Training January 25 to 31

Monday PM 11.8 miles in 1:16:32. first 6 with Uta.  No am run because of alarm clock mishap.

Tuesday AM 10k with Uta in 44:51
               PM Mona Fartlek- covered 3.95 miles in the 20mins (5:03 pace), 3.3 warm up with Uta, then another half mile of jogging and strides, some light drills, 5k cool down in 22mins - decent improvement from two weeks ago.

Wednesday PM 16.7 in 1:49:07, didn't feel great.  fighting coordination most of the second half

Thursday AM 10k with Uta in 43:50
                  PM at gym- 3 miles warm up on Curve treadmill in 21:42- that is pretty quick on the curve. 10 lap to mile indoor track- skipping warm up, light drills, 8 short strides mixed into a half mile of jogging. 3 miles of sprint float sprint- doing half lap on half lap off- about 80meters- 15:22. mile 1- 5:10 2 miles- 10:21 so last mile was a 5:01. 3 mile cool down on track in 19:38.

Friday AM 10k with Uta in 46:09
             PM 12.2 miles in 1:21:32

Saturday AM 2 mile warm up in 15:36, skipping warm up, light drills, 12.8 mile fundamental tempo in 1:09:13(5:24 pace), fighting coordination the last two miles or so. did two loops of glendale/winter loop first loop 34:43(1-5:25, 2-10:44(5:19), 3-16:12(5:28), 4-21:38(5:26), 5- 27:03 (5:25), 6-32:33(5:30)- .4 in 2:10- 2nd loop (34:30)- 1-5:22, 2-10:44(5:22), 3-16:06(5:22), 4- 21:28(5:22), 5-26:50(5:22), 6- 32:21(5:31) last .4 in 2:09.  bit under a half mile cool down back to the house.

Sunday Noon 16 miles, first 6 with Uta, 1:45:34.
              PM 90minutes bikram yoga

Summary

 Decent week around 116 miles or so.  No new issues. That is good. Plantar facia is tight in both feet.  This is pretty standard for me in the winter it seems.  I have decided to add foot strengthening exercises to the routine and try to build them up to the point where this never happens again.  We'll see how that goes.  The sprint/float/sprint was about the same as last time.  The mona was a good step forward. The fundamental run was good.  That is not a flat loop. Not killer but not flat. I have been fighting the coordination quite a bit which is surprising because I'm doing a lot of strength for the shoulders/back.  Maybe I'm being lazy on the runs in terms of holding form or maybe there is something I'm not seeing.  It isn't awful, heck of a lot better than it has been for years but it is there and it is a problem. 

 Next weekend I get to check the fitness with the Race Menu Super Sunday 5 mile.  I have run it the last 3 years- 2013- 1st- 25:21- actually had thrown my back out and was in pretty bad way, 2014- first 24:22- I was quite fit.  2015- 2nd- 24:31- very strong but very hard to run under 4:55 pace.  I want to be under 25, that gets one of my annual goals out of the way early and it is a sign of decent fitness.  I would actually like to be under 24:30 but I just don't know where I'm at.  Weather focast says we may have rain or snow showers that morning so I'll just have to wait and see.  This is a real nice race but obviously the weather this time of year can be a bear.  I've run it 4 times.  No snow outs yet. One time it was flurries. Twice it has been pretty cold. Once is was very cold 14 degrees, very windy. windchill well under zero back when it was a 10k down in back bay.  I ran great, 29:45 from the front.  I'm not that fit right now but it looks like the weather will be about 20 degrees warmer.

 Hope you are well and you had a great week.  Also if you want to know why more athletes don't put out detailed blogs or respond to comments on them check out these two blogs by Leslie O'Dell.  Michael Weinberg blog stalker and Part 2 .  Michael has posted on here before and most of what he sent me was much tamer but he is an example of the type of low life that ruins it for everybody and he certainly isn't alone or the worst I have seen but when you start wondering why every elite doesn't have a well updated blog keep in mind almost all have started one at one time or another and very quickly have run ins with jerks like this. 

2016 Racing Plans

  I have already laid out my goals for the year here- 2016 goals Blog This is about the races I plan on doing and what will impact my race choices.

