Grandma's Marathon 2016! 4th time's the charm! Part 1

It's been a while since my last post. Heading into this year's Grandma's Marathon training, I decided that I wanted to try and reduce the pressure that I had been putting on myself over the last year so I put the blogging aside for a bit. I wanted to focus on my training without any additional pressures.

Now that I've reached my goal, I'm able to sit down and reflect on the past year's ups and downs. Starting last year heading into the 2015 Grandma's marathon Kimi and I had an awesome training buildup. We nailed every workout, and felt incredibly strong. We both had the same target goal of going sub 2:37. Unfortunately, a tree limb had a different idea for how my final 3 weeks were going to go heading into the race. During our 24 mile long run 3 weeks out, I reached up  to brush off a tree limb while heading down the Frisco trail instead of running around it and 'BAM!' there it went! Something got me right in my ring finger in the proximal-inter-phalangeal joint. Who knew that something so simple could be the start of a series of dominoes that would derail my running for a while. My finger swelled to a point that I was afraid I might actually lose the finger since my ring was stuck on the finger and pressure was building around it. I was fortunate that I was able to talk a jeweler into cutting the ring off, but that wasn't the end of it. The finger still didn't want to bend and I was starting to get really concerned since I use my hands quite intensely every day in order to treat patients. This became quite the stressful event for me. Just a few days before the marathon, I started having side stitch issues during the 2 mile shake'm out runs. I couldn't make it more than a mile without being bent over with pain in my right abdomen. This is never a good feeling right before a marathon. I had to change my game plan mentally right before the race. Kimi and I were planning to run stride for stride together for the entire race to hit our goal. I decided to just do what I could and if/when the side stitch gets me, I would just have to let Kimi go and I'd be on my own the rest of the way. Much to my surprise, I made it through 20 miles without the side-stitch getting me. Then it happened. I just let Kimi go and she went on to run the best marathon of her life so far. I did manage to regather myself and still ran a decent time but was a bit disappointed since I knew that I was in much better shape than what I got to show on that day.

Following that race, I had a rash break out on the right side of my abdomen. Sure enough, I ended up with a small shingles outbreak (I can still feel the effects of this occasionally, bleh! and the finger still doesn't bend the same to this day!).

It didn't take me long to pick out my next target marathon. The Twin Cities marathon in October was about 15 weeks away. Not ideal, but I thought I would be able to bounce back and be mentally and physically prepared in time for it so why not. Kimi could run the USA 10 mile Championships and I would run the marathon. Training for this went really well. I nailed pretty much every workout and some of them were faster than I'd ever done before. I thought this one would have a good shot of going under the 6 min/mile barrier as I headed into it. I ran a great race through 23, and probably ran a bit too great since I was on pace for a 2:35 with only 5k to go. That's when the wheels fell off and I just couldn't keep it together. I ended up having to stop and walk a bit as the legs tied up. Then I got it going again and just did keep myself under 2:40 for a finish time. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed again.

I didn't let myself get too discouraged though. I was hoping to hit my goal at TCM but after I didn't, I started to get the idea that perhaps I should run the L.A. Marathon in February, the day after Kimi was set to run in the Olympic Trials Marathon. This would make my 3rd marathon in 7 months. I never thought I'd run that many in such a short amount of time.  I think Kimi even wanted me to run the L.A. Marathon so that she'd have me training right along side her all winter long.  Training was going really well until 2 weeks out from L.A. Once again, we had been nailing every workout. Two weeks out, I had some more unfortunate luck. I managed to strain one of my left quadriceps muscles. I immediately started getting treatment from Kimi and also started ramping up my own personal treatments as well. I was having so many issues that I could hardly run on the leg so I just simply took time off while getting treatment in hopes that I might at least be able to run the marathon as a long training run. Four days before the race, I was feeling pretty normal so I decided I'd do a bit of an up tempo effort to just challenge my quad a bit. Much to my surprise, it didn't bother me and I ran fairly decent for the short tempo run. Once again, this changed my race plan. I decided to go into the race with the idea of starting off conservative and feeling it out as I went. In the back of my mind, I thought I might be able to run a decent time but I was unsure at what point I would really start picking up the pace. I covered the first 4 miles at about 6:45 pace feeling pretty good. Then I slowly started dropping the pace a bit. By the 10 mile mark, I was pretty confident in my leg so I really started rolling. I clipped off a lot of miles just under 6 min pace  but the damage had already been done in regards to reaching my original goal. A big takeaway from this race was that I completed it, and ran strong all the way through the finish having practiced my nutrition intake that Cassie Dimmick (dietitian at Achieving Your Best, LLC) and I had been working on over the last several months. I managed a 2:42:45 which shocked me!

