Time

"In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I used to think it would take six-hundred years to tunnel under the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I guess it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, a million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big god-damned poster."

- Red, Shawshank Redemption

If you are under time constraints and don't feel like reading the rest of this diatribe. The above pretty much summarizes this post for you. This is how I view endurance sport training. Training for a marathon, or an Ironman, or any of those other crazy long events is like studying Geology - it is a matter of time & pressure.

Stated another way, the way to success in endurance sports - in my view - is a simple equation of the proper stresses applied over enough time. Sounds simple enough to me. What I think it means is that success in endurance sports can be achieved with a fairly simple approach of keeping workouts fairly moderate and applied day after day, week after week, month after...you get the picture.

It's a matter of "Go until you're tired, then stop. Repeat tomorrow. And the next day. And so on." As the days build to weeks and months, I find I go a little bit farther and I can do it a little bit faster. Not necessarily every run or bike is faster and longer than the day before, but over the weeks and months, what used to be a hard 5 mile run can become a hard 9 mile run. It just happens. Seriously, it just does.

Why does it happen? I'm not a doctor or phys science major. Those type have filled volumes explaining how we respond to different workouts. What I know is that, if I stay injury free and I find a consistent volume of training (in the case of triathlon, consistent runs, bikes & swims), then over time, I get better. A lot better.

And I find this fact particularly compelling.

Blind Samurai Race Report Vol.1 - CRC Fall Classic 10K Run

It's October and the Blind Samurai is getting ready for running season again! This is one of my favorite times of year. so to celebrate, I did the Fall Classic 10K run this morning.

The alarm went off at 5:30 AM and I rolled out of bed. First thing I did was check the weather. According toweather.com it was 69 deg, and drizzling. What? It's almost Thanksgiving! 69 deg at 6AM! Should be an interesting 10K. If anyone out there recalls, last year was the inaugural running of the Fall Classic 10K. However, last year it was really cold and rainy instead of warm and rainy - pick your poison. The Charlottesville Running Company folks put on a nice race again, as they usually do. Just like last year a group of pros (out of North Carolina?) showed up and dominated the race - not sure exactly what the winning time was yet, but I would guess it was in low very low 30s. Anyway, here's how the Blind Samurai made out. Splits are estimates from memory as my watch is circa 1988 & has no memory.

Mile 1 - 5:35 The first quarter mile is uphill right from the get go as you leave the start line from in front of the Charlottesville Running Company and turn right up Market St. The rest of mile 1 is flat to down hill. Probably out too fast, breathing is maybe heavy then I would like, but I'm feeling fairly decent through the first mile. The elite group of 5 men is about 30 seconds ahead. I am ticked in behind the group of 4 elite women. Although I use the term "tucked in" very loosely as they are approximately half my size.

Mile 2 - 11:20 Given that this mile is all downhill, you can see that Mile 1 was way too fast. I realize this as I see my split. Oh well. The next 4.2 is going to hurt big time! Yay! The 4 elite women are slowly pulling away from me and I am in a bit of no man's land along with two other runners.

Mile 3 - 17:15 This is interesting, that is the fastest I've ever covered 3 miles (and based on pacing, I will guess the first time I have ever gone sub 18 in a 5K). The route has turned off Market St and we're now running along the paved portion of the Rivanna Trail. Beautiful run, if you haven't been along this stretech, you are missing out.

Mile 4 - 23:20 OK. Now it's cut check time. First mile over 6 minutes. This mile finishes off the paced trail and then turns up toward River Rd. The 4 mile marker is at the base of a very steep climb up River Rd. This ought to be really fun! The two runners I had been going with extend a lead and I'm now pretty much on my own.

Mile 5 - 29:55 I hate that hill. I hate that hill. I hate that hill. Yup that one hurt. The hill starting mile 4 is quite short, but very, very steep. That plus my complete lack of disciplined pacing at the start results in a pretty painful 6:30 mile. Once up the hill, I'm just trying to keep it together and recover a little but. Basically trying to hold on until the finish. No one has passed me since midway through mile 3 those two runners ahead continue to extend their lead, I see little chance that I will catch them.

Mile 6 - 36:00 The rollers coming back down Locust Ave are taking their toll. At the end of Locust we drop down on Market Street and the go back up the hill on Market. This is like being on a damn roller coaster! Then we're turning on to the mall and I can taste the finish. I glance behind me and don't see the next runner, so now it's just a matter of finishing as strong as possible.

10K - 37:20 Done! Yay! PR by roughly 1 minute. Nice. Tired.

Hope everyone else who came out for the race had a great day!

2009 Charlottesville Boys and Girls Club Challenge Ride

Great ride today! Fund raiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Charlottesville. About 300 people started the day. Gang raised something in the neighborhood of $140K - what I remember hearing, please forgive the lack of accuracy.

A group of Challenge Riders - ages 7 to 17 - had spent the better part of the summer getting some coaching from some local road riders and looked like they had a great time. Talked to a 7-year old who had ridden 31 miles. About 20 minutes later he spotted riding around the parking lot popping wheelies! Ah to be 7 an have an endless reservoir of energy!

Here's the scoop on the ride. 2 loops. Total about 60 miles. ~2,300 ft of climbing. Gorgeous country!

Loop 1

Loop 2

Blind Saumrai Race Report Vol 1 - Patriot's International Triathlon

What a great Patriot's weekend! Good beer, good race, more good beer. How can you beat that?

By the numbers:

Swim: 21:16 (2nd out of the water - more on that)

Bike: 1:07:xx

Run: 41:40 (6:45 per mile - I forgot my watch, so I had no idea on my pacing, just went for it)

Total: 2:15:xx (13th overall)

Now, if you like reading, sit back and enjoy.

Swim: 21:16 (2nd out of the water, 3rd swim overall - someone from a later wave smoked me!)

I bought a wetsuit the day before the race. What a difference it makes! I'm speechless. For everyone out there who does not own a wetsuit & has any ambition of improving swim times - GO BUY A WETSUIT. The swim was in the James River - brackish and not too cold. The James at this point is also tidal with a pretty strong current. I set my self up to left of the group and just took off that a solid pace at the gun. I immediately found myself with open water and no one to swim behind. Interesting. Never had this happen before. I passed the first bouy and still have clear water. Well, I knew I wasn't not off course, I could see the orange turn buoy far ahead, so I must be near the front. Made a quick pivot turn at that buoy (pulling out the old water polo skills is fun!). Right after the turn I felt a hand on my feet. Great! Someone's decided to take a ride. Oh well. I'm feeling pretty good, so I carry on. Make the second turn and start heading for home. Pick my head up to sight to shore line and see - glare - that's it - no shore, no buoy - just sunshine! Then I felt those hands on my feet again, I get concerned. I slowed up and took 2 breast strokes trying to find a point to aim for. That guy on my feet goes right by with a quick glance. I call over to him - "don't follow me, I'm lost!" Don't know if he heard me, but he took off. I finally sighted the right part of the shore after several course corrections. As I approach the shore I see my drafter (draftee?) get out of the water. He's about 1 minute ahead. After check the final results later, it turns out my draftee was probably Rudy - not 100% sure. Rudy - do recall going by some goofy dude who was looking lost? That was me. :)

Bike: 1:07:xx (22 mph)

My transition was super slow since I had never practiced getting out of my wetsuit. BTW - if you don't use Bodyglide, you end up with these nasty, painful, hicky-looking welts on your neck. Joanna is still skeptical of my wetsuit explanation. However, I believe the net benefit even with struggling was positive. Jumped on my bike and started pedaling. The goal was to maintain a pace of 22 mph. I only have my cheapo little speedometer, so that's was the target for better or worse. This Patriots bike course was gorgeous. Loved the scenery. However, someone has to explain to me how and out and back ride can but uphill and into the wind both ways! I just don't get it. Nevertheless, jumping off my bike at the end of the 40K ride, I was pleased with my pacing. But my legs were feeling pretty dead. I could tell this 10K would be an adventure. During the ride, I had counted roughly 10 athletes who had passed me - about what I expected. Hopefully I can pass some of them back on the run course.

