Monday
PM Road 10 in 63:59, first 2.5 with Melissa who was sick, first 5 with Uta, last 5 miles solo and a bit under 6min pace, strides total 10 miles
XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands, ankle drills.
Tuesday
PM 4 mile warm up with Uta in a bit under 27 minutes. Attempted Tempo run on a 2 mile loop by the house. This was an mp tempo and I was thinking of trying to get 10 to 12 miles in but it was a crazy day at work and then Melissa was REALLY sick and I had to get Uta her run and I was a bit, ok a lot, distracted by some other life stuff. Because of the Uta thing I needed to invent a new loop to do the tempo on and after some serious work on the computer I came up with this 2 mile loop that used the North Andover High Parking lot, sort of a zig zag through it. I thought this loop might be a bit too hilly and it had some hard turns but I though as long as there wasn't anything going on at the high school it would be fine. Of course there was a game and something else and I actually had physical contact with 2 cars on the first loop alone and came to a full stop 3 times on that loop only twice on the second loop.
Anyway the first loop was a 10:23 and the second loop was 10:20, then on the third loop I stitched up and stopped at 5 miles in 25:48. 2 mile cool down. not a good day.
XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands, ankle drills
Wednesday
PM regular 10 loop, 60:10, strides after, very easy, felt good.
XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands
Thursday
this was a wierd day. Runners World wanted to film a day in the life but they wanted it to be representative of a 'normal day' not a taper day so we added in a morning run. But it meant I had a couple of very nice guys with a video camera from when we got up at 5am until we went to bed.
AM 4.2 miles with Melissa and Uta in light snow.
PM 4.2 mile warm up with Uta, 26:53, dropped her off, skipping warm up and light drills, strides. Moneghetti Fartlek ( http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html ) covered 4.125 miles which is the most I have done in this session. It means I averaged 4:50.9 per mile/ 3:00.7 per k for the whole session. Hard to know the paces of the on's and off's but I'd guess the on's were around 4:30 pace and the recoveries were around 5:10 but I am straight up guessing on that. jogged back to the house, about a quarter mile, went to the bathroom then did a 2 mile cool down in 13mins, then a few light runs across our causeway for the runners world guys and I was done.
XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands, ankle drills, skipping warm up and light drills.
Friday
PM started taper in ernest today which is a bit late for me so I only did 4 miles with Melissa and Uta, 30:17, very late run after another weird day for entirely different reasons.
XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands, ankle drills
Saturday
AM went to bikram yoga
PM road 7, 43:13, strides
XT 90mins bikram yoga, whartons, YTI, rubberbands, ankle drills
Sunday
AM regular 20k, hilly, 1:11:53, so 5:47 mile pace, very easy. Just wanted to go fast enough to test the coordination a bit. strides after.
XT whartons, YTI, rubberbands
Summary
bit more of a taper week than I was thinking it would be going into it but that is probably a good thing. I have made my bed now I have to lay in it. I'm not were I had thought I might be when things were clicking in early february but given the winter and where I was at the start of this whole thing I really have nothing to complain about.
I am very fit. My last couple of mona's and session of Aussie quarters show that. Those are workouts you can't fake.
My coordination is worlds better than 5 months ago.
My marathon fitness should be good enough. I would have liked to put a few more of the marathon workouts a little closer to the race but that just isn't how things worked out.
Predictions for marathon Monday?
Pain!- it is a marathon after all. Sorry but I couldn't resist. I love that line.
Really my expectations are that I will have some coordination issues. I will be very disappointed if I lose control before 20k and I'll be very happy if I hold coordination past 30k. To put this in context at NYC in 2008, best shape I have been in when I raced a marathon I lost coordination at 10k and hobbled in to a mid 2:20's finish. I also lost coordination at 10k in the world champs and ran low to mid 2:30's. At the Olympic Trials I lost coordination at 30k and ran 2:14:56. The last 10k there was 32:54. So for a short while I can hold about 33min 10k pace while hobbling. I would guess I can do that for 15k or so now as I don't lose it as fully since my low back surgery.
