To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[mrsg00fy]

2017 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon Training Cycle

Below is my justification for and an explanation of my 2017 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon training cycle. The goal at the outset of this year was to get me as close to a sub 3-hour marathon and a BQ on October 1st for the Lakefront marathon.

In coming up with this plan, I decided to look back at the past training schedules:

2016 Wisconsin Marathon training cycle
Total weeks – 15 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks – 12 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks mileage – 662.5 miles
Average # of miles during non-recovery weeks – 55.2 miles
Total non-recovery weeks duration – 97:28:42
Average duration during non-recovery weeks – 8:07:23
# of weeks above 70% intervals hit (including easy) – 12/15 weeks (80% of weeks)
# of weeks over 8 hours training – 8/12 (75%)
# of weeks over 9 hours training – 3/12 (25%)
# of runs at 120 minutes – 1
# of runs over 120 minutes - 4
# of runs at 150 minutes (max duration) – 3
Week at which peak was hit – Week 7 and 12
Scheduled Marathon training pace – 7:52 min/mile
Average Marathon training pace in workouts – 7:55 min/mile
Actual Marathon Race pace – 7:53 min/mile
Final Marathon time divided by 26.2 miles – 7:58 min/mile

2016 Lakefront Marathon training cycle
Total weeks – 20 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks – 17 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks mileage – 1049.4 miles
Average # of miles during non-recovery weeks – 61.7 miles
Total non-recovery weeks duration – 149:53:18
Average duration during non-recovery weeks – 8:49:01
# of weeks above 70% intervals hit (including easy) – 9/19 weeks (47%)
# of weeks above 70% intervals hit (including easy) at the end of the cycle – 1/7 weeks (14%)
# of weeks over 8 hours training – 14/17 (82%)
# of weeks over 9 hours training – 9/17 (53%)
# of runs at 120 minutes – 0
# of runs over 120 minutes - 6
# of runs at 150 minutes (max duration) – 3
Week at which peak was hit – Week 11
Scheduled Marathon training pace – 7:33 min/mile
Average Marathon training pace in workouts – 7:44 min/mile
Actual Marathon Race pace – 7:43 min/mile
Final Marathon time divided by 26.2 miles – 7:47 min/mile

2017 Dopey Challenge training cycle
Total weeks – 12 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks – 10 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks mileage – 564.1 miles
Average # of miles during non-recovery weeks – 56.4 miles
Total non-recovery weeks duration – 73:23:09
Average duration during non-recovery weeks – 7:20:19
# of weeks above 70% intervals hit (including easy) – 11/12 weeks (92%)
# of weeks over 8 hours training – 3/10 (30%)
# of weeks over 9 hours training – 2/10 (20%)
# of runs at 120 minutes – 0
# of runs over 120 minutes - 3
# of runs at 150 minutes (max duration) – 1
Week at which peak was hit – Week 10
Scheduled Marathon training pace – 7:33 min/mile
Average Marathon training pace in workouts – 7:27 min/mile
Actual Marathon Race pace – 7:36 min/mile
Final Marathon time divided by 26.2 miles – 7:40 min/mile

2017 Daniels 10k training cycle
Total weeks – 20 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks – 16 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks mileage – 839.6 miles
Average # of miles during non-recovery weeks – 52.5 miles
Total non-recovery weeks duration – 118:26:40
Average duration during non-recovery weeks – 7:24:10
# of weeks above 70% intervals hit (not including easy) – 17/20 (85%)
# of weeks over 8 hours training – 2/17 (12%)
# of weeks over 9 hours training – 0/17 (0%)
# of runs at 120 minutes – 0
# of runs over 120 minutes - 1
# of runs at 150 minutes (max duration) – 0
Week at which peak was hit – Week 11
Scheduled Marathon training pace – 7:25 min/mile, then 7:02 min/mile
Average Marathon training pace in workouts – 7:21, 7:04, 7:15, 6:55 min/mile

So, tons of information to sift through (understatement of the year, I know). When looking at these cycles I’m looking for similarities between WI and Dopey (two good cycles) and avoiding choices made during the last Lakefront cycle. Daniels cycle was both good and bad (made great progress but certainly faded).

Four total cycles of 15, 20, 12, and 20 weeks in total length with non-recovery training at 12, 17, 10, and 16 weeks. The shorter cycles seem to have been more successful for me.

The average mileage was 55.2, 61.7, 56.4, and 52.5 miles. But more importantly, the average duration was 8 hrs, 9 hrs, 7.5 hrs, and 7.5 hrs. The high duration was not a good choice during the Lakefront cycle.

When evaluating the plans on a weekly interval hit rate %, we get 80%, 47%, 92%, and 85%. So, obviously the cycle goes better when I’m hitting over 70% of the assigned interval paces. When things aren’t going well on a weekly basis, it means the end result also might suffer. Even more important when looking at the last Lakefront cycle is in the last 7 weeks of training, I only hit >70% intervals once (14%). A major sign of problems.

Then I looked at the # of weeks with over 8 hrs of running – 75%, 82%, 30%, and 12%. And also, 9 hrs of running – 25%, 53%, 20%, and 0%. So, it would say to me that going over 8 hrs is neither good or bad at a high rate, but going over 9 hrs too much (50%) is a breaking point for me.

Then, I evaluated the # of runs over 120 minutes – 4, 6, 3, and 1. And the # of runs at max – 3, 3, 1, and 0. Not really sure what conclusions to draw from this.

Next, I looked at when my journal notes appeared to suggest I had hit my peak – Week 7 and 12, Week 11, Week 10, and Week 11 of training. I think this might be the most important stat of them all thus far. My body tends to peak after about 10-12 weeks of training regardless of the training plan used.