Run: 41:40 (6:45 per mile)

My goal going into this race was to accomplish two things 1) average 22 mph on the bike and 2) throw down a sub 40 minute 10K. After getting off the bike, I felt pretty good that I had accomplished goal #1. But I could tell right away goal #2 was in big trouble. Legs were tight and heavy right from the get go. After just the first mile, I'm wondering how many folks I'll pass. Oh, I had also left my watch at home the day before, so I was flying totally blind. No idea what my pacing is, don't really care, just trying to hold on and finish strong. Beautiful run course, not too many hills. I got passed by a couple more guys and pass one guy. Clearly more work is needed - both bike and run.

Total: 2:15:xx (13th overall)

All in all very happy with my first ever International Distance Triathlon! Lots of fun! Lucky 13!

Bike Madness Part II - The Bike Store

Visited Cville Bike & Tri yesterday to check start to learn more about TT bikes. Love the dudes at Cville Bike and Tri. They are very knowledgable and helpful. Yet somehow, I may have left the shop with more questions than answers. Actually not surprised at all by this. If I'm going drop several $Ks on a bike, I'm want to understand what the deal is pretty well.

So I got to try out two bikes. First up was the Giant TCR Trinity. The one I tried was the basic model with some Easton wheels and Shimano Ultegra components.

Nice bike. Felt cool to ride. Now, the qualifier is that this is the first time I have ever pedaled a TT bike before. So it felt pretty weird being in that type of a position. That's to be expected. I realized that trying to comapre these bikes based on feel is going to be challenging (OK, huge understatement), since the TT position is not supposed to be comfortable. It's supposed to be fast without causing actual pain. So, seemed like a pretty good bike. Very affordable price as well.

The second bike was the Specialized Transition Comp. Also very nice bike, but definitely not the entry model (carbon frame and Ultegra/105 components). Looked a lot like this one:

I liked how I felt on this bike a little better. But I can't say that I know why that is. The frame size might be a slightly better fit (I believe that is what Paul suggested). Maybe the seat was a little bit nicer. Maybe I was just getting used to riding bikes in that type of position.

Many more bikes to try and many questions to answer. Here's what seems to have come up so far:

Frames

What is more important in a frame aerodynamic design or material? What about weight? Many bikes offer bike models with most of the same aerodynamics in either aluminum or carbon options. Of course carbon is quite a bit more expensive, so the question becomes is carbon really worth it? The answer to that really includes what you mean by "worth it". Carbon is clearly better due to improved stiffness, a carbon frame generally will transfer more of the energy you use to pedal directly into forward propulsion instead of into flexing the frame. But how much is that worth to you?

Weight

Then there is weight. In general (though not always), when you make a bike more aerodynamic, you add a little bit more weight. This is because aerodynamic designs that mimic airpalne wings and fuselages tend to have elongated, smoother surfaces. Longer surface area means a little more bike material and thus a little more weight. But this is OK because the purpose of a TT bike is to get aerodynamic. It is all a quesiton of what you are going to use the bike for. TT bikes are designed to go mostly flat and mostly straight a fast as possible. Thus aerodynmics is most important. Weight seems to matter most in two areas - hill climbing and short sprints. In both of these cases the path to success seems maximizing to be power per weight (often measured in Watts/Kg). The higher this ratio is, the better you are at climbing and sprinting. Of course there are two ways to get better - more Watts or fewer Kgs. So for hills and sprints, obsessing over weight makes sense. But I'm not sure this is the case for a TT bike where you want to turn in a fast time over a flattish 50 mile course.

Components and Wheels

Oh yeah and by the way, it turns out that no matter what kind of bike you have, it might be pretty important to have aerodynamic wheels. And oh yeah, more relaible components may actually reduce the incidence of dropped chains and other shifting woes (which I have been dealing with all summer). So, you can buy a sweet ride, but if you go ghetto on the other parts of the bike, you are basically back at square one.

Fit

I've heard lots of folks ask - how does the bike fit? Well, it turns out this is not as easy a question to answer as you might think. Fit in a TT bike does not mean comfy. Comfy is how you describe this bike:

But you won't go fast on this bike. So fit in a TT bike really means - can you make the right adjustments to get into the most aero position possible. Which of course means you need to get the experts out with their tape measures, motion capture gadgets, computers and all the rest. For someone like me who is new to this game, I would not trust this decision on a feel. Not what this bike would be for.

But here's the trick, you need to know what bikes are going to be "in the ball park" so that the experts have the right things to work with in order to dioal everything in. And so, you need to know a little bit about the fit of the bike to know what will work for you. So now what?

Onwards and upwards...

Bike Madness

So it begins. Somehow, I have been sucked into the world of TT bikes. How did it happen? Who knows. I heard someone ones explain that the only difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys. How true.

I find this particularly ironic for me since I spend a solid amount of time being skeptical of all the fancy, expensive gadgets and toys that one can accumulate in the name of trying to get faster. At the end of the day, I'm just another sucker who'll fall for a good marketing campaign. If nothing else, I am a self aware sucker.

My journey began about one week ago with a visit to Ebay. I suppose that is not the normal place to begin a search for a bike, but I never claimed to be normal. I've spent way too many hours trolling E-Bay listings and building a watch list. Right now, I'm just seeing what used bikes go for. The hypothesis being that you should be able to save a bunch of $$ by cutting a good deal on a used bike. Works for cars right? We'll see. I'm not convinced just yet.

The second thing I did was start to understand what new bikes cost and what drives this cost. To this end, I am building a spreadsheet summary of bikes that seem like possible candidates along with data on specs and costs so I see the side-by-side comparison. You would think this comparison would be straight forward. Alas no...

Soon, I'll be visiting the local bike shops to talk with folks and ride some bikes around. Should be fun!

Next step is of course to actu

Run More, Think Less

I love this article. Thanks to Cal for sending this along. I won't claim that I follow this to the letter - I too track mileage - rarely time, but mileage yes. Nor did this occur to me until after I read the article. But this is very compelling.

Think of it - run until you get tired. Stop. Rest. Repeat. Love it. Who needs a stop watch or a heart rate monitor!

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203550604574358764211082766-lMyQjAxMDA5MDEwOTExNDkyWj.html

Lemmings over the cliff?

The comments from this post on the New York Times blog got me thinking:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/should-running-hurt-a-little/

The article is written by a recreational runner who has done several marathons. He's now being advised by a coach on ways to run "out of your comfort zone". The comments on this article were quite spirited.