  I have only one race I consider a can't miss.  No matter what direction my year takes I will do everything in my power to not only line up at the Cow Harbor 10k but to do so in shape to compete well.  I have a few reasons for this but mostly it is a great race that suits me and that has treated me well over the years and so I really want to keep going back and to do well there.   This year cow harbor is on September 17th.

  Short Term Schedule

  I will be racing the Race Menu Super Sunday 5 mile on February 7- Super Sunday 5 mile I have run there the last few years.  I finished second last year in a 24:40 or so.  I would like to win this year and be at least sub 25.  That would accomplish one of my 2016 goals. 

  After that I'll be chasing another of my easier 2016 goals at the USATF-NE indoor championships on February 21 where I plan to run the 5000m.  

  By then I should be getting a bit fitter and sharper and I will follow it with the Ras An Mor 5k which is the USATF-NE road championship on March 6.  I ran this a few years ago in what was a comedy of errors that involved locking my keys, racing shoes, race number and warm cloths in the my car just before race time.   I hope to do better than that and get under 15 on the roads in what will most likely be cold wet conditions.

  I will finish off the winter season with the New Bedford Half Marathon.  Also the USATF-NE championship. The course is very fast by New England standards but depending on the wind it will run between 1 and 2 minutes slower than a truly flat fast course like Jacksonville.  I'm hoping to be much fitter and not have the set backs I had leading into in Jax.  I would be happy with anything faster than I ran at Jacksonville- again given the difference in the courses I would consider that a real big jump.  I would love to be under 1:06. 

First Fork in the Road

   At this point I will assess my fitness and how training has gone and pick a path for my spring racing season.  If I have been able to successfully complete one or two 40k fundamental paced tempo runs without losing coordination I will likely focus on a marathon- most likely grandma's.   If I have not been able to get through a long run like that I will select a series of 5k to half marathon races.  Likely targeting a track 10k in May(New Balance Boston High Performance),  a 5k in June(again high performance) and probably Garry Bjorkland half marathon.   However which races I select could change depending on how fast I am racing and working out at this point.

Second Fork in the Road

  After the spring season I will select my fall cycle.  Again a marathon attempt will be based on the ability to complete a 40k fundamental tempo and or how the spring marathon went.  If I'm not doing a fall marathon I would like to do a half marathon for sure, preferably some place fast and flat perhaps Monumental ?  

  

  As I said above I will be doing Cow Harbor for sure.  In fact if I find I'm not ready to go after a marathon I will likely make it the focus of my summer training.  But marathon or not I'll be here and ready to go.  

  Other for sure races or nearly for sure would be the Great Bay 5k, local race that I love, very low key. This year I would also like to run the USATF club xc championship.  I ran in way back in 2005 and ran quite poorly.  I'd like to do better this time around. 

   Depending on which one I targeted a fall marathon might change those last few races but I'd likely try to do them regardless.

Training Week January 18 to 24

Monday-  So Sunday I had woken up with a very bad stomach ache.  I ran but only a few miles and it was very unpleasant. Melissa examined me after the run because it was obvious I wasn't doing well.   She said it seemed like I might have appendicitis which I laughed off because it was crazy talk.  I don't have time for that shit.  There must be lots of things that cause abdominal pain with guarding and rebound pain in the lower right quadrant.  So Monday AM I wasn't any better.  Melissa examined me again and said I needed to go to the hospital.  So off I went.  What the heck I had a holiday anyway.  Who wants to do you know do stuff on their day off.   In the ER I explained to Doc. it was her job to prove my wife wrong and tell me I was fine.  She did an exam.  "Well I agree with your wife that seems like classic appendicitis.  So we'll do an ultra sound and a cat scan with a barium swallow and see for sure." So I spent the rest of my day in a Hospital bed getting wheeled around like an invalid drinking barium, which wasn't half as bad as most people say.  I had vanilla and it was just like a protein shake.  The contrast injection during the catscan was definitely  weird but ok.  Finally at about 5pm the Doc. came in.  "I can't believe this but you don't have appendicitis."  I was elated.  I would have hugged her except you know my stomach really hurt and I was in one of those stupid flimsy sheets they give you that accomplish nothing but making you feel like you must be on deaths door.
  She seemed really worried that she didn't have an answer for what was causing my pain other then a intestinal virus of some sort.  I wasn't.  My question- "Anything that would kill me would have shown up on the imaging right?"   The answer was yes and I was on my way.