So, if you remember some time back, I discussed my last three marathons and the pacing of individual miles (link) (link). The final conclusion was that me running blind to pace was causing a lot of variation amongst the mean. The paces were far from even throughout.

So lastly, I looked at a really interesting set of data. I went back to my training plans and looked up the marathon specific runs by scheduled training paces (training pace), the actual workout training paces (Avg T Pace), the average pace in the marathon (Race Pace), the final marathon time divided by 26.2 miles (R Pace over 26.2), and the ratio of average marathon training pace to final race pace divided by 26.2 (Ratio - which would give me the % off from each other (hence, 0.95 is 5% off pace too fast)). So, I found this new data set incredibly interesting. Marathon actual training pace was within 3 seconds of actual race day pace divided by 26.2 miles for both WI and Lakefront. Disney was obviously slightly slower because of the additional racing, but not too far off. I also used the idea from Hansons that a very well-trained runner may only improve by 1-2% during each marathon cycle. Thus, if my marathon training pace was X, then 98% (or 0.98) of X during the race might be biting off more than I can chew.

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So, for the WI marathon, I dipped below 98% at mile 2 and was under for 16 of the first 19 miles. Lakefront was at mile 8 and 7 of the first 19 miles. Disney was mile 14 and only 2 of the first 19 miles. So if I ignore the wind in WI and injury in Lakefront, this would really drive home the idea that staying closer to 98-100% of marathon training pace yields the better results. Not terribly surprising actually. Better pacing in the marathon likely equals better end results (and this makes sense completely from a physiological standpoint). My biggest hang-up has always been how to choose an appropriate goal pace on race day (or going completely blind). But this data set really shows that my actual marathon training pace seems pretty predictive of future results.

So, what does this all mean? It kind of shows that whether the training goes well (WI) or goes poorly (Lakefront) that the final results are pretty closely tied to the average pace during training. Although there are confounding factors with WI and the wind after mile 19 and the overtraining/injury with Lakefront (yet things come out equal?). It kind of creates a conundrum:

1) Train at current fitness knowing that I’ll attempt to train at a 6:58 min/mile (3:02:30) and expect the final results on marathon day to be a 7:02 min/mile (3:04:16) (adjusting for greater than 26.2 miles). This would get a BQ, but not eligible to sign up for the race and not a sub-3.
2) Train just slightly ahead of current fitness only on marathon training runs, to train at a 6:54 min/mile (to get a 6:58 min/mile – 3:02:30). This would get a BQ but not sub-3.
3) Train even further ahead of current fitness only on marathon training runs, to train at a 6:48 min/mile (to get a 6:52 min/mile – 2:59:59). This would get both a BQ and sub-3.

Of course, it’s not merely the marathon training paces because all of the scheduled paces of every run are built around themselves. So, would training at just faster marathon pace but all the other paces are based on current fitness actually work? It’s changing a variable which means the outcome may or may not be the same anymore. It also kind of begs the question whether a T+D adjustment would be helpful or harmful. Granted only Lakefront was during the summer and really needed any adjustments.

That’s when it dawned on me, while I don’t have great training data (not nearly nicely summarized) from Lakefront 2015, I do have some data. Lakefront 2015 is still my gold standard for marathon experience. It was perfect conditions (T+D of 100 with clouds from beginning to end), I felt well trained (from memory I was pretty solid on pace and the temps were low throughout summer training), and the race went better than expectations or even my wildest dream. So, maybe I should look at the limited data set from that race and see if I can make similar conclusions.

2015 Lakefront training cycle
Total weeks – 18 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks – 17 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks mileage – 786.25 miles
Average # of miles during non-recovery weeks – 46.3 miles
Total non-recovery weeks duration – 124:27:20
Average duration during non-recovery weeks – 7:19:15
# of runs at 150 minutes (max duration) – 3
Scheduled Marathon training pace – 8:35 min/mile
Average Marathon training pace in workouts – 8:34 min/mile
Actual Marathon Race pace – 8:18 min/mile
Final Marathon time divided by 26.2 miles – 8:21 min/mile

So, since the pace of marathon training runs seem to be a very predictive measure of future race performance, that’s where I started looking first. BTW, very interesting to go back and see all the old styles of keeping track of things. To my surprise, the data was quite rock solid. Scheduled pace and training pace were nearly identical. On race day itself, I ended up with a 2.5% better final time than marathon training went. Was there something I could glean from the individual mile marathon data to suggest how I could repeat a 2.5% improvement from scheduled to result?

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Well, look at that! The average mile pace during the Lakefront 2015 was within 2% of the training pace until mile 11. I vividly remember the goal in that race was maintain pace until mile 10, and then mile 10 becomes mile 1 because my long run was 16 miles. So, it appears that I made the decision to slowly increase the speed from that point in the race until the end. It looks like it payed dividends as I did not slow down below average pace for the remainder of the race and had the best marathon experience yet (I believe I set 5k, 10k, and HM PRs during the second half of that marathon). So maybe this is repeatable? Stay super tight on the pace for the first 12-14 miles and then slowly increase the effort. If this were doable, and I trained at current fitness of a 6:58 min/mile (3:02:30 marathon), then what would my final marathon time be with a 2.5% improvement (assuming that the average marathon training runs throughout ended up being 6:58)? A 2:57:58 adjusted time based on not running exactly 26.2 miles (but similar distance as other 4 marathons). So, this single race performance says to me that it’s feasible to train where I’m at and not be pinned down to matching that exactly on race day. Yet, if I can appropriately pace myself on race day and have great/ideal weather conditions, then nailing the sub-3 is not completely out. Although, this would state that running with the 3:00 pace group would be out as it wouldn’t fit this model of pacing.