In particular this comment:

"The short term effects of this exercise is going to be positive because you’ve been so lazy for so long. The long term effects from excessive running is negative. No one runs 35 miles a week for cardiovascular benefits. They are doing it for the ego. The problem we have in the U.S. is that 95% of us never exercise. Then a certain percentage of the 5% goes gung ho for a few months or few years then quits and become lazy again. Moderate exercise four times a week is what everyone should be doing. Marathon running or marathon training is not healthy."

and this one:

"There is PLENTY of encouragement among runners who will push you achieve these numeric goals regardless of injuries and the wear and tear on your body. They’re not right or wrong…. just obsessed with running. My Dad was a serious runner for many years. Now he’s in his early 60s, and after two knee surgeries and back surgery it’s hard for him to climb one flight of stairs. He’s prematurely crippled because of his running obsession."

Before carrying on, I'll simply acknowledge how unbelievably judgemental both of these posts are. And of course there are simply of lot of incorrect observations in there as well. Some people could quite possibly run 35 miles per week because *gasp* they like to run. As a reference, for a fairly good recreational runner, it takes about 5 to 6 hours per week to reach this 35 miles. But I didn't want to simply debunk some silly people who comment on someone else's blog (btw, I include myself in the label silly).

What does strike a chord with me in this discussion is a set of lingering questions about endurance sports. These questions relate to - 1) Motivation, 2) Lifestyle, 3) Health. I suppose these questions are the true reason I started writing in this space. While I mostly post about recent activities or cool ideas I come across, what I am most interested in are answers to these questions.

Motivation

What is the real motivation behind endurance sports? Are we all just a bunch of ego maniacs? Do we invest all this energy in early morning runs on long weekend bike rides simply for some twisted ego boost that we get from standing around the water cooler with coworkers on Monday morning boasting about the 5 hour bike ride or the 20 mile run we did that weekend? What is the difference between pride in an accomplishment like completing the longest run you've ever done versus embraking on some ego trip? Is there something inherently wrong with that ego trip if it is indeed the case? I suppose I should now go back and reread Catcher in the Rye - should I abandon an activity because it is filled with suspect motives and phonies?

Lifestyle

As most folks who have done a marathon or triathlon know, preparing for and completing an event involves a pretty solid time commitment - actually this is likely true of most 5K, 10K and half marathon runners and many others as well. Often times, this time commitment also requires you to make trade-offs or sacrifices in other areas of your life. If you are part of a running group that has a long run early on Saturday morning, your are less likely to be out boozing until 2 AM on Friday night - with a few notable and remarkable exceptions.

Then, for those who stick with their sport beyond a single event, these decisions about how to spend your time begin to evolve into a lifestyle. For example, instead of catching the latest Daily Show late at night as I used to, I now find myself conking out by 10 PM on most nights even if there is no planned workout the next morning (God bless TiVo). Then, when we do go out with the gang, I find myself making different choices about what I eat and drink, where we go and what we do. All the decisions are simply based on my own changing preferences which seem to have become tied up with this changing lifestyle.

Does this changing lifestyle make me an obsessed freak? What am I obsessed with? Is it some unobtainable body image that I allowed society to convince me I need to chase? Do I have a destructive urge to shave just a few more seconds off some best time in some arbitrary race? Am I simply becoming boring and one-dimensional? And if any of these are true, so what? Is obsession necessarily a bad thing?

Health

Everyone knows about the supposed health benefits of a little excerise. Good for the heart, good for the brain, good to release stress, and on and on. And I think it is intuitive that there is a point of diminishing returns to this exercise. So there should logically be some optimal point where the benefits to your health and life are balanced against the time and energy invested in this activity. But where is that point really? And how do we know? One commenter my link above mentions moderate exercise four times a week. How do we really know this and how do we measure all the benefits? Isn't there a social aspect to this that is not being captured? Isn't social interaction actually an important part of overall health?

Returning to the time aspect, is there a point at which more exercise becomes harmful to your health? I will submit the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Could that point be different for individuals? Again, I will submit the answer is yes. But is there also a point where no matter who you are and how genetically gifted, how well trained, how perfect your technique and how careful you are, you are simply driving yourself over a cliff of injuries? Are you envitably headed for the nightmare of blown out knees, arthritic backs, and all the rest? That cliff might be years away in the future and completely out of sight, but it might be there nevertheless. Are we all being driven toward this cliff by our fellow athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, equipment and nutrition vendors and everyone else encouraging us and helping us along in what seem like worthwhile activities. We all recieve much needed support, advice and encouragement, not to mention cool gadets and other equipment from all these folks. And this is all given with the very best of intentions and recieved with deep gratidue. But what are the real consequnces here? Have we all undertaken in an activity that will inevitably lead to long term debilitating injuries and years of painful old age?

Are we all just lemmings lining up one by one rushing headlong toward some as yet unseen precipice?

Eagleman 2010 - I should have my head examined

It finally happened. I knew it would eventually. I signed up for Eagleman this weekend. Just made it in as one of the last few folks to register. I think the race sold out in less than 1 week. Crazy. Hard to believe so many people are lining up to put themselves through such torture.

The Eagleman is a triathlon in Cambridge, MD. The race "only" a half ironman distance. That's only 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of cycling and a half marathon - 13.1 miles of running. Crap! I feel tired just thinking about it. Here's the website: http://www.tricolumbia.org/Eagleman/

How exactly did I let myself get talked into this one?

Last two track workouts

I had meant to post these last two fun track workouts for posterity. Ooops. Very late, but here they are:

Wed, Aug 12

Something called a "Michigan". I don't get it either - I'm not a track guy. Just give me some Texas 50's and I'll be fine!

The workout was:

1,600 @ 5K pace

1,200 a little faster

800 a little faster

400 a little faster

do 800 at "tempo" pace, no stopping for the whole run.

We did pretty well, but we were definitely slower than tempo pace for 800 in between each race effort. I still had a bit in the tank on that last 400, probably more than we were supposed to. Splits:

1,600 - 5:40

1,200 - 4:09

800 - 2:34

400 - 1:12

Wed, July 27

Still figuring out what this track stuff is all about. So, I pulled some recommendations from Daniel's and did:

4 x 1,200 with 4:00 easy jog in between

splits: 4:10, 4:09, 4:10, 4:10

Solid. Last one hurt pretty big.

Go to your dark place

Today I met the normal gang (most of it) for our typical Saturday AM ride. Normally, I wouldn't spend much time thinking or writing about this kind of ride because it is on the schedule every week. Mostly its simply a good workout and a fun group to ride with - but it's normally just a typical ride, no biggie. But this ride often takes me to what I think of as my dark place - that's what I want to talk about.

To catch up, this ride is lovingly referred to by the Cville Tri Club as the Saturday Chipolte Ride. I have no idea why Chipolte - especially since we usually go to Bodo's Bagels afterwards for sustenance and entertainment. Anyway, it's roughly a 54 mile loop through the rolling hills southeast of Charlottesville. The ride is done fast - usually the group finishes in about 2.5 hours.

Most of the riders in this group are quite a bit stronger than I. No real surprise there - I'm not a terribly strong rider. So for me, the goal is typically to hang with the group for as much of the ride as possible. Then with persistence, I hang on a little bit further every week. But let there be no doubt, I often experience what can only be described as epic meltdowns, sometimes with quite a few miles to go. I know plenty of folks more knowledgable than I would tell me to cut it out - the meltdown part that is. And that is something I'm working on.