 Fun notes from the day.  The tech doing the ultra sound had a damn freak out because of the size of one of the veins in my abdomen.  She kept going over it again and again and I'm like it doesn't hurt there.  The brings in the doc in charge who immediately says to me "your a runner, right?"  Then explains that runners get huge veins there and shows there the other side to show they are the same on both sides.  She then says "I have to admit I've never seen one quite that big."  I say "Well I was a World Championship marathoner." It felt nice to not be talking about my weakness and ailments but to be bragging for a moment.

Tuesday- took my first ever sick day from work.- My current work, although as I'm thinking about it it may be my first sick day from any work ever.  In which case we have to go back to 6th grade for the last time I took a sick day.   Anyway I actually felt better, not good, but improved.  I jogged 5 miles with Melissa in 36mins. I slept a lot.

Wednesday AM 5.7 miles with Melissa and Uta in 42mins
                     PM 10.1 miles in 66mins

Thursday AM 6.2 miles with Uta in 42mins
                  PM 3 mile warm up, light drills, strides, 5k tempo- bit short of 5k bit long of 3 actually but you get the point- 15:14- 1.1(5:19), 2.1-10:16(4:57), 3.1- 15:14(4:58), 35 seconds recovery with a bit of A-skip, 4x400m hill with jog down recoveries- 1:39(2:07), 1:42(2:12), 1:39(2:11), 1:40(2:06) 2 mile cool down.

Friday AM 5.7 with Melissa and Uta 41mins
             PM 11.1, first 6 miles with Uta, then solo 1:14:17

Saturday AM 4 warm up, skipping warm up, light drills, strides, 3 mile tempo run on new winter/foster street dumbbell- 15:05 (4:58, 10:00)  3 mile cool down.

                 PM 6 miles of road and trail exploring 44mins.

Sunday AM 90mins of Bikram yoga
              PM Long run- first 9.8 with Melissa in 69mins then solo for 11.2 with the last mile in 5:04 which actually felt pretty good.

Summary another bumpy week at the start of the year.  The workout thursday was good the long run wasn't bad the tempo was kinda shitty. Not really sure about that.  It was real cold and the hills had really kicked my ass so they may not have been fully out of my system yet.  Stomach finally started to feel normal on Saturday.  Good to have that behind me.  Hopefully a smooth week this week.
  Hope you all are doing well and the winter isn't being too hard on you.

My Current Spin on Complex Training

 I had been meaning to do a blog on this but Rich gave me a push and so here it is…

  I am a huge believer that the devil of racing fast is that you need a training system and not to just be running a lot and tossing in some random workouts.

  It is like cooking. Making a meal we can all pretty much figure out the ingredients and you can do pretty well as long as you put in good quality ingredients.  But the key to really making a great dish is to balance the ingredients properly and to mix them in at the right times.

  There are a number of great training programs out there and it is no secret that I had my greatest success using Renato Canova's program.  Although I actually set my 10k best off Joe Vigil's system and honestly if I had the time on weeknights I would love to use that again.   However time is a serious issue for me particularly on weekdays.

  My next issue is that I like simple repetitive training.  I am a creature of habit and I like to keep to a routine.  With all that in mind I settled on the idea of using Australian complex training.  This system was started by Pat Clohessy who coached 2:07:50 man Rob de Castella as well as 2:11 and sub 28' 10k man Chris Wardlaw.  Wardlaw in turn would use the system to coach Steve Moneghetti who would run 1:00:07 and 2:08:10.   A number of other of great runners came out of this system.

  The basic system is workouts on Tuesday and Thursday tempo or race on Saturday a medium long run on Wednesday and a long run on Sunday.  The key is in the details of this system.  The track and fartlek work is almost all alternation or 'bounce' threshold style- which means the recoveries are fast enough that you get a huge improvement in your threshold when using them.  The long run involves either hard climbs or a fast finish and should be run at the quicker end of your training pace.  Also some form of sprinting and hills would be mixed in.

