Solo Workout Demons

Workouts are the filling of the training plan, sandwiched between some quality easy runs. I'm a regular at our club Wednesday night workout, as well as the Saturday morning workout and Sunday long run. I'm also notorious for being a slave to the pace- not slower, not faster, but on the dot. 

90-95% of my workouts are done with a posse. Sometimes it's 1, other times 6+. Usually there are 3-4 people training for similar distances and races, so it works out. It's that 5-10% of the time where the work gets hard. All I need is the foot strike behind me to keep me honest. Without? My attention wanes and my mind seizes the doubts sending the workout into a spiral of doom.

This morning I got a chance to slay the solo workout dragon. It was 4 easy leading into 12 miles at 5:52, and 2 easy. After the first 2 miles and a shoe switch, it was continuous. Last fall I hit this workout in 1:11:40 for the 12, caveat being that is moved the workout back 3 days due to a nasty cold/sinus issue. Nonetheless, I remember that fall workout as miserable, uneven, gutsy, and deflating. It was only gutsy because I didn't quit at mile 8 like I wanted to.

This time was a big difference. I started in 5:52 and 5:48, after floating between 5:50-5:56 for the next 9 miles (most 5:52-5:54), I closed in 5:42. What changed? Well, I'm fitter and healthy. Those make workouts go a little easier. I had hydration. I had 2 mini water bottles filled with Nuun Lemon-lime, plus a 3rd if I needed it. Hydration is a big factor in ensuring pace maintenance. I also did the workout in the morning when I was fresh compared to the evening when I was tired. Makes a huge difference.

3 weeks to go. More work to be done. But the work is way easier when you've slayed the dragon of workout's past.

NYC Recap #windWindWIND

I said I was going to recap the NYC Marathon at some point. So it is now or never. The results can be found here. I opted for the Overall Men's results. I'm at the bottom- 95th.

Nutshell: I'm pleased with how I fought through it, and how I ran over the last 8-10 miles when the race got tough. I'm happy to be in the Top 100 Men at NYC; that's something! I'm happy to be under 2:40. In the same breath I am disappointed. I thought 2:33-2:34 was doable. I was likely in the best shape of my life. If not for a poor weather day, I would have had a massive PR.

Pre-Race: Well, a Polar Vortex rolled through that dropped temps to the low 40s during the day and 30s overnight, with winds that whipped through at 20-30mph! Race day the rain had disappeared but the wind was a steady 25 mph head on. Not ideal. Far from.

The Race: I made the amateur mistake of starting about 4-5 rows too far back. The result was being behind a ton of riff-raff at the start on the Verrazano. First mile was 6:30 or so, which was tough work getting blown sideways. As I kept rolling down the hill I was asking people what they wanted to run and the general mood was "shrug"- aka "this wind has thrown my plan out the window." So I settled into a group around 4 and realized I was going too slow. If I wanted to make any sort of attempt at the mid 2:30's I needed to move up.

There's one problem with moving up: wind. When you moved to the front of a group you got stuck taking the brunt of the wind. Over the course of a mile or so, somewhere in Brooklyn, I made the move to hopscotch up a group. It took me a solid 25 blocks to latch on. But my perseverance paid off as this was the group I would stick with into Manhattan. I sat in the back and tried to zone out, just listen to the rhythm and go. Problem with that strategy: everyone in the back was dangling off, so you needed to be ready to skip up to the back of the guys in front as people peeled off.

From 14-20 I struggled. It was. Tough stretch into Manhattan over the Queensborough, and then down the wind tunnel that is 1st avenue. By the time we turned around in the Bronx I was trying to count down miles. At 23 in Central Park I realized I needed to get a move on to make 2:40. I started to count down guys as I upped my tempo. If not for that realization 2:41 was happening, as I had no motivation to keep going.

Bottom line: Fun in retrospect, terrible during. I'm good with NYC for a while.

If You're Tired, Clap Once

If you're tired, keep going. You're almost there. Almost.

Miles: 106.19

Long run: 18.18 miles

Workout Wednesday: 4x2 miles (5:32-5:36 target) w/ 2 minutes rest. Went 11:09 (5:38, 5:31), 11:08 (5:36, 5:32), 11:03 (5:34, 5:29), 11:08 (5:38, 5:30). 

Saturday Workout: 6-1-2-1, all continuous. (6 & 2 average 5:55), 1st drop mile 5:24; 2nd drop mile in 5:30. Total 10.01 miles in 57:55 (5:47/mile)

Another week in the string is done. This was the most mileage of the year, and most in the cycle. It's a long way to November, so the point is to get the work in without it being overly quick. Job done! The mileage has provided some quality support for my aerobic system, making an hour of hard running feel manageable. Since the marathon is largely an aerobic event, the goal is to work that system and slowly lower the lactate threshold enough to make marathon pace feel very comfortable.

Wednesday was done solo so my wife and I could enjoy our 8th wedding anniversary in the evening. Longish hard-ish reps are not easy when running alone in the morning. But I hit the target, and didn't feel terrible. 2 minutes goes by quicker than you think!

Saturday was great. We had a large group (12) through 7. The continuous work with dropping the pace in the middle does a few things. First it trains the body to run hard when tired. Second it helps you with recovering to settle back to your marathon pace. If you consider water stops and moves by peers, you need to be ready to shift up and down in gears. Thirdly it has some impact on your lactate threshold. By how much, I'm not sure. But the drop mile or two is a tried and true method of our training group. It's not easy, but you get strong.

Coming up: I've got weeks of 95, 103, and 86 planned. I'm excited about losing 10 miles and later 20! Get some fresher legs. Railroad Days 10k is in a week, followed by the Labor Day Half on the Sunday before Labor Day. 

Below is how my miles worked out. I put them in a spreadsheet later. Lots of adding!