But what is so great about the ride is that it helps force me into that zone of that combines both fatigue and intensity at the same time. I simply call this zone my dark place. Here's how my dark place feels. The legs are aching bad, but they are still strong enough to keep the pace. The lungs are working hard, breathing is difficult, but I'm not quite gasping for air. Half my brain knows that this pain will go away almost instantly, simply by dropping the cadence, or by lifting, ever so slightly the contant pressure to the pedals. The other half, refusing for the moment to admit surrender, pushes on for a few more precious seconds. I'm not ready to give in to the hurt just yet. Those seconds extend into minutes with agonizing slowness, but I push on.

After about 20 to 30 minutes of this, your perception begins to change in odd ways. The sun, which shone brightly just an hour ago, begins to lose its lustre. The Virginia countryside seems to fade away to a dull grey nothingness and the color fades slowly away. The only sounds are the rythmic spinning of cranks, chain, wheels and the labored breaths. Peripheral visions begins to fade away, reality becomes simple - person, bike, road. And I push on.

I am aware of my surroundings, but only enough to steer the bike and remain upright. My brain is solely focused on a set of fairly simple tasks - breathe in, breathe out, right leg push, left leg push, steer. I am enveloped in the darkness. I find it comforting in many ways - reality to reduced to a set of basic physic equations.

Finally - and for me this inevitably comes on some hill climb - the legs give way. The power that seemed to be there just 10 minutes ago has been claimed by the road. The matches are burned - there's nothing left. I am finally betrayed by my own human limitation. I press on to stay with the group a little longer, but for me it's over. I am, as they say, cooked.

The ride of course isn't over at this point, am I make it back to the car in reasonable order. Sometimes I am with the pack, sometimes a few minutes behind. Either way it's been a good ride. I got visit my dark place - it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!

Here's a map of the ride:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/map.asp?routeid=89487

What I Learned About Open Water Swimming

Many thanks to Rob for taking a group of us Cville Traithletes out to the lake at Walnut Creek Park on Saturday for some open water swimming. Those that were there, I think picked up some good tips on how to handle open water swimming. Here's what I learned.

1) At the start, it's generally better to find some clear space to swim. Try to stay out of the scrum in the middle. Rob had a great analogy that explains why the scrum at the start happens. Take a pack of straws and hold them in your hand upright. This is bascially what everyone looks like at the start line before swimming. Everyone is crammed close together and is upright either on land or treading water if it's an in water start. OK, now let all the straws go and see what happens. They all fall down on top of each other! Some starws are buried like three deep - depending on how many starws you use.

This is compelling for a couple reasons. First, it shows that the scrum is the result of simple geometry. It is not because triathletes are a bunch of hypercompetitive goons . OK maybe many are - but the scrum would happen even if the race was populated by 1,000 pacificsts and buddhists!

So, if I know that this is going to hppen no matter what. And we know WHY it's going to happen, I can take steps to make sure I'm not on the bottom of the pile of straws. I can create some space for myself. The easiest way of course is simply to move to a location where there are fewer people. I love Rob's suggestion for in water starts to get yoursefl to a horizontal position before the gun goes off. People will naturally give you space as you scull out with your hands and as your legs kick up behind them - great call!

2) Following and drafting - BUYER BEWARE. Be careful who you choose to try and follow or draft from. They may or may not know what they are doing and you could get screwed. This actually happened when we did some practice swimming. Tre headded off to the wrong buy with 1 other guy in town right behind him. They both ended up way off course and behind on that particular siwm by more than a minute.

3) Know the course really well ahead of time. During you warm up its a really good idea to be sure to have looked in detail at the entire course. Make sure you know where the first bouy is you are swimming to - some I demonstrated myself in our first practice run by swimming in completely the wroing direction. Make sure you know where the turns are and how you want to handle them. Know what the finish area looks like and what you'll need to deal with.

4) Keep swimming! Whatever happens, just keep plugging away. It takes A LOT more energy to restart once you've stopped than it does to simply slow down a little bit while you ctach your breath if you need to.

Rob had lots of other good tips too, but I wanted to capture a couple key things I took away.

Congrats to all the Cville International Triathletes!

Great job y'all! Lot's of high finishes by the local crew. For those who don't know, this is a tough course! The lake siwm in pretty nice. Then you're in for 40K of pretty solid hill riding. Finally you are treated to 10K on a course designed for mountain bikes! Watch out for roots, switchbacks and the occaisional mud hole!

http://www.cvilletriathlete.com/RaceCenter/International/tabid/198/Default.aspx

Cville Bike & Tri Rocks!

Today I must give a shout out to the dudes at Cville Bike & Tri! HOLLA!

On Friday afternoon I was tuning my bike up a little bit - the derailleur has become a little sticky from many miles of riding - some of it in the rain. So I'm giving it a little lube hear and there and making some adjustments to the limit screws. Suddenly one of the fastener pins just pops right out! OK, this doesn't seem too good. So I try to push the pin back in, but it just won't stay in place.

So I take the bike up to the Cville Bike & Tri guys who explain that this particular part is machine pressed at the factory and is really not fixable. OH CRAP! How can that be? The bike a barely 1 year old! Now I'm thinking that a nice weekend of bike riding is going to be killed while I get this part replaced.

No worries they say. Good news is they have the same part in stock. Bad news is the part costs $70. OK, as bike parts go, that's not too bad - but I wasn't really looking for ways to get ride of my ca$h.

But wait there's more. Paul gets on the phone with the manufacturer and in 15 minutes has approval to send the old derailleur back as a warranty replacement. YAY! I get my bike back the very next day and the weekend is saved!

Thanks guys!

The Need for Speed

Terrible headline. I know, I know.

We ran on the track this morning. I met up with some folks from the Cville Triathlon group at the UVA track. This was the first time I had run an organized track workout since high school! It was fun. Nicole had planned at set of 6 x 1,000m with 3 minutes rest in between. I honestly didn't know what the heck I was doing. I showed up with no real plan for the day - I even forgot to bring my watch so I could check splits! What a goof!

The workout was pretty good, but I have a feeling a real coach would call it a failure. My 1K splits were: 3:37, 3:36, 3:38, 3:37, 3:28, 3:24. These felt very easy. I was feeling pretty stiff for the first three. Then during the second half my legs finally started to loosen up a bit and felt strong.

Should also say, I held back for most of these on purpose. Since I have no idea how my body is going to respond to running a little bit faster, I am paranoid of blowing a gasket. As I gain some experience with this, I'll be more comfortable challenging myself. For the next few weeks, as I layer in this type of work, I'll be loafing it just a little bit.

Definitely felt like a strange workout. I'm a little lost in all this stuff - don't know what types of pace I should be holding, not sure what the right rest interval is and don't know how these are supposed to feel. So, time to do some research and reading! My favorite - a new area to explore. This should be good.

BLOWOUT!

And I don't mean that in the good sense. Went riding with the Tuesday/Thursday group last night. About 10 miles into a 30 miles ride, my rear tire took a full on blow out! Shredded the tire and exposed the wiring that runs along the rim. Unridable. Lucky for me Brendan was kind enough to head on back and grab a vehicle to rescue. Many thanks Brenda!

Here's how the tire looks nows. I'm glad a was cruising along pretty slowly when this went, could have been ugly.

