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another Modesto Marathon training update

another Modesto Marathon training update

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Since we’re less than a month out from Modesto (!), I figured it was high time for another training update. I still have other posts I want to write about training postpartum and how it’s different compared to how I’ve trained before – and I know you’re on the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting those posts’ publication – so I’ll get to it… eventually. That’s what taper is for, right?

sammrun

2/6 – 17 with final 4 at GMP; actual 17.12 @ 8:14 average with Meredith, some rollers, and GMP at 7:19, 7:28, 7:17, 7:15

Thanks to a confluence of extenuating circumstances, Meredith and I decided to go long on Saturday for a change. She had 10, I had 17, so I posted the first 7 sola before we ran the balance together on the rollers between SJ and an adjacent ‘burb. GMP is still a big mystery to me – somewhat problematic because I’ll soon be posting 26.2 GMP in fewer than four weeks’ time – so I tried to go on feel and hit 7:19, 7:28, 7:17, 7:15. Many of the GMP miles were over the ascent portions of the rollers, which made the effort a little higher, but I felt really good – in a fatigued sort-of-way that comes with doing GMP at the end of a long run – and got totally lucky and managed to hit all the stoplights at the right time, thereby running the GMP continuously, without interruptions. Score.

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during some of the earliest miles

2/7: speed lite – 8 miles with 8×1′ at 10kRP; 2′ recovery. Actual: 8.75, 7:51 average

A very delayed start – during my kids’ attempted-but-aborted afternoon nap – for this run and fortunately, Meredith also had similar mileage and a similar I just don’t waaaaaaaaanna attitude to contend with. Bless her for being willing to drive all the way back to SJ for “just 8 miles.” I haven’t run a 10k in a while, so my 10k RP time (for training purposes) is based on my racing from about 2013-15, making my 10kRP around a 6:40-6:45, which is about what I’ve been posting for tempo runs, so… yeah. Just using the data I have available. I hadn’t done a “speed lite” workout like this before, but I was happy to have this on deck the day after a 17 instead of my usual tempo. You can definitely tell that I’m not used to pacing this stuff, since my times were unnecessarily (and potentially deleteriously) faster than they needed to be, but dammit if it wasn’t super fun: 1′ at 6:24, 6:20, 6:31, 6:08, 6:23, 6:21, 6:14, 6:28. It was also about mid-seventies and pure sun (a big change for what I usually run in) for this, which made chasing this run with popsicles just delightful. I finished this run feeling strong and satisfied… and thirsty.

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many left turns

2/13: 12 miles with 4-7 at tempo + 6x (1′ at 10kRP; 2′ recovery). Actual: 13.16 @ 7:34 average

The Olympic marathon trials were this day, so I was totally channeling my inner Desi (love her) to rock this run. I overshot the distance to 13 (which seems somewhat inevitable, based on how far away the track is, the route I take to get there, and those little details), and even with little sleep and sub-par nutrition from the night before, this went over pretty well – 6:40, 6:44, 6:35 for the tempo [prescribed range is 6:55-7:05] and 6:15, 6:26, 6:14, 6:25, 6:08, 6:10 for the 10k 1′ portions [can you tell where the wind was?!]. I had to rally a bit on the tempo because I started too quickly, and the wind made for some tricky pacing on the 1′ sections, but overall this went pretty well. Doing the 1′ portions after the tempo can be mentally taxing, but I’m finding that I enjoy it because it allows me to open up my stride a bit more and finish the run by breaking through mental and physical fatigue – just like we all have to do at the end of any race we run. It only amounts to a three mile tempo plus six more minutes of fast running, but I think these types of runs are excellent for mental callousing.

2/14: first 20 in a couple years! Actual: 20.16 @ 8:18 average

The last time I ran a 20 was in advance of the Santa Rosa ’14 marathon, when I was training to pace the 3:35 group, so I was a little anxious about how this run would go – and because I’d be doing it by myself and the day after speed. It went well though, and by some miracle, even though I ran city streets for the entirety of the run, through parts of down that are usually clogged by vehicular traffic, I only lost seven minutes on the run to stoplights and cars. (For perspective, some days I can easily lose 10-20 minutes!). I decided from the get-go to take things pretty easy early on, averaging in the 8:30s and ultimately ended up negative-splitting this run. I went on a tour of SJ and SC, which was pretty fun, and the 20 was actually pretty relaxing overall. Running is so weird sometimes. Who the hell says that running 20 miles is relaxing…