My focus finally shifted back to the Grandma's Marathon. I had run this race the 3 previous years and knew that the course and weather had typically been conducive for fast running. I assumed that this year would be no different. For the entire training cycle, I just had a feeling that this was going to be a hot year at the Grandma's marathon. This was solely based on the fact that April was really warm here and that it was getting unseasonably warm here early. With that in mind, I made an extra effort to keep my shirt on during warm runs to try to get myself a little more mentally and physically adapted to a possible warmer race condition.  This year, I was going it alone for the Grandma's marathon. Kimi had decided that she wanted to target a fast half marathon so our training would have to be a little different in our buildups.  We did the same workouts for the most part but many times, I would simply add more distance to the workout than she would do. All of our training went extremely well and we were both maintaining pretty solid health headed into this years race (I made sure not to touch any tree limbs or do anything that might freakishly injure myself).

Now, all that was left is to get to Duluth, hope for good weather, and execute the race plan!

LA Trip Recap! Only a month late! :)

A lot has happened since my last post. I simply don't have the time to go into detail on all of it so here's a short recap.

Kimi's Olympic Trials Marathon was definitely an experience. If you haven't heard by now, she ran 2:52:45 in some brutal marathon temperatures with very little shade on the entire course. Her race was broadcast live on NBC which is pretty cool. You can even see Kimi for the first couple miles of the race (we watched it on DVR when we got home).

I raced the LA marathon the day after her trials marathon. 2 weeks prior to the race, I strained my quadriceps muscles and thought I might not be able to do the marathon at all. Fortunately I was able to get a lot of treatment from a pretty great physical therapist (Kimi) and did a lot of self treatment as well. I did a 10 mile run on the Monday prior to the marathon just to see how my leg would handle it. Then on Wednesday after arriving in LA, I did a short 2 mile tempo run to see if I could handle the faster pace. Much to my surprise this went pretty well also.

I still was concerned entering the race so I decided to forego my original goal and just feel out the race and have some fun. I started much more conservative than I normally would and came through the half in about 1:21. Then I decided to pick it up since I was feeling just fine. The next 7 miles were pretty solid with paces right at or slightly under 6 min pace. Then we hit a stretch of uphill and heat which made it tough to maintain the faster pace. I was able to get the pace back down for the final 6 miles and actually finished with my fastest last mile of a marathon yet. It was about a 5:40-5:45 mile. It's hard to be certain since my Garmin doesn't always beep directly on the markers.

Since the marathon, I have been in the process of refocusing my training to get ready for what I hope will be my best training cycle yet. Headed to the 40th annual Grandma's Marathon in June!

By the way, I'm also nearing the end of my 3rd week at my new office location! It's been great here so far!

And the winter rolls onward!

The last several weeks have been interesting. Fortunately, we've been able to hit some pretty solid miles. We have not been able to get all the miles we would have liked to get but we're doing better than we ever have in the winter so that's a plus. Up until this week, we've been able to hit the miles with very little difficulty other than some cold temperatures here and there. It's weeks like this one where things get really difficult.

We're only 3 and a half weeks away from our marathons and all we have left is some speed work and one final legitimate 'long run'.  We've got 24 miles on the schedule slated for Saturday. I'm really hoping the snow and ice will melt away on the Frisco trail so we can get this one in. It's our most important long run as it build some serious confidence and strength. Plus it's the final run prior to the beginning of our 3 week taper. Our taper would normally consist of a decrease in miles but an increase in intensity of workouts.  I'm hoping we're able to get some solid training in for the final 3 weeks.

Over last weekend, we went out to the first ever Cabin Fever Reliever 20k run held in Rogersville.  It was definitely not what I would call a 'flat' course but it was manageable. We had a long workout scheduled and thought what better way to get it done than to incorporate it directly into the 20k.  The plan was to run 4 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile at half marathon pace, then drop back to marathon pace for 4 miles, and then another mile at half marathon pace.  Then following that, we were to cruise easy for 1 mile, and then do an all out mile, leaving .4 mile to the finish where we could just cruise it in. The workout was definitely a success in my book though it didn't really go anywhere close to what we had planned. The first two miles were tough and more uphill into the wind. There was a time during these first two miles that I was unsure if we were going to even be able to get it done anywhere close to the paces we wanted. Fortunately we turned a corner and caught a downhill mile or two which helped get us rolling. The workout pretty much turned into a long tempo run because all of the miles in which we were to run faster, ended up falling on the uphill miles making it tough to feel like we sped up even though the effort increased to maintain pace. We did take it easy for a mile after 10 and then tried to pick it back up for 1 more mile but we just couldn't manage to get it to where we really wanted to go.

Usually when we do this workout, we get a short stop break after the 10 miles and then jog the 1 mile prior to the all out mile.  I think that must have made a difference for how we were able to press for our final hard mile.