  The way you adjust this program from season to season or event to event is to make twists in the sessions themselves.  So when getting ready for a marathon you would do a set of Aussie quarters with slower reps but faster rest then you would when getting ready for a 5k.

  Anyway I used this as my jumping off point.  I love that the standard weekday workouts tend to work multiple systems and don't take too long so I can get them done and still get to bed in time to be ok to get up for the morning run the next day.

  My two week cycle

Week 1
Monday- AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2015/01/monaghetti-fartlek.html

Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles

Thursday AM 6 PM 3 miles of sprint float sprint

Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Saturday - Fundamental paced tempo(5:50 down to 5:20 pace depending on conditions and fitness) run of 15 to 25 miles

Sunday 6 and 6 double

Week 2
Monday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Tuesday AM 6 PM Mona Fartlek

Wednesday PM medium long run 15 to 18 miles

Thursday AM 6 PM 3 mile tempo 4x400 hills- After the winter is over I'll do Aussie Quarters http://nateruns.blogspot.com/2014/12/workout-wednesday-australian-quarters.html

Friday AM 6 PM 10 to 12 miles

Saturday AM Tempo run or race PM 6

Sunday AM 22 miles with last two miles fast- goal 5:00 pace.


So obviously the fundamental paced run is a Canova session. It is a session I love to do and I have finally got my coordination to the point where I can do them again.  Also it is a session I get huge fitness from.

  Also if I start to do marathon training I'll do marathon workouts for the long runs.  I have always felt that the Aussie system was good for the marathon but not perfect.  For example if you look at Steve Moneghetti's PR's he slows at just about 5 seconds per K as the distance doubles from 3k to the half marathon.  If he continued this to the marathon he would have a best of 2:04:11.  I think with specific work he could have run the marathon in that range off his fitness.  To be clear I don't think he could have actually run that time in the early to mid 90's when he was racing at his best.  He would have needed pace setters and competitors willing to chase that sort of time and that didn't exist at that time but he certainly could have been closer to it.   I could and should write a whole blog on the basic idea but the short story is look at the top times in the 5k, 10k, half marathon from the 1990's and early 2000's and the times in the marathon.  Look at the times today.   The change in the marathon is stunning. The other events are close to the same, actually on the track a they are weaker with the drop in epo use and decrease of money in those events.  Road race times are roughly the same.  What happened?  The kenyans and Ethiopians embraced the Italian style marathon program and began to run within 3 to 5% of their half marathon performance in the marathon.

  That is my basic cycle. I can do it cover all my bases and stay healthy and almost get enough sleep to keep myself together.

Training Week of January 11 to 17

Monday PM road 11.8 in 1:18:11

Tuesday AM 10k in 44:48, first 4.1 with Melissa and Uta.
                PM 5k warm up with Uta, dropped her off jogged about a half mile with some strides, Mona Fartlek around Glendale loop, covered 3.91 miles in the 20mins. 5k cool down

Wednesday PM 16.1 miles in 1:45:23

Thursday AM 10k in 45:05, first 4.1 with Melissa and Uta
                  PM 3 warm up on Curve treadmill in 20:31, this is actually pretty quick on the curve I had a good sweat going.  Then went to the 10 lap to the mile indoor track did some light drills and strides with jogging between, about a half mile total.  Then did sprint/float/sprint sprinting half a lap and floating half a lap- so roughly 80m/80m. did this for 3 miles in 15:20.9 with splits of 5:10, 10:19. Going pretty hard by the last 1200m or so. 3 mile cool down on indoor track in 19:48

Friday AM 10k with Uta in 45:01
             PM 12.2 miles solo, 1:20:08

Saturday PM 2.5 mile warm up, then 7 miles in 37:54- supposed to go much longer but NEEDED to go to the bathroom and then my stomach was finished and I stopped.

Sunday AM 4 miles with Melissa in 28:00- woke up with awful stomach pain.  Just got worse as day went on.  It hurt so bad on the run I couldn't talk.  People who've run with me will tell you it takes a lot to shut me up.

