A moment of Pizza and TRUTH

Last night was our Post Workout Pizza Party at Mangia Pizza! A great time was had by all, including yours truly who tried valiantly to clear the table of pizza before abandoning the cause with 2 or 3 slices left. On my very slow pizza residual laden 8 mile run this morning, I was reflecting on recent conversations with several runners from my group.

The First Ten-A-Tive Steps to Boston

I really was excited to get the training started. So excited I woke up at 3:30am. I managed to lay in bed till 4 then got up. I have a training plan that has worked for me for a year now. I run 10 miles each day that I run on my own. Then I run whatever the longest route offered on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday workouts. That typically starts out getting me about 70 miles per week and builds to 85 or 90 by the peak of training. I also will skip any day that I am hurt or sick (not many lately) and don't feel the need to make them up. Anyway, the longest anyone seemed to be interested in going this morning was 10 miles. Mus, Chris and I were the longfellows this morning. So I have now logged 10 miles toward sub 3 hours at Boston!

Of note this morning: Chris E is back with our group. He is training for an Ironman and Rogue will be his running training. Glad to have him back as we ran many miles together last Boston season. Jim F is back and leaning toward an assault on 3 hours. He will be hard to keep up with on days he feels good so I'm looking forward to the challenge. Tausha is back!!!!! Julie is back in black!!! A couple of new faces that Steve didn't introduce yet. Missing some of the core people still, Ken, Mike, Bruce, Jason. I think Mike and Bruce will be joining up later. Larry is still too damned fast for me to chase and Kamran will likely go for sub 2:50. Mus and Damon are chasing 2:55. So I will have some bodies to try to keep in sight on tempo runs and some to run with. Its gonna be epic!

18 Beautiful Miles

Team Rogue starts up on Tuesday. I wanted to get in a long run with my Austin Marathon group before we get geared up again so I headed down to Rogue this morning for the 7am run. As has become the norm, I didn't look up the mileage and just planned to run whatever distance it turned out to be. A handful of Team Roguers showed up planning to run 10. We waited on Jason who drove up just as the groups were heading out and were the last ones to leave the store. That was fine as it meant I would come up on each of my runners and could see how they felt and run with them if they needed/wanted company. That worked out great as we worked our way through the pack. I slowed and ran for a minute or two with each of the runners that I recognized. Everyone seemed to be having a great run on a beautiful day. Of course it was early in the run so it may not have been so great for all of them 10 miles later. ;-)

I came up on the last runner, meaning the one out in front, and decided to join up with him. I have pushed him a little harder than I think he was ready for at the start of the program and wanted to offer him some support today. I guess I ran about 8 miles with him, over Mt. Bonnell, letting him set the pace. He finally let me know that even though I was letting him set the pace, he felt he was pushing too hard having me there. I had hoped to be with him toward the end to help him close the run. He had a great pace going and I hoped it would build his confidence that the goal we've discussed is within his reach. I left him and pushed on ahead to let him finish up. I ended up talking to Peri at her water stop and Jimmy caught up to me. He was grinning ear to ear and going on about how great a run he was having. I decided to run in with him. We had a great conversation heading in Lake Austin Blvd and I mentioned how in Team Rogue we often "closed" our runs to improve how we felt about picking up the effort at the end of the marathon. I couldn't tell if he was serious or joking but he said lets do it! So with about 2 miles to go we started picking up the pace. 7:30 7:15 7:00 6:50 6:45 6:30. I was about out of gears and he was right with me. And still yapping! I finally pulled away with about 100m to go and I tried not to puke as I pulled up to the store. 2 minutes later he was grinning ear to ear and telling me how great that felt. I love this sh*t! I have been telling him for years that he was faster than he gave himself credit and after his recent break from running he is feeling great. I hope he has a great marathon in February!