So, when I started developing the 2017 Lakefront training plan, I kept the following in mind:
-Keep the total non-recovery training period short.
-Attempt to aim the peak at 10-12 weeks after the training starts.
-Average duration of between 7.5-8.5 hrs, but most certainly less than 9 hours (even with the shorter length of the plan). In addition, on a weekly basis some weeks of >9 hrs is ok, but keep it minimal.
-If the interval hit rate starts to fall below 70%, then reassess training.
-Train at current fitness and REMEMBER that what I end up with in training for marathon days has a direct relationship with final performance. AND that how I pace myself on race day has a direct relationship as to whether I can slightly improve my final time to reach that ultimate goal of a sub-3 marathon.

I then went back and thought about each individual training plan. What worked? What did I struggle with the most?

Something I really enjoyed during the Dopey plan was scrapping the classic MP Strength (MP – 10 sec) and going with HMP Strength (HMP – 10 sec) instead. After thinking about the physiological basis of MP-10 sec, it was hard to justify it. So, I thought HMP-10 sec made more sense and thought it worked well during those interval sessions. I found a Hansons 60/80 marathon training plan, and was pleasantly surprised to see that plan uses HMP as the longer interval pace. So, I decided to use HMP as my long interval pace.

After reading some of Tom Schwartz material, I decided I definitely wanted to incorporate some critical velocity training in my next cycle. This pace is to fall between VO2max pace and Lactate Threshold pace. If appropriately paced, it offers the opportunity to simultaneously work both VO2max and LT at the same time. But at the same time, this is further from MP than is HMP, which means the Lydiard rule of specificity (paces closer to goal pace for hard workouts = better) states I should choose to do more HMP work than CV work in the cycle especially the closer to race day it gets. I also really liked Daniels R pace (roughly mile pace) and thought it would work if I tacked those onto the end of the CV workouts.

Another person I pulled from was Jeff Gaudette. He wrote an article on runnersconnect about how the main benefits (mitochondrial gains and capillary development) of the long run seem to maximize at about 120 minutes. So, he proposed that after 120 minutes there should be more marathon paced work instead of more long run/aerobic work (since the benefits have been fully realized). He also stated that this would allow even more marathon paced work on tired legs. So, I’ve done this before on a more impromptu basis. I’ve done “fast finish” or “hammer” workouts, but generally never pre-planned and just because the workout was going well. But consistently, these workouts usually led to some fatigue related pain in the proceeding days. Although, I think I may have found a reason. I’ve stated in the past that each pace on the spectrum works the muscles differently. So too much of a single type of pace, puts the muscles at a higher risk for injury because they’ve been over fatigued. So, doing a marathon tempo run on Thursday and then a fast finish/hammer on Sunday causing fatigue pain issues makes sense. Too much marathon tempo work in a small window of days. Interestingly, the Hansons 60/80 plan seems to have the answer. A progression workout proceeds the long run/marathon tempo hybrid run. It appears the progression is about 40% easy work (or slower than long run pace), 30% grey area (between long run and marathon), and 30% hard (MP, then HMP, then 10k pace). So instead of a marathon tempo on Thursday (which is 100% hard), you proceed the hybrid long run with a progression run that is only 30% hard. This makes a lot of sense.

One other choice I made is the following, I spent a lot of time this spring working on speed. I’ve got that now and it’s just about where I want to be. Now I really want to get comfortable at marathon pace. In previous plans, I spent time building to that (and maxing at 10-11 miles of marathon pace). This time around, I’m spending less time building, and more time near the max of marathon pace training. I’m doing more marathon paced work in this plan between the normal Thursdays and now the occasional Sundays. I really want to hammer home that feeling of marathon pace so that it becomes second nature.

Now, things I know I need to avoid from the last Lakefront plan.

I can’t make the easy days hard by extending the duration of them to 90 minutes from 60 minutes. That was a failed experiment. Easy needs to be easy. So, all of my easy days are slow by effort, and will cap at ~60 minutes. No pace goal of any type.

I also need to incorporate step back weeks every 4th week. I work in a science lab that uses the idea of bone remodeling every 4 weeks. So, I really should have heeded that fundamental idea in my previous Lakefront cycle. So, this time, I’m going to incorporate a step back every 4th week of 15-30% of the previous week’s max mileage. This, in addition with the easy days, should help me avoid the bone issue (likely shin splints) I had during the last Lakefront marathon and afterwards.

So, in summary,
-HMP – 10 sec work instead of MP – 10 sec.
-CV work instead of 5k work, but more HMP – 10 sec. overall.
-More marathon paced work, but not two of those types in a week. If Sunday has marathon tempo, then Thursday is an easier progression.
-Easy days stay at 60 minutes.
-Include step back weeks for bone remodeling.

So, with keeping all of those things in mind, I came up with the following:

First off is the pace, which I believe is one of (if not the) most important variable to training. After the last two long runs, I think it’s confirmed to me with a standard T+D adjustment that my marathon projected fitness is a 3:02:32. This matches well with my best-case scenario from Bunny Head Time Trial #1 (19:29) where bad pacing and a lack of competitors/spectators probably held me back just a touch from better. So, with those things in mind, I decided to use the 3:02:32 pacing. My goal is a 2:59:59, but as I always like to say better to train at your current fitness than to reach too far and increase the risk of injury/miss the pace spectrum benefits of training. If I do things right in training, I’ve shown that it’s at least possible to recreate the magic of Lakefront 2015.

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Although, it does seriously beg the question whether I should or shouldn’t include T+D adjustments. I haven’t previously, so will it change the outcome? Will marathon pace with a T+D adjustment still be a predictive measure of future race performance? I’ll have to think long and hard about this one.