Summary- rough start to the year.  Melissa thought I might have appendicitis after she examined me, I didn't believe her but I was off work so I swung by her office and and her boss, my dr. examined me and said the same thing so they sent me to the ER. 5 hours of blood work, ultra sound, barium drinks and catscans later I was off the hook no appendicitis just a stomach virus.  The ER doc was funny. When I thank her for clearing me she said- "Frankly I can't believe it based on exam I would have just started treatment I figured the catscan was just a formality."  Anyway I don't care.  I'm feeling better and was able to jog a bit today but it was not a fun finish to my first week back.

2016 Goals

  I have odd goals.  Most often they are process goals or things that are not well defined.  Yet in terms of the big goals I have accomplished almost all the things I dreamed of.  They just haven't had the some of the side effects I assumed they would have.  That said each year I have goals that I envision myself accomplishing for the year. This is what I'm hoping to do this year.

Process Goals

  I have not averaged 100 miles a week for a full year since I started teaching full time.  So 2012 was the last time.  I would like to average a 100 miles a week or more this year.

 To achieve the above goal I will need to go to Yoga as often as possible.  I will aim for an average of once a week, understanding in the summer I will try for more like 3 times a week and I know during the school year there will be weeks that I miss.

  I want to do a lot of long fundamental, fast, paced long runs.  So 30k to 40k or more at say at least under 5:50.  

  I want to actively be training, not just running.

  I want to be doing exercises to improve my coordination every day.

Outcome Goals

 complete a competitive marathon effort

 Set a PR in a major distance- I haven't set one in a legit distance since August of 2010 and if I don't set some soon it is getting pretty unlikely I will again. My current best's are 4:13, 8:08, 13:56, 29:32, 1:03:44, 2:14:56.  My lifetime goals were sub 8:00, sub 14:00, sub 29:00, Sub 1:03 and Sub 2:10- So If I can get a PR I'm also very close to getting some more life goals. 

 Win a big check.  I have never won a race that used one of those over sized checks for a photo after.  This is one of my few remaining lifetime running goals that I haven't achieved.  Need to get this done.

  Run a 5k under 15mins in a race I have run at least one 5k under 15 in a race every calendar year since 2003.  That is 13 straight years.  One of my life goals is to get 20 straight years. My slowest year in the streak was 2003, 14:56 at the New England Collegiate indoor track championship, in the B heat.  My fastest was 13:56 indoors in 2010.

  Run a 5 mile or 8k under 25mins in a race I have run sub 25 in a race at least once every year since 2004,  I would like to go for 20 years on this streak as well.  Obviously I'm a long way from that but I can only get one year at a time. My slowest year was 24:44 in 2009, My fastest was 23:26 in 2006.

  

 Run more half marathons, 2 or 3 more before the year is out. I have only lost coordination in one half since 2013 and it wasn't too bad in that one.  I want to take advantage of this and get in some more races.  My half in Jacksonville was disappointing but it was my fastest since 2012.  I know I can do better but I need to race to make that happen. 

 Run a sub 30:00 10k. I love sub 30 10k's.  Particularly on the road.  To me THE road distance is the 10k.  I have only run sub 30 a handful of times.  I have also run a few times of 30:00 or 30:01.  I really just take a lot of pride in sub 30 10k's.  I look back on everyone with some pride.  I'd like to add to the list. 

 Be top 10 at the Cow Harbor 10k.  This is one of my favorite races in the world.  I have run there every year except one since 2008.  I have been top 10 in all but two of those years, in 2009 I was just back from the world champs and not recovered yet and last year I was very not fit.  I'm back in some form and I want to keep running well there.  I love the race.  I love the course.  I love the people.  I love the awards ceremony, one of only two races I can say that about.  Also this races gives out a big check to the winner so a great race here could knock two things off this list, actually three because...

 Win a unique or interesting prize.  I love races that give something very different out.  I do trav's trail every year they give out cool handmade pottery coffee mugs.  Cow Harbor gives out Bulova watches to the top 2 finishers.  I'm totally open to suggestions on this one.  I have seen races that give out a trip to someplace- perhaps the best prize ever.  Or a bike- that would be awesome.  So if you know a race that gives an awesome prize let me know because I would love to take a crack at it. - No Jim Johnson the feeling of wanting to die on upper walking boss or 'the wall' at the top of Washington does not qualify as an awesome prize I am interested in winning.