2/20: 12 with miles 4-7 @ tempo + 6x(1′ at 10kRP, 2′ recovery). Actual: 13.05 @ 7:38 average

Same workout as 2/13, same overshooting-to-13 as before, but better pacing this time around, with the tempo at 6:43, 6:43, 6:35 and the 10k 1′ at 6:07, 6:08, 6:11, 6:03, 6:11, 6:10. I attribute the pacing improvement to having a better grasp of the workout (since I had just completed it a week prior) and the virtually non-existent wind. I made a conscious effort to focus on consistency and smart-starting my tempo – trying to avoid blowing up and petering out – and I think the focus helped tremendously. Typically when I’m running tempos on the track, I only check my pace every 400 m, and for most of this tempo, my pace was exactly the same each time I looked. Just like last week though, the 10k pace was harder to dial in, and I’m sure I’m running those segments faster than I need to be, but I think it’s mentally good to push through the final bits of mental/physical fatigue in an effort to prepare myself for doing the same on race day.

2/21: another quiet and sola 20. Actual: 20.08 @ 8:24 average

Just like last week, I had another quiet and sola 20 on deck the day after speed, and just like last week, I gave myself permission to ease into it for as long as it took. I wasn’t expecting to be in such a mentally shitty place for so long though – it was one of those moods where I was wondering why the hell I was voluntarily doing this stuff – but after about 9 miles of that, both my attitude turned around, and my legs came to life a bit. This 20’s route was flatter than that of the previous, and again, by some miracle bestowed upon me by the running gods, I lost only five minutes to cars/stoplights this time around. I ended the run posting a negative split, was buoyed by a nice dude who mid-run, somewhere around mile 13 or so, yelled to me to JUST KEEP ON RUNNING! (thereby becoming my new running BFF, unbeknownest to him), and though I was tired at the end, I was in such a better place mentally than I was when I started. That’s the funny thing about running: sometimes it can take such a long time (nine miles for me on this run) to a) feel good and b) be happy that you’re out there and able to do this stuff in the first place. We just gotta roll with it, and trust the process. Oh, and I finished the run and was home by 8:30, pretty much as the rest of the family was waking up. That rocked.

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total adoration

The next training update will be written from the exciting locale of Taperlandia – can’t wait!

Two Hours – by Ed Caesar – book review

Two Hours – by Ed Caesar – book review

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Though I’ve considered myself a runner for more or less my entire life, well before I broke out my running shoes, I buried my nose in books. In fact, as I think I’ve said elsewhere somewhere on this blog, I have distinct memories of being young (elementary school-aged), and when I’d put out my clothes for school each night, I’d also put out which bookS I was going to bring with me that day. Avid reader is an understatement.

Anyway, it probably comes as no surprise then that for as much as I love to run, I also enjoy reading about running. I recently came upon a new-to-me book, published in 2015 by first-time author Ed Caesar – Two Hours: the Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon. No one sent me this book; I’m not under any obligation to talk about its merits or demerits; I just simply like to talk about running … and books … and books about running.

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The thirty-second synopsis is this: it’s a book about the possibility of a human being – specifically, a male – being able to run 26.2 miles (a marathon) in under two hours (specifically, again, 1:59:59). If you’re not a marathoner and you don’t know how that math computes, allow me: that’s 4:34 minute miles for 26.2 miles.

That’s, really fucking fast.

Like really fucking fast.

More broadly speaking, Two Hours is about the limitations – self-imposed, psychological, physiological, biological, or hell, even socially – of humanity and our potential to overcome them. To say that running a marathon that effing quickly is an exercise in the serious pursuit of a serious unicorn, or an exercise in pushing the bounds of humans’ endurance, is a serious, if not offensive, understatement. This book explores the history of the modern-day marathon as we know it, following along a historical trajectory beginning at what we understand to be the birthplace of the marathon and culminating in modern-day, at the Berlin and NYC ’14 marathons.

Much of the book follows along the fella whom Caesar regards as a prime candidate to come close to that coveted 1:59:59, Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai, who has (among other accolades) the seriously impressive attribute of having run the world’s fastest marathon at Boston ’11 (2:03:02). The heartbreaking caveat here, of course, is that Boston is ineligible for record times (because of the course’s point-to-point setup and because of its net downhill), and to add insult to injury, Mutai also had what some consider an unfair advantage the day that he ran and won Boston – a tailwind for almost the entire 26.2 journey from Hopkinton to Boston.