The plan is 15 total weeks in duration.

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Quick notes:
-Green are nutrition runs (any run longer than 90 min).
-Yellow box is total weekly mileage.
-Red % is the longest run of the week as a % of the total mileage.
-Black box is a weekday morning run
-Total is the total time (duration)
-Easy and Hard % is the weekly breakup of paces above and below the easy threshold (long run pace)
-Green values are the average pace of a run (in total)
-Blue % is the amount of CV pacing relative to weekly mileage

The first two weeks will focus on recovery from the Hot2Trot 10k, and the continued use of only two hard workouts per week. This will help build the mileage up to where this cycle will live. During these two weeks, I’ll reintroduce marathon paced work. I’m hopeful that the success I saw with marathon pace work during the Daniels cycle carries over into this cycle. I’ll also be building my long run back up to its historical higher level than was the Daniels 10k training (which capped at 120 min or 25% of weekly mileage). All runs over 90 minutes will have nutrition (colored green). After the Hot2Trot 10k and the training runs in the heat leading up to it, I realized that doing all my training in the afternoon during the week is making it more difficult for me to hit the necessary paces. So, I looked over my work schedule and put in some morning Tempo runs (on Thursdays) throughout the schedule. They are marked with black boxes. I’ll take those days off from work and focus on an early morning Tempo run in the hopefully cooler weather.

After those two weeks of recovery/building, the real plan will start for the remaining 13 weeks. With the hope that I can capture the same peak at around 10-12 weeks that I’ve seen in the past coinciding with the start of my taper.

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I’m starting the plan off with more CV than HMP, then transitioning over time to the opposite. Those first three weeks will be the encapsulation of the training ideas. CV+Tempo+LR, then CV+Progression+Hybrid Easy/Tempo, then HMP+Tempo+LR (but a drop in overall mileage). The easy/hard will be kept close to 80/20 throughout. The CV paced work is less than 8% of the weekly mileage and the total duration is aimed to be around 90 minutes. The longest run of the week less than 30% of the weekly mileage. Again, a progression run during the week of 7/10 because of the Sunday marathon paced mileage. The week of 7/17 will be the first step back week at 85% of the previous week’s mileage.

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The next 4-week block comes with some new tweaks. I’m trying a ladder type CV workout and the first hybrid LR/tempo. The week of 7/24 brings a LR with a fast marathon paced finish. The week of 8/7 needed to be creative because I’ve got a wedding reception in Minneapolis to attend that weekend. So, I dropped the CV/HMP, and went with a progression (which is easier) and then a hybrid easy/tempo. But this hybrid easy/tempo run is special because it will be done as a depletion training run. Thus, no breakfast before the run, and no carbs during the run (electrolytes are permissible). I’ve seen conflicting advice on when to do the depletion training run. I’ve seen some suggest it should occur at the beginning of training as to yield the benefits of it for the remainder of the training. Yet, others propose it’s better to do it in the middle after you’ve already built some of your endurance up. However, both sides agree that you shouldn’t do the depletion run any closer than 8 weeks to the marathon as to allow enough recovery time from it. I figured it was also convenient timing to have the step back week after that run. All these weeks stay near 80% easy and 25-30% long run of weekly mileage. The week of 8/14 is another step back week at 84% of the previous week’s mileage.

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The next 3-week block has more HMP than CV (specificity). These three weeks represent the peak of the training. There’s a hybrid LR/tempo, long run, and hybrid easy/tempo. The max duration peak is hit twice in back to back weeks (once as a hybrid with easy/tempo and the other as a straight up long run). Even at its peak (66.8 miles), we’re still coming under 9 hours of total weekly duration. In fact, there will be 0 weeks of >9 hrs training, whereas 53% of Lakefront 2016 was >9 hours. I’m hoping that maintaining the balance of easy/hard while keeping the long run at 30% of weekly mileage or less, but not doing >9 hours will be the perfect balance I’m looking for.

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Lastly, comes the taper. Unlike plans in the past with a 21-day taper, I’m only doing a 14-day taper. When I evaluated my peak from Dopey training, it showed that I lost my peak in about 2 weeks instead of 3. I also felt this during the Daniels training. So, I’m hoping reducing the taper by a week will allow me to maintain the peak through the marathon. In addition, while the 10-day rule still applies (workouts within 10 days of race day won’t have fully realized benefits and increase fatigue) I’ve included a relatively low level long run and a lighter CV workout on the Tuesday proceeding race day. Lastly, the non-marathon mileage of the last week is 28.75 miles, which represents about 44% of the peak mileage. Meta-data research shows the desired % to be around 42-48% of peak in taper week. So, this is within those guidelines.

So, using the same criteria of analysis as the previous training plans, how does this one compare?

2017 Lakefront Marathon training cycle
Total weeks – 15 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks – 13 weeks
Total non-recovery weeks mileage – 876.1 miles
Average # of miles during non-recovery weeks – 58.4 miles
Total non-recovery weeks duration – 116:23:10
Average duration during non-recovery weeks –7:45:33
# of weeks above 70% (including easy) – Hopefully I do well!
# of weeks over 8 hours training – 8/13 (62%)
# of weeks over 9 hours training – 0/13 (0%)
# of runs at 125 minutes – 5
# of runs over 125 minutes - 7
# of runs at 150 minutes (max duration) – 4
Week at which peak was hit – October 1st?

Goal
Only one –

1) Run a sub 3-hour marathon and qualify for the Boston Marathon

Alright, if you’ve made it this far, then !

I spent a lot of time working on this and trying to give myself the best opportunity to succeed.