 Win the men's race in a race that Melissa wins the women's race.  We did this once where Melissa won the women's 5k and I won the 10k for men.  But mostly we don't do too many of the same races and often when we do they are super competitive so one of us doesn't win.  As an extension I would really love to finish first and second overall in a race with Melissa that would be really cool. 

Jacksonville Half Marathon

  38th place, 1:06:51.  Not what I had hoped for but not awful.  I was out in the pack which was slow, 5:06.  I stayed on the pack to about 5 miles going 10:00(4:54), 14:54(4:53), 19:42(4:52), 24:40(4:57).  Miles 5 and six I was slower but still felt strong and fairly easy I could feel my coordination threatening a bit so I was thinking a lot about my form and posture but it wasn't impacting my running. I hit 6 miles in 29:39 with a 4:59 mile.  Then I started to struggle.  My breathing wasn't bad.  In fact it was pretty good.  A couple of times I would start to feel a bit of strain but not much at all but my legs were heavy and not very responsive.  I slowed to a 5:12.  I would basically spend the next 5 miles bouncing up and down between 5:06 and 5:12.  I would try to push and my legs would just have no fight quickly but since my breathing was good I would be ready to push again a few hundred meters later but it would only take 50 or a hundred of pushing to be slowing again.
  Obviously I had hoped for more but I had also been quite sick so I had a feeling sub 1:05 was a big ask.  Immediately after the race I was actually feeling pretty satisfied with the effort and happy that I had been limited by fitness rather than coordination which is good.
  The more I thought about it however I was a bit more disappointing.  Generally speaking as the event doubles in distance I tend to slow by about 5 to 6 seconds per Kilometer.  So my 5k road best is 14:20(2:52 per K) my road 10k best is 29:32 (2:57 per K) my half marathon is 1:03:44(3:01 per K- faster course)  I felt that before I got sick I was getting close to 1:05:00 but that being sick may have sent me back to where I was in late October early November.  Thing is I ran a 14:40 on a fast road 5k in late October.  That would point to a ballpark of 1:05:03 to 1:05:25 for the half marathon.  That is just ballpark but to end up in the high 1:06's seemed a little crazy.  The course and the conditions were perfect.
  Thinking about it more I started thinking about my debut half marathon at BAA in 2005.  I ran 1:07:28.  I have no doubt looking at workouts that I am in better shape today then I was then.  The thing is the course in Jacksonville was much more than 30 or 40 seconds faster than the BAA course.  I would guess more like 2 minutes.
   So now I had two things saying I should have run more in the mid to low 1:05's.  So what is the problem?  Well first if you are in shape for sub mid 1:05 and you try to run mid 1:04 you will likely blow up a bit and run slower than 1:05mid.  But a minute and a half slower?  That seems extreme.
  I did some digging around on feeling like your not breathing heavy but your legs are holding you back and everything said the same thing.  Good aerobic fitness and poor anaerobic fitness.
  My first thought was not possible.  It was a half marathon that is an aerobic event.
  The more I thought about it I began to think it made a lot of sense.  When I was sick I continued to run and even do some longish runs but I didn't do any workouts.  The only two workout like things I did were 2 miles long at half marathon pace not anything that was going to build up much latic acid to be flushed. Looking back at my training the last time I did a workout that would have involved flushing lactic acid was a half marathon paced tempo on December 5.  A month out.  Even that wasn't really very anaerobic at all. Really the last workout that would have had a significant impact was my Mona Fartlek on November 30th.  One day shy of 5 weeks before the race.
  On top of that aerobic fitness is slow to build and slow to retreat but anaerobic fitness is comparatively very fast to build and very fast to retreat.
  Still the half marathon is an aerobic event.  I kept hanging up on that.  So I went looking back at some of the training I had done in the past to see when I had done similar workouts and what the results had been and what the workouts had looked like before similar results.  I came across a print out I had made and highlighted of a post by Renato Canova talking about the need for marathoners with very high amounts of slow twitch fiber to do anaerobic work, extensive anaerobic work during MARATHON training!  The reason is that though you don't raise the blood PH very high during fast aerobic running the muscles actual are producing a lot of lactate.  Your body needs to be using this lactate as fuel, one to reach its full potential but two to keep from steadily building up the PH of the blood and slowing you down.  He said this was unnecessary for most of his athletes because as athletes with more fast twitch and a lot of slow twitch B fibers they already naturally processed lactate more then well enough for half marathon and marathon racing.
  This hit me in the face.  I have never had my muscle fibers biopsied but my assumption based on my speed (58.8 lifetime 400m best) and my predilection towards longer training and racing has been that I am in the high 90% slow twitch fiber range.
   I honestly believe if I had raced before I got sick I would have been in the low 1:05's.  I also think that low 1:05 is a better assessment of my fitness right now.  If I had managed to stay healthy perhaps I could have slipped under with 3 more weeks of good workouts but that was going to be a big ask and frankly not getting sick as a teacher in winter in New England is a big ask.
  It is certainly possible that there is another problem but if there is it is stranger or more unusual. When I'm in a field in New England and I see a large four legged animal eating grass but I can't quite identify it I'm guessing it is a horse or a cow or a deer.  Sure a zebra may have escaped from a zoo but it isn't my first guess.