Kimi and me after Cabin Fever! The trophies are excellent winter decorations!

This week was to include one speed session on either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday evening but that's when the weather came into the picture making it impossible for us to get outdoors Tuesday evening due to black ice everywhere.  Unfortunately, this turned into a day off completely.

Wednesday, we managed some solid miles outdoors again. We found a neighborhood road that was clear and made a loop that was a mile long.  Then we covered 10 miles looping. The best part was that we never really had to worry about ice during this 10 mile loop.

This morning we woke up to between 1-2 inches of snow on the ground but that wasn't enough to stop us from getting out and putting in a solid 5 mile run. Snow of this amount doesn't make it impossible to run but simply slows the pace.

All in all, we're getting prepared for our marathons coming up. We might not be exactly where we'd like to be at this point in time, but I think we're definitely on the right track. I'm banking a little bit on experience, adrenaline, and warmer temperatures to help us get through race day but ultimately, my fitness will tell the final story I'm sure.

Merry Christmas Everyone! Happy Running!!!

Last weekend was a solid weekend. Kimi and I finished off a 70+ mile week with 5x1 mile repeats. After the way this year shaped up, something clicked in my mind making a mile simply start to feel short. I think it all happened during my training cycle for the Twin Cities Marathon. I remember a workout vividly that seemed to change the way I view some of the shorter workouts. It was a 10 mile tempo run followed by an additional 1 mile which I ran in 5:19. That was the day that seemed to have changed everything for my speed training. Going into this weekend's 5x1mile repeats, I realized that running a mile hard just doesn't seem to be as daunting a task as it used to be. Kimi and I started out with a mile in 5:38 which was okay. It wasn't great but the first one hardly ever is. The second and third repeats were much better as they were starting to approach the pace we wanted them to be at. They both clicked off right around 5:33.  I really wanted to get these repeats down to closer to 5:25 miles which I knew would be a true challenge as that starts to really reach a challenging pace for both of us. We started to gain confidence heading into the fourth and fifth repeats knowing that we had the speed in us and just had to go get it. The fourth mile was a 5:24 and our fifth was 5:23.  Our confidence was right where we needed it to be. We cooled down to the car which was just over a mile away and then quickly went home to shower so we could go watch people finish at the Run for the Ranch half marathon.

On Sunday, we added another 16 mile long run that was marathon specific meaning it had some 90 second pushes during the last 6 miles. This was an interesting long run style that we're trying out a bit.  This should help simulate the latter stages of the race helping us remain strong through the final 10k which is typically the hardest part of a marathon. This is even more critical for me as it is usually where I have my races blow up leaving me just shy of reaching my goals.

This week has been a tough one so far as I've been battling a bit of a tooth ache which is limiting my training a bit. I'm hoping to be back at it today so I can at least maintain my streak of 60+ mile weeks. We have a critical 20 mile workout this weekend that I really don't want to miss. It's a 5,4,3,2,1 mile workout with each segment getting faster as they get shorter. We shall see how it goes.

8 mile tempo success!

This week has been interesting so far and has great potential to get even better as the weekend is quickly approaching. Last week, Kimi and I had a 20 mile long run to complete. We were determined that this run was going to go much better than the 16 from the week before. It was a bit of a windy day and the wind was blowing out of the southeast so we decided to park all the way in Willard and then venture towards Springfield first. We also decided that we would simply run an extra out and back stretch in familiar territory between Springfield and Willard so that we would be able to better avoid fighting the wind without any covering.  The run wasn't anything incredibly special but it was definitely solid. 

Saturday afternoon, we were in for a real treat. My parents came over to visit for a few hours.  It was a lot of fun simply spending time with them without any specific plans.  We had to cut their visit a bit short so that we could go to Derek and Lindy's wedding that evening. It was a very nice ceremony and I'm extremely happy for the two of them.

Kimi and me at Derek and Lindy's reception

Me before the 8 mi tempo

Kimi before the 8 mi tempo

On Monday, I decided to cut the run short a bit because my legs were still not recovered from the 20 on Saturday and I knew we had an 8 mile tempo run scheduled for Tuesday afternoon that I really wanted to succeed in. Unfortunately, the wind early in the week was really strong.  This meant that Kimi and I had to get out there and fight the wind during the 8 mile tempo.  The first mile and the last mile were both directly into the wind which made keeping them on pace quite difficult. 

At no point during the run did either one of us actually feel all that great but we managed to keep every mile right on pace.  Our first mile clicked off just under 6 min @ 5:59 and then we kept all the rest between 5:52-5:56 until the final mile which crept back up to a 5:58. Following the tempo, we trotted for a half mile, stopped and prepared to start rolling again. We added an extra 1/2 mile in 2:48 which we were pleased with since the darkness had officially set in for this one.  