One last thing, meet “Rainbow Sparkles” (G named it). Steph’s grandfather painted me this original blue and yellow unicorn. The painting will hang right next to my bed so that every morning and evening I can stare at it and visualize the feeling of marathon day. I’m ready to capture the elusive and mythical creature, known as the BQ.

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Billy, your level of analysis, dedication and introspection are astounding. As you said in your first post...if you want something...prove it by doing what is necessary. Here's to hoping you meet all your goals!

And I love the father's day pictures! Your daughter sure loves the camera and it loves her. She is absolutely adorable.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Billy, your level of analysis, dedication and introspection are astounding. As you said in your first post...if you want something...prove it by doing what is necessary. Here's to hoping you meet all your goals!

Thanks! I'm just mixing my two passions: science and running. I love me some data digging. It's definitely what I do best. I view myself less as the thinker and more the finder/puzzle solver.

And I love the father's day pictures! Your daughter sure loves the camera and it loves her. She is absolutely adorable.

Thanks! Her picture was chosen for the "Bucky Book" which is a book of advertisements sent all over the state of Wisconsin. She sure "hams' it up.

 

[DopeyBadger]

97 Days to Go (I will run a sub-3 hour marathon and qualify for Boston!)



Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace)

6/20/17 - T - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
6/21/17 - W - 2 mile WU + 5 miles @ 6:58 min/mile + 2 mile CD (4/5)
6/22/17 - R - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
6/23/17 - F - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
6/24/17 - Sat - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
6/25/17 - Sun - 14 miles @ 7:35 min/mile (13/13)
6/26/17 - M - OFF

Total (training) mileage = 51 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 17/18 (94%)

Monday was the first tee ball practice. Other than the storms that rolled through, practice went very well! Bad parent though as we misread the directions and I brought a glove for me. But we were suppose to have a glove for G. Whoops! Otherwise, she caught the ball, got in a stance for catching grounders, hit the ball off the tee. Overall a good practice. She's also been doing really well at swimming class. Seems she enjoys the swimming and tee ball more than gymnastics, dance, and soccer.

Tuesday was a T+D of 123 with a pace of 9:09 and HR of 124.

Wednesday was a great start with the new training plan, well kind of... Only two days in and I've already made a change. This run was technically suppose to be part of the new Thursday morning Tempo runs for cooler temps and optimal training. However, Thursday morning's forecast called for a T+D of 141 and possible thunderstorms. Whereas, this evening was a T+D of 130 and cloudy. So since I'm still rolling with only two hard days per week for the next two weeks, I moved the workout to Wednesday.

T+D of 130, minimal wind, and cloudy conditions

M Tempo pace = 6:58 min/mile
M Tempo window = +/- 10 seconds (6:48-7:08)

I really wanted to attack this run for two reasons - 1) To prove to myself that I have indeed chosen the correct pacing scheme based on my current fitness and 2) my data mining into my last four marathon training cycles showed that my marathon training pace averaged over the entire cycle was quite predictive of the final race time (so what I do in training = race performance).

M Tempo = 7:10, 6:56, 7:03, 7:05, 6:56

I'm a slow starter. Always have been. It doesn't help that my first tempo mile is usually mostly uphill too. But with that being said only being 2 seconds off window pace is pretty good for me for the first interval. After that, I just tried to continue to give a good effort. I really didn't start to settle down into the groove until the last tempo mile and that's when things started to feel more normal. Overall though, it was a tough run. Final avg pace was a 7:02 min/mile with a HR of 153 (historical marathon HR is 149-152). So the HR was just a touch outside, but pretty darn close. I'll see how the next few M Tempo runs go, but it does seem that we're in the right ballpark for pacing purposes.



Thursday was another easy day with a T+D of 138 and rain. This was a morning run (and originally was suppose to be the M Tempo). Final pace 9:03 and HR of 127. Afterwards, we headed to G's swim class. Since it's during the day, we never get to go with her. So I was excited to see all of this swimming greatness. But unfortunately, the class was cancelled because the lifeguards heard thunder. It was just a garbage truck, but whatever they cancelled and that's their right. So we had to hang our heads and walk away. The good news is that G graduated to the next level. So that starts on Monday. Go G!

Friday was another easy day. The T+D was 121 with minimal wind and clouds. The final pace was an 8:47 min/mile with a 130 HR average. Although, that's not the key to this run. So as I was coming back on my final loop and approaching my bottles at the park I saw a woman ahead of me heading the same direction. I saw my bottles on the table. Then I saw the lady not break stride (mind you walking with dogs) and grab my plastic bag of bottles. Never looked at the contents. And then forcibly tossed them in the trash can along the sidewalk path. I was like, ummm.... Yea... did I just see that happen? I just ran to the trash can and pulled out the bottles. I decided it was best not to even confront her about it, but I'm not even sure what she was thinking. I've only seen her a few times so likely new to the neighborhood. But she didn't even really look at the contents of the bag. Just picked it up and then swung them into the trash (not even nicely placed). Whatever, I guess. I found them. Just always figured it was kids doing it.

Saturday was a "what does the fox say?" running day. When I ran past the park one of my neighbors stopped me and asked if I saw the fox in the field. I could barely make it out, but sure enough just lying low in the field was a fox. Ding-ding-ding-da-ding-da-ding-ding! T+D of 113, cloudy, and wind between 8-17 mph. Easy effort was an 8:18 min/mile average for a HR of 130.

For easy runs, the trend continues with easy effort equaling HR of 125-130 but the pace is all over the place. Tuesday 9:09, Thursday 9:03, Friday 8:47, and Saturday 8:18. Just goes to show how much weather can play a role.

Sunday was the first long run of the plan. Beautiful summer morning. A T+D of 105, clouds, and mild wind of 10 mph.