  So where to go from here?

  I am taking this week basically off, 4 miles each day with the dog- she still needs to run. Next week I will get back on my 2 week modified complex training system.
Monday-am 4 to 6 Pm 10 to 12
Tuesday am 4 to 6 PM mona fartlek
Wednesday PM 15 to 18 miles
Thursday am 4 to 6 PM week 1 - 3 miles of sprint float sprint, week 2- 2mile to 5k tempo followed by hill repeats
Friday- same as monday
Saturday week 1- 30k to 40k FAST(fundamental tempo) week 2- easy run and 4 to 8 mile tempo run
Sunday- week 1- easy run or easy double, week 2- 22 mile run with last two miles fast- marathon pace.

  I will race a couple times probably in February as rust busters and one for sure will be an indoor 5k.  I've run sub 15 at least once for 13 straight years and I want to make sure to knock one out early since I'm fit in case I get sick or hurt later in the year.

  I might look into a half marathon in March.  I really like the distance and I'm glad to be back able to do them.  Also a March half marathon gives me a nice chance to check on my theory about the lactic acid being the problem.

  Depending on how that goes I would probably look to either a late spring marathon (grandma's?) or to a 5k to half marathon racing season in May and June.

  Overall I'm very happy with my fitness coming into this hear and I am excited about my coordination, my ability to stay mechanically healthy, thanks to yoga, and this complex training program because it hits all the systems but the weekday workouts are such that I can get them done around work consistently.

  For the last 8 years starting in 2008 my number one goal has been to run a marathon again without losing coordination.  For the first time last year this was something I felt was possible.  It didn't happen but I made huge steps towards it.  I did 4 or 5 real marathon workouts without losing coordination.  I did the best long runs I have done since 2007.  This year I really want to run a decent marathon.  When I was young I had so many crazy life goals.  The sort of things that if/when I told people about them would make me seem crazy.  I have to a degree accomplished so many of them.

  I am so lucky to have Melissa.  I am so lucky to have our family. I have checked off so many running goals along the way.  But in doing that I have seen a set of those goals that I know for sure are possible and I would like to get them before time runs out.  A long time ago I set down some times I felt I could walk away from the sport with satisfied that I had run close to my potential.
I have met some I haven't yet run others.  I would love to get in shape to get one or two more before father time starts beating on me too bad.

  More than anything I would like to run a fast marathon again.  What is fast?  That depends greatly on the course.  For example I would tell you my debut of 2:15:28 wasn't super fast given the course, one of the fastest in the world and the conditions, near perfect.  My 2:14:56 was quite fast considering the course.  Anyway you slice it I want this to be 'the year' for the return.  That said I also really want to continue to enjoy the huge gains I have made and the ability that I have now to actually race half marathons and to do so many of the workouts that I have missed for so long.