Back to Baltimore

Staying in Baltimore for a few days. Get to see 3 Red Sox games. Visit old firends & stomping grounds. Good times. This place has changed so much since I first came to town in 1992. And something new is added every year!

Great run this morning from downtown to Fort McHenry. One of my favorite runs when in town!

The Long Brick

I'm sure some will see the title of this post and assume some sort of massive 5 hour workout. Sorry to disappoint. This is a simple, but highly effective brick workout I've done the last couple weeks. The ride portion is 30 miles with the option to for 10 additional moderately flat miles depending on how one feels. This is a pretty big workout that helps me build a lot of confidence as well as fitness.

Summary:
Ride - 30 miles (or 40 if you're ambitious) Boonesville Loop: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/map.asp?routeid=91484

Run - 8 miles hilly, dirt road Ridge Rd: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/map.asp?routeid=97218

The ride is fun in that the second half is mostly downhill & fast. Of course the downside is that you have to go up the hills first in order to comeback down. The run is a dirt road the whole way, but it's rolling hills, so a great workout. Good stuff.

Use a wetsuit when you can

Back in May, I raced in the Kinetic Sprint Triathlon. It was a fun event. At some point, I may even get around to posting a RR on that one here too. But for now, I want to note something interesting I found while looking around at some recent race results. After the Kinetic, I was quite surprised at how poorly I ranked on my swim time - #35. Now, many folks would be happy with that placement - but how many of them were NCAA D-3 All Americans? I certainly wasn't trying or expecting to win the swim that day. I hadn't done any swim focused anything in a long time. Heck - I'd just come off a serious marathon cycle. Still, I was quite surprised that 34 people showed up who could swim faster than me - OK, my ego took a bruising. At the time, I simply chalked it up to a bad day & left it at that.

Today, decided to compare this with some previous races. I found a couple others who had done both races so I had something of an external basis for comparison. Here is a summary:

My Results

Culpeper Sprint Tri 0:11:30 0:50:02 0:20:49

Kinetic Sprint Tri 0:10:45 0:48:39 0:19:33

% Improvement 7% 3% 6%

Competitor #1

Kinetic Sprint 0:11:45 0:45:46 0:20:27

Culpeper Sprint 0:13:54 0:45:07 0:20:38

% Improvement 15% 1%

Competitor #2

Kinetic Sprint 0:11:57 0:46:55 0:21:03

Culpeper Sprint 0:16:13 0:48:18 0:22:01

% Improvement 26% 3% 4%

First, my own internal comparison is quite favorable. I improved substantially in every discpline. The swim was the same distance in each race - 0:45 improvement there. The bike leg was done 2:00 faster even though it was 3 miles longer - huge gain by a wide margin. The 5K run was 1:13 faster at Kinetic. Also, the run & bike rankings support the improvement in times. So, I improved relative to the competition.

But how to explain the swims? My swim at Kinetic was 0:45 faster than Culpeper, but I dropped in placement from 13 to 35. Did no one show up to swim at Culpeper? Possibly, however, my other previous results are consistent with Culpeper - the Kinetic result is the outlier. Did a bunch of great swimmers show up at Kinteic? Also possible, this is where the comparison with other competitors comes in. Competitor #1 had basically the exact same bike & run splits for the two events. But he was 2:10 faster in the swim. Competitior #2 improved everywhere, but a full 4:16 improvement in swim time seems almost unheard of. On percentage basis, Competitor #1 improved by 15% and Competitor #2 by 25%! It is difficult to believe that these types of improvements are simply a result of training - something else must be happening here.

The only thing I can think of is wetsuits! At Culpeper, wetsuits were not legal - water temp was too warm. At Kinetic, pretty much everyone wore a wetsuit - except me. I chose not to, thinking that any time I saved on the swim would be negated by a slow T1. I now suspect this was a mistake. I think competitor #1 is the most interesting comparison in that, there is no evidence this person was in better shape in the second event. So, it is possible that the entire 15% improvement was in fact due to wearing the wetsuit. Based on this, it is entirely possible that I could have saved 15% or about 1:20 seconds on my swim time. In other words, with a wetsuit, that day - all else equal - I should have swum 9:25. Interetsingly, that time would would have given me a swim rank of 9, which would have been consistent with my other results - namely close to, or in the top 10!

Admittedly, there are a number of weaknesses in this analysis. 1) Only two comparison points in hardly conclusive. 2) I do not know for 100% sure that the competitors did in fact wear wetsuits, but from my memory, I don't recall seeing anyone else choose not to wear a wetsuit. 3) I have not controlled for the effects of training & simple improvement in the comparisons. So this isn't definitive & does not prove that if you wear a wetsuit, you will have a swim time that is 15% faster. However, it clearly makes a difference - so wear one when you can!

What I've learned about marathon training

Someone recently asked me what my training looked like to get ready for this year's Boston marathon. Oringinally, I started talking about the mechanics of what I did - which you can find a good summary of in my Race Report. Then, I started thinking about what was important - beyond the simple mechnicacs - to try to extract some basic pricinciples. This is what I came up with. Enjoy.

Why run long? Because you enjoy running and you want to run faster. If you don’t like running and even going for a simple 6 mile run in the early AM feels like work, I wouldn’t recommend getting into a high volume running program. Life is too short for your hobby to feel like a job (after all, we’re not pros). So, if you do enjoy running, high volume running is a way to make you a stronger runner and ultimately, I think it will make you faster. There are of course lots of ways to train & get fast, high volume running is only one path – one I happen to like & believe in. The advantage of higher volume running I believe lies in strength. High volume running makes you really strong – not big muscles, pick up a car strong – but it builds a workhorse foundation in your physiology that lasts a long time. It makes your bones, joints & tendons, muscles and aerobic systems all stronger and develops the foundation those things are built on to a deeper level. Will high volume running make you faster? I suppose the true answer is – it depends – there are no guarantees. What I do know is that I am much faster at 55 MPW than I was last year at 40 MPW, and much faster than 2-3 years ago at 20 MPW. I also know that some folks at Running Times & Runner’s World have done informal surveys and studies of entrants to marathons & half marathons. These have shown a strong correlation between higher mileage and faster times at those distances. Finally, I think there are some unique benefits for triathletes simply because the run is last. You always run tired in a tri. Even in a sprint distance race, you have already been racing for at least 45 minutes before you even start running. Running at longer distances teaches your body how race when already tired (the idea is similar to brick workouts). Of course the trick is managing a higher volume of running while still managing enough cycling time to have a solid bike leg as well. Honestly, I have not figured an answer for that issue yet, something I have to keep working at.

How Long is Long? I think the answer depends on each person. It depends on time, priorities, desire & also on physiology & run mechanics. I don’t think triathletes need to put in 100 MPW & if anyone tried, their legs might drop off. All that time spent cycling and swimming is going to do a lot to develop your aerobic & muscular systems – stimulating the amount of glycogen your muscles can store, increasing the efficiency at which your body recruits fat for energy, improved oxygen –carrying capability of your blood, increased mitochondrial density, etc (to the medically inclined, please forgive me, hopefully I haven’t mangled these concepts too badly). So, all those hours of low impact activity is great for developing those muscular and aerobic system, and I think those benefits cross over to running. However, the skeletal adaptations your body makes as a result of run training are unique and only come from running decent miles. How much is enough? Not sure exactly. However, I think the RT guys have as a good a point of view as any I’ve seen here. Based on this, I would say for triathletes putting a lot of cycling miles, I would say 60 MPW might be a good maximum with an optimum mileage in the 40 MPW range. But this is going to vary by individual.