Several of my runners were there too and they all seemed to have had good runs. My last runner came in and seemed to be pleased with his overall time. He damned well should be as it was several seconds per mile FASTER than his marathon goal time. I also saw Kevin from Team and he said he had a great run but wished it had been his marathon instead of just a long run. I tried to offer some support and perspective by pointing out that I have run just as many 4 hour marathons as sub 3:30 and the list of things that CAN go wrong is nearly infinite. I think we will see him BLAST his PR at the next one! Overall I had a great day at Rogue, great weather, great running, great conversation. I hope all of my runners had great days too!

Getting Started Again

Team Rogue training officially starts in one week. I will be going for a sub 3 hour time at Boston. This morning I decided to try out the paces I will need to run at Boston. Historically, I find the marathon goal pace to feel very uncomfortable at the beginning of a training session. I elected to run my usual 10 mile route, warm up for 2 miles then start dropping to a 6:45-6:50 range. I got out the dor a bit late but the weather was great with sunshine and 54 degrees.

I passed mile 1 in 7:20, 2 in 7:15 then began pushing the pace a bit. By mile 4 I was running 6:52 and feeling good. When I turned around I kept the effort level the same but because my route is slightly downhill coming back I averaged 6:39 for the 5 mile return portion. The 6:45 pace felt the best of all of the paces I ran this morning. 6:45 = 2:58 marathon and I think that will be my official TRAINING target. I will look up the paces that McMillan predicts for a 3:58 marathon and also what Glenda's RaceCalc app for the iPhone suggests. I like that RaceCalc lets you make adjustments based on your natural ability for either speed or distance. Using RaceCalc and my settings for slightly faster a longer distances, my recent 10K time predicts a 2:58 marathon. McMillan predicts a 3:02 marathon. Both are close to the goal.

How high is an elephant's eye?

I offered to walk Eileen to school again this morning. She agreed but reminded me that she had a pumpkin for the teacher that I would have to carry. I'm picturing one of those little pumpkins that you draw a face on with a sharpie and set on the window sill so I said sure. When I saw the darned thing it was huge! And heavy. So I lugged the dang thing the 1/2 mile to the school and then Eileen takes it up to the teacher like she carried it the whole way! I know, I know, I'm a great dad!

I left the school for my run and decided that should probably stick to a known route since I could tell the mind would be wandering due to the MARVELOUS - FANTASTIC - STUPENDOUS - UNBELIEVABLE weather! Sure enough, about a mile in I started singing Oh What A Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma then began trying to determine exactly how high IS an elephant's eye anyway. Before I knew it I was on the final mile of a 9 mile run just clicking along.

I just read Keith's post about his battle with what I call PMS (Post Marathon Syndrome). Lack of a real desire to run and even less to talk about in a blog that has focused mainly on running are the main syptoms he mentions. My only advice to runners suffering from this malady is this: Go for a run. Don't map out a route. Don't take a watch. Just put on your favorite shoes and go run. Tomorrow if you feel like going for a run, go for a run. If not, don't worry about it. If I can get myself out the door for at least 3 runs in 5 days I find that I begine to gain perpective on the root cause of my own PMS. It may be the result of a disappointing result. It may be the result of a great race where I actually made my goal and can't figure out what to do next. Surprisingly, I have found that I carry around a lot of guilt after a marathon. Run poorly and I feel guilty that I let my coach and teammates down. Run great and I feel guilty that I had a good race when some of my best friends in the world did not. Once I figured out it was guilt, I was able to put that aside and get back to what I truly love: the quest for that one GREAT RUN!

Lost Episode #1

Eileen was up for tempting the rain gods this morning so she I walked to school. It was lightly raining when I left the school and not too hot so I just decided to run my standard out and back for 5 or 6 miles. A couple of miles in and it started raining steady and really felt cool. As I got to my turn around point, I realized that I had not ever run through the little pocket of houses in that area so I took a left intending to do a 2 block square and head home. Instead of coming out on Oak Knoll I ended up on Spicewood Springs nearly 1 mile away from where I intended to be. I was so turned around I had to ask another runner how to get back to a known spot. Really embarrassing considering I have run the same route 3 days a week for 2 years. So I had a nice 8 mile run in the rain this morning.