For expectations. If pacing is good and the wind isn't too strong into the face and I hold coordination to 30k I expect I could run 2:14 to 2:15.
If I hold to 20 to 25k I think 2:16 to 2:18.
If I have trouble before that it is going to be a really long day.
Back in November when I started this journey this is about what I expected for my first attempt. That I would be pretty fit thanks to a return to longer workouts but that I would be hoping to have about as much control as I did at the trials in '07. I have been fighting this problem for the better part of a decade so it was unlikely it would just wash away completely in a short while. I've made some huge strides and I feel pretty good about where I am but I do view this as just a stage in the comeback not the final finish line.
I had for a while hoped that I would be at the finish now as things in January and February went much much better than I had anticipated but setbacks since than have me back on more of my original timeline which is fine.
I ended up getting a lot more press attention than I had expected which in some ways is nice. Always good to feel the love. But also feels very undeserved. I am fit but I have done nothing to prove that and there are just so many really good guys out there. It also makes you feel like you are making promises of great things. Even if you don't want to.
In terms of tactics I will run according to how the race unfolds. I'm not going out at 2:10 pace. I'm not there. I think Ruben wants to go with a small group targeting around 1:08 for the first half, I need to check in with him as I will adjust my early pacing according to what he wants. I would like a bit quicker but most likely I would go in that group unless the leaders crawl out or there is another group I don't know about yet that is looking at 1:07 to 1:07:30 as I would strongly try to talk Ruben into that. Honestly I'd like to see him out in 1:06 to 1:07 but he has been burnt a few times in the marathon so I don't think I can talk him into that.
Right now the long term forecast looks good for race day but a 10 day forecast in New England is worth about as much as a fortune cookie prediction so we'll see how that goes.
I hope everyone is well.
7 comments:
Best to you. Always insightful to read your blog. Run with confidence.
Yes, best to you! You've done so much hard work in preparation, just believe and you will do it! #GoNate!
221
Two things Nate. First I hope it comes together for you at Boston. I'm really rooting for you. Your a great runner and an even better man.
And secondly, I wanted to thank you for helping me with my running. You gave me very specific advice on training and I followed it. Last week In a very competitive NYRR's 10k club race in central park with over 8000 runners, 522 in my age group. I came in first.
You deserve the credit. You really understand the human body and how to train it. Thank you.
Crush it Nate!
Danny- I deserve no credit. I simply gave you what little info I had. That is easy. Success in running is hard because it is born of hard work that only the runner himself can do. You did it. I'm glad you got some of the success you worked for and deserve.
-Nate
I understand your need to "run defensively" while still aiming to take clear advantage of your undeniable fitness. But I wouldn't necessarily expect that you can count on your performance being only as good as the extent to which you are *assured* of falling apart. You may actually get to experience the *ordinary* pain of taking yourself to the functional aerobic-plus-fuel exhaustion limit -- and wouldn't that be nice for a change!
You said explicitly that your body isn't the biomechanical mess it was just five months ago. And you will be more comfortable than you've been at any time in recent memory because you'll be tapered and rested. You may be able to count on a pleasant surprise from the ol' chassis.
Hopefully you have all the bases covered in the usual ways and haven't let concern over your form going into the toilet overwhelm everything else. I strongly doubt this is the case, as you strike me as more of a thinking man's marathoner than any fast guy I can recall reading about. But one more shell from the peanut gallery can't hurt.
Maybe if you regard this as a stepping stone to sub-2:15 Nate (who was ready for faster than that in Nov. 2007 -- 1:42-flat-ish at 20 miles...well, you've done the math) instead of the one real chance to get to that point en masse, it will help you. You're far from old, even if you feel every one of those lifetime miles almost every day. Even a well-executed 2:18 to 2:20 would be a huge confidence boost -- if you do it the 1:06/1:14 way you've still done it but it'll smack of too much familiarity to be as useful to you as an "if only I'd gone out harder" mind-game.
Anyway, you have more than earned your fucking shot at being Nate again, and I will be proud as hell to be cheering you on with 3.2 miles and hopefully no more than about 16-17 minutes to go.
Post a Comment