Basic Underlying Proposition I am not a doctor or an Ex Phys type. However, from what I have read, the important systems in running adapt at different speeds – aerobic systems develop relatively rapidly, muscular systems slower and your skeletal system (joints, bones, ligament) develop quite slowly. Compared with swimming & cycling, running is unique in because of the relatively high impact – as the Tick would say “Gravity is a cruel mistress”. Running beats the hell out of your skeletal system, but given MODERATE stresses over enough time, your body will strengthen this system and will leave you a stronger runner. I’ll say more about moderation later, but I have to also say a little more about time here because I suspect that time requirement for the greatest benefits of high volume running is misunderstood. The greatest benefits from high volume running are seen only over months and years, not weeks. This is simply how long it takes for your body to adapt and for the benefits to accrue. A simple 10 week cycle where you build to 40 miles is good, but if you just go back to 25 MPW after that, the benefits will be fleeting. I once heard someone smart say (I think it was Mitch Thrower) that people tend to overestimate what they can accomplish in the short term – 6 months – & underestimate what they can accomplish in the long term – 3-5 years. Point being, you have to give the program lots time to take hold, but over time, you will get stronger and faster. Consider Lance Armstrong’s experience. Ten days after Lance’s first marathon, a shin splint that first surfaced in training turned out to be a stress fracture and Lance spent 3 months rehabbing. The guy is one of the fittest athletes on the planet and a huge stud, but his skleteal system was not equipped to handle the pounding of a marathon. I suspect the training plan Lance implemented was probably the best plan that could be put together given a relatively short time frame in mind and his aggressive goal – sub 3 Hours (I claim no inside knowledge of Lance’s run training program, only what is documented in sports news. So it was built on relatively low mileage and lots of cross training. Know any triathletes that fit this bill?

Principle #1 – Know Thyself/Heal Thyself First things first, you can’t go into any program injured or with major mechanical defects. Get yourself healthy first. Get to where you can run maybe 20 MPW – all of it easy, pace doesn’t matter - over 5-6 days without pain and can do that consistently for a number of weeks. When you’re doing this – I’ll call it background work – you should be getting comfortable with your running mechanics & equipment as well. If you have mechanical issues that might lead to injury down the road, it’s a good idea to identify those. Be sure you have found several pairs of comfortable running shoes that fit your running style and will support your feet, ankles, etc. This is a good time to go find the Ragged Mtn dudes and get a gait analysis and some quick coaching to ensure that you are solid in these areas & that you have a plan to address any issues they might bring up. Think of this as getting your car ready for a coast to coast road trip – before you leave, you want your car in good working order with fluids topped off, brakes good, engine tuned up, etc. This time it take build this foundation is irrelevant, for me I spent about 2 years running 20-25 MPW before I was even interested in running longer distances – again, leave lots of time for your body to adjust.

Principle #2 – Build Mileage Gradually I’m sure you’ve heard all about the 10% rule, which says that one week should only be 10% more mileage than the last week when you are adding miles. Personally, I don’t always follow exactly 10%, but the spirit behind the rule is correct. When you’re embarking on a cycle to increase running mileage, you should do so with caution. When you add miles, you are by definition adding more pounding on your joints and ligaments (in the form of more miles and more hours on your feet). So, if you’re at about 25 MPW right now, you might build a plan than adds a couple (no more than 5) miles each week for a few weeks – maybe 3 or 4. I can’t stress enough to BE CAREFUL when adding miles to your program. I believe the #2 reason (#1 is in the next section) runners get injured is because they add too many miles to their schedule before they’re ready. So, when doing this, also keep in mind Principle #4 – utilize mileage plateaus.

Principle #3 – Speed Kills Whatever pace you do your runs at for your 25 MPW, slow down while you build mileage. Most people I speak with who go through significant injuries, seem to go back to running too fast for too much of their training. I don’t have a good scientific basis for this myself, I can only offer my own anecdotal experience & what I’ve heard from others. However, I am convinced the #1 reason runners get injured is from running too many fast miles. So slow down during build weeks! Don’t do any fast stuff, just get the miles done at a pace that is comfortable. The ideal pace in my mind is one that when you’re finished running, you could go for a few more miles if you had to. For folks who are used to doing lots of fast running, this might be disturbing at first. However, the collective stresses that are applied build hugely when you do a week that is 12 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles, 8 miles, rest day, 18 miles. That’s an average week I did in early March during my Boston Marathon prep – and that 8 miler mid-week was tough – I felt no need to do anything other than just make it. During my build cycle, I do exactly zero speed work. Once I reach a plateau, I will start to carefully insert some tempo work. For example, last year I spent the first 3 months (Jan – March 2007) building to a 40 MPW average. Once I reached that plateau, I stayed there and remained consistent throughout pretty much the rest of the year (leaving out a few weeks of vacation and other things where mileage went way down). Around June, I started adding a weekly tempo run every Wed I would go 10 miles – first 5 easy, second 5 at half marathon race pace. That was my speed work. So out of a 40 mile week, 5 miles were “fast”, but fast in this case is HMP.

The topic of speed is controversial and often misunderstood – I will confess that I don’t understand all of it. I think it is more complicated for triathletes because you can train injury free at much higher intensities for cycling and swimming than you can for running – it’s that gravity thing again. I suspect many tri dudes who come from swimming or cycling backgrounds simply assume they can train for running the same way they do for the other two sports – namely very fast & very long. Gravity makes running a different beast with some unique problems – you can only run fast AND long for so much without risking serious injury. I won’t claim what I do is the best way, I suspect that I could benefit from some additional speed work properly planned and placed. But I do strongly believe that when you are trying to build to a higher mileage plateau, speed is the first thing that should go on the shelf for a while.

Principle #4 – Use Mileage Plateaus Your body needs time to build stronger joints, ligaments and bones. As I said, according to the science types, the skeletal system takes the longest to adapt. It’ll happen, but it’ll take time. So building to a weekly mileage number is really just the start. Your body will continue to adapt as you stay at that on a weekly basis – for months & years. The good news is that after several weeks or months, that weekly average will start to feel much easier. So, when you build to say 40 MPW, you’ll be tired after that first week. But then hold it there at a weekly average of 40 MPW for a few months, over time that weekly average will start to feel pretty comfortable. You will find you will be moving beyond “survival mode” – where you’re just trying to get the mileage in and don’t care about pacing. You’ll start to speed up and want to add some faster stuff in. That’s how you know your body is getting stronger.

Principle #5 – Listen to your Body About 75% of all my running is done with no stopwatch at all. When I leave the house, I’ll check what time it is, then I’ll check again when I return and an estimate for the total time. I almost never check my pace during a run. Nor do I ever use an HRM. I run based on how I feel. Running this way requires some faith and some experience. But it is not necessarily difficult to get to. The idea is to be comfortable for the entire run. Then when you’re finished, you should feel like you could have gone for a few more miles if you had to. I’m not advocating that everyone should put all their gadgets away forever (OK, maybe I am), but I do think that it is incredibly important to learn to listen to your body. Running based on feel is a great way to do this. After a while you start to get a feel for your running based on your breathing patterns and effort level. You start to know almost at an intuitive level when you can push it a little and when you’re tired or achy and need to back off and jog for a while. I know that numbers jocks will have a hard time with this – I was an engineer once, I know all about the love of tracking and graphing progress. But I also know that an intuitive feel for your own body and its capabilities is much more valuable than the worlds prettiest graph. You then of course need to act on what your body is telling you. Learn to know the difference between tired or achy muscles (which are normal) and truly sore or painful tendons – unfortunately I suspect experience is really the best teacher between these two.