Long Run Pace = 7:35 min/mile
Window = +/- 10 seconds (7:25-7:45 min/mile)

Shout out to the weather on giving me a gentle day for easing into the Lakefront Marathon training schedule. The training run was a major success. Woke up at 5am, ate PB Bagel/Banana and then the run started at 7am. So, the total run is a 3.1 mile loop. So I break each segment of the 3.1 mile loop into three parts: Beg, Mid, and End. This allows me to compare each of the comparative miles across the entire run.

Beg loop - 7:34, 7:32, 7:28, 7:27
Mid loop - 7:32, 7:31, 7:26, 7:28
End loop - 7:44, 7:36, 7:31

3.1 mile loop - 24:04, 23:54

Solid all around. All separate miles throughout the run were faster than the previous under the same area of the three mile loop (Beg, Mid, or End). The HR was 140 (71% Heart Rate Reserve) and within the historical HR long run range of 138-142. Making great progress!

Great week overall. Hit the marathon tempo pacing, kept easy days easy, and hit the long run pacing right on the nose! In fact, I'm not sure the pacing of the week could have gone much better. Off to a great start!

 

[FredtheDuck]

Wow, sounds like you're off to a fantastic start. Hopefully the strong start is a sign of great things to come as a result of all of your analysis and hard work! Also, love that G is doing well in tee-ball and swimming! Tee-ball is a great way to ease in to team sports (at that age, they're less aware that it is a team sport and much more in to 'how far can I throw, how hard can I hit."... the rest kind of starts to build in as time goes on). Swimming is a fabulous way for small kids to build confidence in their abilities while having fun (assuming they like the water, as G clearly does).

 

[DopeyBadger]

Wow, sounds like you're off to a fantastic start. Hopefully the strong start is a sign of great things to come as a result of all of your analysis and hard work!

Thanks! So far, so good!

Also, love that G is doing well in tee-ball and swimming! Tee-ball is a great way to ease in to team sports (at that age, they're less aware that it is a team sport and much more in to 'how far can I throw, how hard can I hit."... the rest kind of starts to build in as time goes on). Swimming is a fabulous way for small kids to build confidence in their abilities while having fun (assuming they like the water, as G clearly does).

Agreed! It's nice to have something she is enjoying for a change.

 

[DopeyBadger]

If anyone is interested, Brooks has a contest for a Honolulu Marathon giveaway. Tons of great items to win.

http://swee.ps/UjpRYbsKr

Full disclosure - The link is a personalized link that gives me an additional 2 entires into the contest if someone else also signs up. The only thing it asks for is your email address, so presumably you'll want to use one as your throwaway email (but still check).

 

[garneska]

Ugh I rolled my ankle on a rock this morning. I still finished my easy run. By the end I did not feel it but it has been slightly tender all day. Hoping it will be good for tomorrow, it's still easy run so I think it will be ok. I will say being up north, wow the weather is great. At least it was this morning.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Ugh I rolled my ankle on a rock this morning. I still finished my easy run. By the end I did not feel it but it has been slightly tender all day. Hoping it will be good for tomorrow, it's still easy run so I think it will be ok. I will say being up north, wow the weather is great. At least it was this morning.

UGH! Hopefully your ankle will be alright. You've got 18 weeks until race day, so you can certainly skip the hard workouts (Tempo and LR) until it feels 100%. The real training plan doesn't start until week 16 (7/10) after your 5k. This weather has been unbelievable. I'll admit having only 2 hard workouts is making it easier to shift the schedule around to maximize the weather. I'm moving my Thursday Tempo to tonight to take advantage of the last nice day in the 10-day forecast. But alas, 3 hard workouts per week starts next week for me. So no more shifting after this week.

 

[garneska]

Thanks Billy. Was ok this morning definitely less tender than yesterday. Will do some lifting tomorrow and an easy eliptical tomorrow since I can't spin. Should be all good for Thursday. Yes I am pumped about my few easy weeks. This work trip is tough a lot of stress, but wow the weather is great. I won't be ready at all for the heat at the Peachtree. I am not expecting a PR. Just want to have fun. I am in coral B so I have an early start.

 

[ZellyB]

Nice training week! You did a great job hitting all those paces. We were really slow running this morning (for a variety of reasons) and I was sort of complaining about it to DH and then said, but DopeyBadger would likely be proud of us for doing an easy effort run.

 

[garneska]

Billy, I had my tempo run this morning it was too fast, but really I had a horrible Wednesday at work. I did not sleep till late because I was really upset. Unfortunately that usually equates to fast run . Going to try hard to do easy and channel that anger again for my race on Tuesday. Good news, I am leaving a day early so I will swim tomorrow afternoon and try and do easy run on Saturday.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Nice training week! You did a great job hitting all those paces.

Thanks!

We were really slow running this morning (for a variety of reasons) and I was sort of complaining about it to DH and then said, but DopeyBadger would likely be proud of us for doing an easy effort run.

Woot Woot!

Thanks Billy. Was ok this morning definitely less tender than yesterday. Will do some lifting tomorrow and an easy eliptical tomorrow since I can't spin. Should be all good for Thursday. Yes I am pumped about my few easy weeks. This work trip is tough a lot of stress, but wow the weather is great. I won't be ready at all for the heat at the Peachtree. I am not expecting a PR. Just want to have fun. I am in coral B so I have an early start.

Billy, I had my tempo run this morning it was too fast, but really I had a horrible Wednesday at work. I did not sleep till late because I was really upset. Unfortunately that usually equates to fast run . Going to try hard to do easy and channel that anger again for my race on Tuesday. Good news, I am leaving a day early so I will swim tomorrow afternoon and try and do easy run on Saturday.