Smiling after our 8 mile tempo workout (12/15/2015 and we were wearing shorts and short sleeves)

Our goal for the rest of the week is to knock out some mile repeats on Saturday to start generating some more foot turnover followed by a 16 mile marathon specific long run on Sunday (details about this one will be in my next post).

Reindeer Run 5k - quite surprised actually

In preparation for our LA trip, we scheduled a few races strategically into our plan. The first one was to be the Reindeer Run 5k last Friday night. The week leading up to it was set to be a challenging one with a 7 mile tempo run on Tuesday just a few days before the race. We usually do workouts on Wednesday mornings but I made a change to have our workouts actually be on Tuesday afternoons so that we might be able to complete some of them with at least some daylight. Our tempo run was awesome. I think the fact that we were racing the darkness helped us keep the pace rolling. We started out with a 5:50 ish first mile and we were both concerned that we may have started a little fast. Fortunately, we were able to find a groove and just kept the pace rolling. I honestly thought that we'd have to run the last 3 miles in the dark, but we were actually able to get through about 5 of the miles before darkness set in. The remaining 2 miles were a real challenge. We had our headlamps on to light our way and then it was just up to pure determination. For those of you that haven't given it much thought or have much experience with running in the daylight vs darkness, it's much more difficult to run fast without daylight.

We were quite please with our tempo run effort but I was definitely unsure just how quickly we would bounce back for a race only a couple days later. On top of that, it was going to be a Friday race (usually our rest day) which means it would come after a long work week, and on top of that, it was scheduled for 7:00. Bring on the darkness! The weather on Friday was awesome. I was able to wear shorts, a tank, and arm warmers.  Kimi and I were both venturing out with our own race goal in mind. My goal was to break 17 minutes and Kimi's was to simply run as fast as she could.  The race was basically an out an back style course which means that at the half way point, you make a 180 degree about-face and head back the way you came. When I reached the turn around, I was quite surprised to see how many fast runners were still fairly close behind me. At two miles in, I made a quick glance over my shoulder to see what was happening right behind me. Unfortunately, I couldn't see that Kimi was almost right behind me. She must have been hidden behind another runner. That's when I decided that I thought I could still get 2nd place overall. I quickly turned up the pace. With a half mile to go, I had caught the 2nd place guy and pulled even with him. He was a younger runner than me and with that in mind, I figured I had better get a gap between us prior to the final straight away sprint or he'd probably be able to out kick  me. I really poured it on at this point and pulled away far enough that I felt like I had a comfortable lead. I never really let up the pace all the way to the finish and was able to run one of my fastest times for a road course ever. I've only run faster a couple other times actually. I crossed in 16:38.  It wasn't long and Kimi came strolling across the line. She crossed in 17:12 which is an awesome time for her as well.

We were both a bit shocked with how it turned out.  Our next race won't be until January. We intend to run the Cabin Fever Reliever 20k on January 16. We have a scheduled 10 mile tempo plus 1 all out mile scheduled for that day so we thought that this race would actually work out perfectly for us to do the workout during.

Got our Christmas Lights Up!

L.A. Training is Picking Up!

Training for L.A. is really starting to get fully underway now. We've started adding in a few tempo runs and our long run last week was 14 miles. Our 4 mile tempo run last week was just mediocre. We managed to average 6 min pace but it wasn't near as easy as they usually are. I think the main reason for this is that we just haven't done much speed or hard efforts since prior to the Bass Pro half so our bodies are just having to get back into a groove. Our long run was pretty solid though so that's definitely a good thing.

Two weeks ago, I met with Cassie Dimmick (dietitian) from Achieving Your Best to discuss how I can eat better to achieve my sub 6 minute pace marathon goal.  We decided that I might be better off on a Ketosis diet which will help me to sustain my energy levels better because I would primarily use fat to fuel rather than carbohydrates. When we talked, I had 14 weeks until the L.A. marathon. I knew this transition would be tough, but I didn't know just how difficult it was going to be. I was actually doing really well with my eating habits but my running was suffering extensively. This was an expected thing, but I just didn't realize how long and how badly I would suffer. I was having difficulty simply completing my runs.  After a week of doing the ketosis diet, I pulled the plug. I was too concerned that I wouldn't be able to get in shape in time for L.A. I'm not against trying the diet again after L.A. We discussed it and decided that I would have more time to adapt to the diet before the Grandma's Marathon so if I don't reach my goal in L.A. I'll give it another try.

This week should be an interesting one. We're scheduled to do a 7 mile tempo run Tuesday afternoon and then we're going to try and race the Reindeer Run 5k in Republic on Friday night. It should be interesting to see if we can manage to run some decent times since it will be after work, in the dark, and on what is usually our easy day.