I’ll close this with something I once heard Marc Allen say – “the guy who wins Ironman isn’t the fastest guy - it’s the guy who slows down the least”. This is exactly what high volume running is designed to do. You are developing your systems so that you can go all day and not slow down. This is the best way I know to describe how I approach running. My goal is not necessarily to get blazing fast, my goal is to slow down less than the other guy.

Boston Marathon Race Report

The Training Plan & Prep

The 2009 Boston Marathon was my first time at Boston & my second overall marathon. My first marathon & Boston Qualifier was done at the Charlottesville Marathon in April 2008 (3:04:xx final time). I spent pretty much all of 2008 putting in an average of 40 miles per week running, in addition to 3-4 bike and 2-3 swim session per week. I began my Boston specific prep in mid December 2008. My training plan was to ramp my weekly running to 55 miles per week while also remaining consistent with my cycling (3 weekly sessions) & swimming (2-3 weekly sessions) schedules. My training plan was based on the Pfitzinger 18/55 schedule (outlined in the book Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger/Douglas). I modified the base plan to allow me to get the mileage in using 5 running sessions per week (the original Pfitzinger plans are based on 6 days running, with some days of double running sessions and 1 day of x-training). This modification plus my plan to maintain a regular cycling & swimming schedule meant that most of my training runs were longer (average run length for me was around 12 miles) and also less intense than called for in the plan.

I also found that the higher intensity cycling (esp the Saturday morning all-out effort to stick with the fast dudes) impacted my ability to complete all my runs as planned. In particular, I struggled with maintaining enough energy to execute faster tempo runs. In addition, planning necessitated scheduling my weekly long runs on Sunday, often the day after the Saturday long ride. In order to keep with the training schedule and avoid injury, I made some additional changes to my original plan. First was to back off slightly on the Saturday Morning long rides. I decided to let the fast pack go and stuck with the Development group. Second, I eliminated all speed work from my running schedule. After some reflection, I decided that several solid efforts on the bike with higher RPMs as well as decent pool work would translate to the speed I would need for the marathon. I felt it was more important to a successful marathon to maintain the mileage than to worry about doing fast training runs. My early season race times – Colonial Half Marathon, MJ8K seemed to validate this approach as I was able to turn in fast times at those shorter distances.

The final important factor in this training period was my health. In May 2008, I was diagnosed with sub-clinical Hyperthyroidism. While I can think of many things that are much much worse, treatment for this condition (radiation therapy followed by Synthroid medication, for which I am still trying to find the right dose) definitely affected my energy level & thus my training efforts & runs.

Getting to Race Day – Marathon Weekend

We arrived at Logan Airport in Boston on Saturday evening, flying in from Newport News. Logan was buzzing with very fit looking folks, many sporting Boston Marathon apparel from previous years. My cousin Gina met us at the airport. She had kindly allowed us to stay with her while in Boston. We had spent the previous 2 days attending the UVA Student ASCE Student Chapter Concrete Canoe & Steel Bridge Contest. The contest was a blast by the way. I could spend a page just on that, but I’ll save this for another time.

Sunday morning was spent picking up race bibs & stuff at the Expo. Then Gina had invited most of the Boston clan over to her house in the afternoon for a big send off party. The party was a combination Marathon send-off and 60^th Birthday for my Uncle Manny. Needless to say, there was ridiculously good food and drinks had for all, including 2 kinds of lasagna, pork & clams (oh so good), 2 cakes and on and on. The temptation to go overboard on the food & booze was overwhelming, but I steeled myself against my more bacchanalian side.

Race Day

The Boston Marathon is unique in many ways. The first of which is the point to point route. The start line is located 26 miles west of Boston in the town of Hopkinton, Mass. The route runs through 7 different towns on the way in to Boston and results in road closings throughout the Boston area. The BAA (Boston Athletic Association) is kind enough to arrange buses for all the runners to ensure that everyone makes it to the start line with minimal hassle. The buses leave from Boston Common between 6 and 7:30 AM to order to have everyone set for a 10 AM race start. As long as you are on the bus, you’ll make it to the start line on time.

So, we get up just before 6 AM and after 2 cups of coffee & a bowl of cereal, we head in to downtown Boston. Getting over to the common was easy & I was on a bus just after 7 AM. Had a great ride up to Hopkinton and met a very interesting group of people – including one charity runner who was doing his first marathon ever! I finally got off the bus in Hopkinton at about 8:30 and headed straight to the line for the port a potty. Waited in this line for a solid hour! At about 9:15, the announcer starts telling everyone in Wave 1 to start heading to the starting corrals. Or course at this point, I’m still looking down a line of about 10 people to use the port a potty and start to freak out! As the minutes go by, I get more and more anxious. 9:30 comes and goes – still waiting. Finally, I decide this may be for the best after all since my bladder will be empty quite close to the start. I also decide it’s time start my warm up routine. So I sit down in the port a potty line and start getting my race gear all set up – fuel belt & GUs, hat, shades, race number all check. Then I go ahead and start stretching out. Now the folks waiting in line think I’m some sort of nut case. Of course they are all in the Wave 2 start, which doesn’t go until 10:30 – plenty of time for them! Finally, I get my turn high tail it out there at about 9:40.

The second challenge of the Boston Marathon, I’ve already alluded to peripherally. You usually have a couple hours to sit around in Hopkinton between the time the buses drop you off and the race start at 10 AM. I was annoyed that I’d managed to spend most of that time in a stupid line for the bathroom, but I guess it kept me busy. The third challenge at Boston is the trip from the athletes village (which is really just a few huge tents at the High School football fields) to the start line about 2/3 of a mile away. So, I drop my warm clothes in my labeled BAA bag on the bus bound for Boston & head off at a slow jog over to the start. The jog served as a brief warm up to shake out the legs after waiting in line so long!

I make it to the start line at about 9:50 – the National Anthem had already finished playing by the time I get there. Good news is I’m there with only a few short minutes before the start, so no time to stand around and get cold again. At this point, the excitement is palpable. I share a couple of nervous words with others around me as the announcers get the crowd pumped. The elites are brought to the line, of course everyone cheers for Ryan Hall, Brian Sell and some of the other American favorites. Then comes the fly-by from a pair of F-14’s – just amazing! They are so low I think I can reach out and touch the one nearest me. I feel the roar of the engines and my adrenaline levels redline.

Now it’s time to rock and roll. One by one I tick off my fears – did I do the right things in training? Do I have the right nutrition and hydration strategies? Did I use up just a little too much energy in the build up over the past couple days to this race? Is my timing chip secure? Do I look cool? Then I let them all go – they don’t matter. What matters is the next 3 hours.