Uhhh.... you weren't kidding on blowing today's tempo out of the water. That was roughly 10k pace for 3 miles. If we've got your pacing spectrum correct, you really don't want to do that again. Maybe a touch too fast and it's do-able, but you do more runs like that and you'll dig a deep hole before we even start. Learn from it and move on, these types of runs will happen from time to time.

 

[garneska]

I will try harder to run slower. I was very angry on Thursday so I took it out on the run. Plus being in New Hampshire the weather was fantastic, no humidity and 58. Ideal running conditions for me. I should be slower now, back in atlanta and still more rain.

I did skip today. I wanted to swim but the last two days of work killed me and a 6 am flight this morning did not help. I did nap a little with Mallory (Mallory is my avatar for those who don't know, all kinds of dog pics on the camping board).

Looking forward to my slow hit EB run tomorrow.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I will try harder to run slower. I was very angry on Thursday so I took it out on the run. Plus being in New Hampshire the weather was fantastic, no humidity and 58. Ideal running conditions for me. I should be slower now, back in atlanta and still more rain.

I did skip today. I wanted to swim but the last two days of work killed me and a 6 am flight this morning did not help. I did nap a little with Mallory (Mallory is my avatar for those who don't know, all kinds of dog pics on the camping board).

Looking forward to my slow hit EB run tomorrow.

You've got this!

Hi Mallory!

 

[garneska]

Today was a much slower run. I am not going to say easy as I am still adjusting to that pace. I ran around the city which is good as it gives me hills not major ones but up and down. Just happy I was closer to mother EB pace today.

 

[Declanb]

Hey Billy, Sorry I've not updated you in a while, been in a seriously heavy schedule of work. Not had such a good time of it with the training plan either. On Thursday 6/22 during the tempo run at around 11k in my left calf started to feel a little sore and by 12k it'd gone very tight and I ended up on a 6k walk home.I had a couple of Dry needing sessions between then and Sunday and managed the 10K POT for the Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon in October but at the expense of a very tight calf - I've been banned from training for the past week and might be starting back on Tueday. What are your thoughts on getting back on plan?
My thoughts are
Tuesday 9k @EA
Wednesday 11 @ EB
Thursday - as plan with only 11K @ M Tempo
I've got Physio (probably more dry needling) on Friday so I'll skip Saturday
Sunday Long run at plan

What do you think?

 

[DopeyBadger]

What are your thoughts on getting back on plan?
My thoughts are
Tuesday 9k @EA
Wednesday 11 @ EB
Thursday - as plan with only 11K @ M Tempo
I've got Physio (probably more dry needling) on Friday so I'll skip Saturday
Sunday Long run at plan

What do you think?

I think you know your body better than I do (and specifically this injury you've been dealing with previously). This is something you likely don't want to linger into the meat of the training and into race day. I think taking a week of only easy and bumping that long run way down to the 60-75 min range might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

 

[Declanb]

I think you know your body better than I do (and specifically this injury you've been dealing with previously). This is something you likely don't want to linger into the meat of the training and into race day. I think taking a week of only easy and bumping that long run way down to the 60-75 min range might not be a bad idea. Thoughts?

Thanks Billy, yeah I'm worried about this to be honest, the advice I got was to not run until Friday but at the very least Tuesday if the calf felt ok. My head says if the leg feels ok then I should get back to it, my heart says the goal is sub 4Hr Marathon not a perfect training schedule, but I fear that this may be too much of a break.
I guess I'm looking for advice/confirmation on my real concern - Can the training recover if I leave off until next Sunday and then do 10-12k and back to plan Tuesday?

 

[canglim52]

Thanks Billy, yeah I'm worried about this to be honest, the advice I got was to not run until Friday but at the very least Tuesday if the calf felt ok. My head says if the leg feels ok then I should get back to it, my heart says the goal is sub 4Hr Marathon not a perfect training schedule, but I fear that this may be too much of a break.
I guess I'm looking for advice/confirmation on my real concern - Can the training recover if I leave off until next Sunday and then do 10-12k and back to plan Tuesday?

I'm not a Dr, but from my experience calf injuries can linger... I wouldn't rush it!

 

[DopeyBadger]

90 Days to Go (I will run a sub-3 hour marathon and qualify for Boston!)

Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace)

6/27/17 - T - 2 mile WU + 6 miles @ 6:58 min/mile + 2 mile CD (6/6)
6/28/17 - W - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
6/29/17 - R - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
6/30/17 - F - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
7/1/17 - Sat - 7 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
7/2/17 - Sun - 14 miles @ 7:35 min/mile (13/13)
7/3/17 - M - OFF

Total (training) mileage = 52.9 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 20/20 (100%)

Monday

Tuesday

Last nice evening in the 10 day forecast, so I decided to move the M Tempo this week to tonight. Since the last one was on Wednesday of last week and because I'm still on the 2 hard per week schedule (until next week) I felt it was a safe decision. The T+D was 116, mild wind of 5mph, and full sun.

M Tempo = 6:58 min/mile
Pace Window = +/- 10 sec (6:48-7:08)

M Tempo = 7:07, 6:56, 7:04, 7:08, 6:53, 7:04

Since last week's first interval was outside the window by 2 seconds, I really pushed it at the beginning to try and get that first interval within the window. Just barely got it in with a last second push right at the end of the mile. The 2nd mile is always the easy one because it's a downhill and then flat. The third mile has two uphills and then a big downhill. The fourth mile is flat and then mostly uphill. Then the fifth mile was a repeat of the second one. The finished it up on the sixth mile with the double uphill and gentle downhill. Right as soon as the double uphill was finished I saw the lap pace at ~7:30 and took it as a challenge to try and get it back within the window. Thankfully the downhill helped and I got a 7:04 completing the sweep!

