10 minutes faster than my BQ standard. Sub-3 is only my B goal. I absolutely expect that out of myself. My A goal? Not sure. Still trying to figure out I think is reasonable. 2:58? 2:55? 2:57? I don’t know. We’ll see.
That’s All For Today
Thanks for stopping by the booth. Have a great Monday!
Danielle Sterling says
2:5x:xx!!!!!!!!!
sarah emerson says
Anything that gets us to post race lunch quicker!!! We’ll be there waiting for you at mile 26.1 with flashy signs!! It’s time to go out there and run one for YOU!! So proud of all your work sam.