The Race

My qualifying time of 3:04:xx had me in Corral 3 with other runners around the 7 min/mile range. Given my full year of training since then and recent race times (Colonial Half Marathon in 1:22:xx), I had selected a target pace range of 6:30 to 6:40 per mile. My plan was to shoot for 5K splits right around 20 minutes until the hills, between 25K and 35K, manage the hills with an even effort & then bring it home over the final 7K with whatever I had left.

5K - 20:32 (6:37 per mile)

We’re off. The sizeable crowd at Hopkinton lets loose with a rousing cheer and the runners are underway. Within a quarter mile I hear my first boom box playing Eye of the Tiger – this will become a theme throughout the day. I think the entire town of Hopkinton must be here because the road is lined with people right from the start clapping and cheering.

One of the best parts in this early section is the families that line the road cheering on the runners as they head on their way to Boston. As you run along this section, gangs of kids are out, offering their hands out, just looking for a high five. After every slap, you a chorus of “Yes!” and “Mom, did you see that, I got a high five!” Great support for these future marathoners!

I go along with the pack for the first mile – my watch had it about 7 minutes. Too slow. I wanted to be conservative, but this was ridiculous. If I’m going to find my rhythm, it was not going to be with the pack. The first half of the race follows what is essentially a two lane country road. So the early part of the race is highly congested as 26,000 some odd runners head in to Boston. I start to pick it up, but of course in the crowded, narrow course this required endless bobbing and weaving. I’m sure I wasted some energy navigating the crowds through the first 15K of the race. I would say I didn’t get into a good rhythm until the half way point of the race.

10K – 19:58 (6:32 per mile) Total Time: 40:30

I’m still looking to find a decent rhythm in this section. Bob & weave is the theme here. The simplest way to do this is to stick to the left edge of the course & go by runners. But the crowds still require this to be more start-stop than anything. I also notice that my legs don’t feel great. No real problems or anything, but not a smooth and confident as I had hoped.

15K – 20:19 (6:32 per mile) Total Time: 1:00:49

Just before the 15K mark is the only section where the spectator crowds are sparse. We run along Lake Cochituate for about a mile. Midway through this section I finally feel free to run my own unimpeded pace. I’m running along with a good group & we’re finally all going at about the same race. This is the group that – barring disaster – will likely take me the rest of the way. There are a few characters in this group – Dreadlock guy (got lots of cheers from the kids); Captain America (yes, he’s there, and holding up pretty well considering the heavy outfit).

20K – 20:31 (6:34 per mile) Total Time: 1:21:20

Pretty uneventful here. We pass through Natick & get great fan support coming through the center of town.

25K – 20:27 (6:34 per mile) Total Time: 1:41:47

As I pass the 20K mark, I begin to hear a distant rumble emanating from somewhere up ahead. My senses actually don’t notice it right away. I’m more focused on my running stride, my steady even breath. Then the sound starts to invade my consciousness. I notice it first as a steady chorus of voices. I exchange some glances with the runners around me, most have a knowing – dare I say mischievous – smiles on their faces. The voices grow louder with each step. Finally, as I come up a slight rise and bear off to the right I see it – Wellesley College. I had heard of the Wellesley Girls, but experiencing them is another matter. I become convinced I must be running alongside Bruce Springsteen - surely someone famous is out here to cause such as mad frenzy. Of course the famous people are the runners. I watch one runner make a beeline for a young lady holding a “Kiss Me, I’m a Democrat” sign. He claims his smooch and is off with barely a hitch is his stride – I think he practiced that move in training. Yes, god bless the Women of Wellesley!

30K – 20:49 (6:43 per mile) Total Time: 2:02:36

Up to this point, course has been largely downhill – I’ve descended nearly 300 feet over the first 15 miles. I’ve been able to hold a comfortable pace & still feel that my energy reserves are well stocked. As we pass the 25K mile marker, I know it’s time for the Newton Hills. For most runners (and many non-runners), the Newtown Hills are probably the single most studied 6 mile stretch of road anywhere on the planet. Entire books have been written dedicated to the 4 hills that now stand between me and the City of Boston.

What these books might not mention is the near free fall that drops runners down into Newtown Lower Falls, halfway through mile 15. This drop is probably one of the more critical sections of the course, it’s only ½ mile, but the drop is so precipitous, if not handled correctly, your legs are toast. I shorten my stride so as to save the quads and let the more aggressive runners fly by me down the hill – they’ll regret that move later. Then upon reaching the bottom of the hill – it’s right back up the other side to being the start of the first of 4 climbs. Time to go to work.

35K – 21:07 (6:49 per mile) Total Time: 2:23:43

After the 30K point, I’m about half way through the hills, still feeling good, my pace is holding up about as planned. I knew I’d give some time back on the climbs. As I reach the bottom of the famed “Heartbreak Hill”, final significant climb of the day, I see “Go Phil” painted on the road. Smiling, I begin to look around for any familiar faces – I don’t see any, but it doesn’t matter- I’m pumped to see someone cheering on Phil. Hopefully that Phil is having a good race too.

I dig in and run up Heartbreak Hill. Not too bad I think as I come to the crest. Then the wind hits me for the first time. The weather forecast was for very good marathoning weather – low 40’s & partly cloudy. The only concern I had from the start were the forecasted 10-20 mph headwinds. Up to this point in the run, they had not been a factor & I was beginning to think they would not show up. Oops. So much for that. Now I’m cursing myself for not giving proper respect to the ghosts that lurk on Heartbreak – demanding respect & exacting revenge on the disrespectful. All I can do is put my head down & run – so I do.

Coming off Heartbreak, most runners think they have the race made. It’s temping to think – looking at the map it appears to be a simple matter of 5K – mostly downhill. In my experience, that is a mistake. The steep drop off of Heartbreak Hill beats you up almost bad as the drop into Newton Lower Falls. I try to take this drop a little conservatively so as not to totally blow out my quad muscles. This is going to hurt in the morning!

40K – 21:23 (6:54 per mile) Total Time: 2:45:06

2.2K – 9:50 (7:01 per mile) Final Time: 2:54:56

I had passed through 35K pretty much right on plan. I take a moment to build my mental energy for a strong push over the final 7K. Suddenly as I’m beginning to pick up the pace, my lungs seem to stop working. Odd, I suddenly can’t get much air! Not really sure what this is. My chest begins to tighten ever so slightly in what feels to be minor asthmatic symptoms. Funny, never had asthma before, so this is what it’s like, that’s interesting. I slow down a little bit and that seems to do the trick, my breath comes back. So after another minute or so regrouping, I try to accelerate again – the legs are willing, the energy is there, the oxygen is not. OK, let’s regroup one more time.

Over this last 7K, I’m basically pushing the envelope ever so slightly to establish a pace I can run at and not keel over from hypoxia. I consider walking, but I just don’t see it happening. The Boston crowds really take over. At any other race, I might have decided to walk for a minute. Not here. Not in front of thousands for screaming Bostonians – yes I’d say the testosterone took over at this point. Finally coming down Boylston St, the crowds are lined 3,4 or 5 deep in most places. Ain’t no way I’m stopping in front of this crowd! A few people are passing down this final stretch to the finish as they tap whatever reserves they have left. Good for them for finishing strong. I’m giving it what I’ve got – which ain’t much. Finally, it feels good to cross the line waving & smiling – I stop my watch at 2:55:00 – a 9 minute PR, can’t complain about that.

I’ll definitely be back for more!