All in all, 6/6 intervals were hit. Always a victory when I get 100% hit intervals on a M Tempo run. The average pace was 7:02 (same as last week and the development of a trend) with a HR of 153 (also the same as last week). The Strava GAP average was 6:59. I'm trying to incorporate a healthy amount of hills because there are a few at Lakefront. The overall marathon is net downhill, but there's a pretty nasty hill at mile 21. So best to do all the training with hills so I can attack mile 21.

Now that two tempo runs have been completed we can start tracking the differences and projections:



It'll be interesting to watch the individual miles and HR and how they compare over time. Both tempo runs are 7:02, so what does that mean for race day?



The best case scenario predicts a 2:59:42 and average is 3:05:17. Looking good so far (not much wiggle room with the best case though). We'll see how this changes over time as well.

Although something happened during the post-workout stretch. I felt a sudden tightness in my left leg groin and had some sharp pain. It caused me to limp around for the remainder of the night. I elevated it and iced it. I was hopeful that it was minor and with some sleep it would go away.

On Wednesday I woke up and my left groin was still sore. Throughout the day it was one of those "hey I'm here", but was just uncomfortable. I wondered how long this would linger for and whether it would hinder the easy running in the next few days. I decided to give the run a go. There was a pretty nasty thunderstorm headed our way so I rushed out the door (T+D of 140). Thankfully the groin didn't bother me during the run. The sky seemed to get darker and darker but I never heard any thunder. But because of the storm, I changed my route to stay closer to home just in case. At about 6.3 miles of 7, I saw Steph drive by. She let me know they just announced a tornado warning and that I should head home. I took a look at the sky and sure enough it was that ominous green hue. So off I ran to home. Steph drove the car next to me and clocked me at 7mph. Ended up with 6.9 miles (ugh!), but better safe than sorry. Final pace was 8:47 with a HR of 129. The storm did eventually roll through (not a tornado for us though) and it was pretty awful. So thankful to be home (although it was about 45 min after I got back). Unfortunately, during the post-workout stretch the groin got sore again. Not as bad as Tuesday, but I just iced it again.

Thursday the groin didn't cause any issues during the day. T+D of 141 with some wind (16 mph). Final pace 8:44 min/mile with 129 HR. Little to no issue with the groin during the run or afterwards.

Friday we left work early and met with the bank. We've got our initial quote on the home renovation (kitchen, upper bath, lower bath). There are still some finer details to work out, but it's a good starting point. So it was time to meet with our banker to see where we stand and the next steps on their end. It was decided that we're good to go contingent upon the appraisal of our home. We put together a package for the bank and appraiser showing the proposed renovations and materials being used. The appraiser will take these into account for the final value of the home. We're anxious to see how it goes (should be about 2 weeks). The run was reasonable. Another easy day and I felt relatively fresh. The T+D was 143 with a pace of 8:57 and HR of 128. No groin issues. When I got home, I said to Steph if we're getting this appraisal (which wasn't cheap), then we need to stack the deck in our favor. We've got 2 weeks to make our house look lived in to looking fantastic.

Saturday was an early morning to take advantage of the weather. The T+D was 130 with clouds and no wind. Final pace of 8:33 and HR of 129. Man, I'm pretty good at nailing this HR of 128-129 on easy runs regardless of the pace. It comes from the effort based model as I can feel different paces/efforts. After the run was over, Steph and I decided to start doing some work on the house that had been neglected. So we focused on yard work and the mini-house (we have a shed that looks like our house in the back yard with cable, its own electrical, and A/C). We're happy with the progress as we really cleaned it all up (thanks to Steph's parents who helped us). After all the yard work though I was beat. Wasn't sure how it would effect Sunday's long run effort.

Sunday was a beautiful T+D of 117, minimal wind, and cloudy.

The last hard workout before the real training starts. I did a lot of yard work on Saturday and was quite sore/beat up in the afternoon. So, I was curious to see how that would influence this morning's run.

Long Run pace - 7:35 min/mile
Window - +/- 10 seconds (7:25-7:45)

It was a bit tough to get in the groove for this one at the beginning. The first mile was slow because of carrying the water. But the 2nd and 3rd mile were just a stiff fest and I questioned whether I was going to be able to hit the pace today. But finally on the 4th mile I could tell a difference and things started to loosen up for me.

Before loop - 8:50, 7:44, 7:40
1st third of loop (down+flat) - 7:28, 7:32, 7:33, 7:26
2nd third of loop (up+up+down )- 7:38, 7:35, 7:32
final segment of loop (flat+up )- 7:35, 7:37, 7:33
After loop - 7:36, 7:37

3.1 mile loop total - 24:20, 24:06

Overall pretty even across the different segments of the loop and with the total of the loop added up. I ended up with a perfect 14/14 intervals hit. That gives me a perfect 100% interval hit rate when combined with last Tuesday's M Tempo workout. I don't hit 100% intervals very often on a weekly basis, so I'll relish in that victory. Final average HR for the 14 miles was 140 which is squarely in the long run historical HR zone of 138-142.

Once I got home, I was met with a frustrated Steph and a wiggly G. Looks like someone got their hair caught in a small dollar store hand crank fan. Whoops! It was so tangled it required a small chunk to be cut out. Look who just got their first haircut!



Afterwards, Steph and G left for a birthday party (I was headed there a little later) and I tackled the basketball hoop instead. It had 5 years of green mold growing on it. So, I gave it a good pressure washing and made it look new (all the green mold was on me instead). I also power washed a small section of the driveway and realized just how dirty it is. Guess I know what the next project to tackle will be. Once at the party, G and I played some "bing-bong". She was decent at it for a 3 year old. We had a volley of 2 times back and forth once. She seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

Now the real fun begins!