Caesar expertly intertwines Mutai’s biography with the trajectory of the marathon and its contenders over the years. Included in the story of the marathon of course are other key players over the years – Haile Gebrselassie chief among them, as well as the late Sammy Wanjiru – and how they have influenced the sport and, either directly or indirectly, Mutai, himself. I love this type of writing because it doesn’t really matter if you’re a marathoner or hell, even a runner; it’s just fantastic, seamless, “human interest” type of writing that just so happens to be to the backdrop of marathoning.

Being that it is about running, after all, the book also spends a little bit of time exploring some physiological aspects inherent to running and why, exactly, these details matter – things like an athlete’s VO2 max, altitude-based training, and dietary differences. Even with this “scientific” information, which might immediately turn people off who aren’t in the sport, Caesar still writes about it in a way that makes understanding these aspects’ importance completely accessible to the average reader. In other words, fear not: you’re not reading a double-blind, peer reviewed, scientific journal article about the molecular biology of the world’s best marathoners. Yes, you’re reading about what forces interplay to make two-oh-three-ish guys (marathoners who complete the distance in about 2 hours and 3 minutes)on the biological level but – more than anything – on the societal levels. This key fact is what makes this book so compelling and interesting.

The elephant in the room (book?) here that Caesar didn’t even touch until chapter 8 (of 10) is everything surrounding doping that has engulfed the world of professional running. I can understand this, and at the same time, I don’t. It is horrible that so many professional runners have doped during some of the biggest matches of their lives – cheating themselves but more importantly, the clean athletes who should have won – and unfortunately, more often than not, these allegations don’t appear until years after competition. What really sucks is when an athlete’s country has been riddled with doping allegations and confirmations – as in the case of Kenya – because it implicates clean athletes, perhaps athletes like Mutai, who rightfully earned their wins. Caesar’s chapter on doping illuminates this point head-on as he details how Mutai has been accused over the years of doping – and especially once he became successful year after year at some of the World Marathon Majors.

As a reader, I was expecting Caesar to delve into the doping issues much earlier than he did because like many other running fans, I am unfortunately suspect of amazing, maybe-too-good-to-be-true winning times. Doping sucks for the athletes, no doubt, but it also sucks for fans because it’s no longer easy to just accept our athletes and their talents being the result of hard work and genetics. My point here is just to say that I was surprised that Caesar took as long as he did to talk about doping in the marathoning world, but at the same time, I don’t know if expounding upon the issue any earlier in the book would have made any difference. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I guess.

Here’s the biggest takeaway about Two Hours. Yes, it’s a sports book; yes, it’s a book about marathoning; yes, it’s a book about how and when and if a human male, probably Kenyan or maybe Ethiopian, will ever have the biological, physiological, and psychological wherewithal to successfully race 26.2 miles in under two hours, but really, it’s a book about the human condition and experience and how we voluntarily challenge ourselves.

We, as a species, tend to think things are impossible to overcome – we simply can’t fathom it – until one day, we finally do.

The best example: for the longest time, it was impossible – against any sort of scientific or logical knowledge or spiritual feeling – that a male human could run a mile in under four minutes.

A sub-4 mile was impossible until one day, it wasn’t (props, Sir Roger Bannister). And once this suddenly became possible, we as a species started to do it … again. And again. And again.

So many of us, myself included, place self-imposed limitations on what we can do in our running or athletic capabilities (but also probably in other life pursuits, too), and in the process, we shortchange ourselves.

We write our story that says that we can’t do this or we can’t hit this pace, and for worse – not better – that’s what we believe; the story that we ascribe to ourselves is the story we subscribe to, day in and day out.

Though it may be mind-boggling to fathom a human male covering 26.2 miles in under two hours, we are doing ourselves a serious disservice to discount the possibility of it ever happening. It’s like believing that today’s professional marathoners are the fastest and best that they’ll ever be for the rest of time, that there will be no advances in training methodologies, technologies, or any other useful aspect to marathoning in the future that will allow humans to get faster.

We have to be kidding ourselves if we think that humanity is already in its finest and fastest hour.

In case it’s not totally evident, I really enjoyed reading Two Hours in the throes of my marathon training – my first postpartum and thus, my first in over a year – because it leaves me excited for both humanity’s potential performance at the distance and more personally speaking, my own. I have neither the desire nor the talent to ever try to run a sub-2 marathon, but hitting a sub-3 sometime in my life is definitely on my list of big, exciting, scary-ass goals (though I’ve got some work to do first!).

Two Hours is a fast read. Go pick it up, and tell me what you think.