Mission Accomplished!

It took two years, and I nearly had to kill myself with an intensive training regimen, but I finally qualified for the Boston Marathon! I ran a 3:14:37 at the St. George marathon on October 4. That time qualifies me for Boston (with a 6 minute, 22 second cushion) and represents a new personal best marathon time by exactly 15 minutes.

St. George has an amazing, fast course that is well suited to a well-trained runner. Although it was a rainy, windy race (the first rainy St. George Marathon in 25 years), the heavy grey clouds made for cooler temperatures. Besides, I was too well prepared to let a little storm get in the way of my goal, and ended up running even faster than my plan. Although the climbs and descents took a heavy toll on my legs, I think I finished strong and I'm absolutely thrilled with my race. The full details are in my race report, linked on the Running page.

Taper Time

I've now finished the core of my marathon training, and I'm officially in taper mode for the next three weeks leading up to St. George marathon. In case I haven't previously explained, I'm looking to run a fast enough race at St. George to qualify for the Boston Marathon (I need a 3:20 or better). Qualifying for Boston is something of a "holy grail" for recreational runners, and if it happens, it would certainly represent my most impressive athletic accomplishment. With that goal in mind, fifteen weeks ago I embarked on an extremely challenging marathon training program, resulting in several training PRs and a couple racing PRs as well.

I've already mentioned a couple of my accomplishments — my 45 day running streak, my 100 mile training week, and my half-marathon PR — but here's a summary of several other milestones I surpassed during this training cycle:

• Highest Mileage Month: 362 miles (previous best was 260 miles)
• Most 20+ Mile Training Runs: 8 (prior best was 4)
• Most 14+ Mile Training Runs: 26
• Average Weekly Mileage: 80.7 miles (prior training average was 51.1 miles)
• 10K Race Time: 43:03 (a 1 minute, 10 second PR)

So with three weeks still to go, I've logged a total of 1211 training miles so far, in 142 separate workouts, aggregating 170 hours, 12 minutes of running. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Ok, that's more than enough patting myself on the back when my goal race is still several weeks away. However, I do want to make a few parting observations on my training:

Running this level of mileage is very difficult, especially for someone like me who's only moderately talented. Not only do the extra miles themselves take a lot of time, but it takes me longer to run them because my training paces are significantly slower than the typical runner who might tackle this kind of workload. It added up to a lot of time on my feet (an average of 11.5 hours running per week), and frankly I consider myself a bit lucky to have made it through the hard part of my training without injury or burnout.

I could not have completed this level of training without the guidance of a well-designed training plan. In my case, it was Pete Pfitzinger's 18 week "70+" marathon training plan from his book Advanced Marathoning. By studying the book, I knew the intended purpose of every workout, as well as how every single workout was related to all the other workouts. This gave me the confidence to attempt a training regimen far beyond my comfort zone, and the commitment to see it through as designed by Pfitzinger.

Apropos of the foregoing, I could not have completed this level of mileage without a substantial volume of recovery workouts, run at a sufficiently low intensity to permit true recovery between hard workouts. I credit Pete's plan with dictating a generous quota of recovery runs (his 70+ schedule prescribes an average of about 20 miles of recovery running per week). This allowed me to make the leap to running 80-90 miles per week, 7 days a week, while significantly upping the volume and intensity of my hard days too. I also credit my Garmin's HR monitor for helping me stay honest on recovery days.

Having gone through this "experiment" myself, I now firmly believe that higher mileage is the single best way for most runners to improve their performance in general. However, high mileage isn't a miracle cure. My HM and 10K times both came down nicely, but not phenomenally. I basically expect the same for my marathon time: notable improvement, but nothing incredible. My best guess is that my marathon PR will come down by around 15 minutes. That's a heck-of-a-lot of training for a (hopefully) 15 minute improvement. High mileage will almost certainly help an average runner become a better average runner — maybe even a very good average runner — but it isn’t going to amazingly transform them into an elite athlete.

I think there's only so much improvement a runner can make in 15 weeks, and no amount of training is going to change those genetic/physiological limitations. I'm learning that substantial improvement takes commitment and hard work over a substantial period of time — several years, let alone several training cycles. Taking on a higher training workload is not a shortcut to greatness; it’s but one step in the progress curve (albeit an important one).

I admit that my high mileage "experiment" might have been a case of overkill. It's possible that I could have made the exact same gains while training 20 miles less each week. But, I’ll say this: even if it was overkill, at least I know that I did everything possible to help me get that BQ in St. George. I'll take pride in that, even if I ultimately fall short of my goal.

That being said, I have no regrets about tackling this program. No one knows their true limits until they test them. When I started running three years ago, it would have been utterly inconceivable to imagine myself running a 100 mile training week, or a 360 mile month, or a 45 day running streak. I would have sworn that such efforts were simply beyond my innate abilities. I know better now, and I'm a better athlete for it.

PR, Piar!

I set two giant personal records last week, one for racing and one for training. First, in the Chicago Distance Classic half-marathon, I finally managed to get under the 1:40 hurdle and posted a respectable 1:37:22. While I was generally pleased with the result (a new PR by 3 minutes), to be honest the time left a bit of sour taste in my mouth. I honestly felt like I performed better (a feeling corroborated by my Garmin, which consistently showed me running faster than my final result time). Well, lo and behold, I was right. Turns out the course certifier screwed up, and we actually ran closer to 13.3 miles instead of 13.1. Not a huge difference, but on an adjusted basis my half-marathon time would be lowered to 1:36:08, equating to a 7:20/m mile pace. That's a much better sign that I'm on target for my BQ attempt in October.

Then, in the week immediately following the race, I managed a new PR for my training miles: over 100 miles for the week. That's the equivalent of running more than a half-marathon, every day, for a week. Crazy stuff. Admittedly, the legs were a bit cashed by the time I got done, and the final 24 miler was no picnic, but I'm thrilled to have posted a "century" of training miles; its a feat that few runners will ever manage.

Streaking Redux

The insane running continues, although I had to take a day off on Tuesday. I experienced some moderate, persistent soreness in my ankle, and it felt serious enough that I didn't want to risk aggravating it into full-blown tendentious. So, the streak dies at 45 days.

Ok, for the record, that freaking nuts. That's almost seven straight weeks without a single day off. Let's do some math on this streak: 45 days, 56 separate workouts (I frequently double), 477 total miles, 68 hours and 14 minutes of running time, and an average of over 10 miles per day. During that time, I ran 3 races, two weeks at 80+ miles, two weeks at 70+ miles, every week at 60+ miles, and I even squeezed in two (consecutive) 20 mile long runs.

The best part of all this, by the way, is the fact that I ran today. An easy 4 miler, but ... with absolutely no ankle pain. So if my math is correct, the streak is currently at 1.

Insane Running

After a two month hiatus in January/February, I'm back running ... with a vengeance. Though not in peak shape, I had a decent race at the Indianapolis Mini Marathon in early May, finishing in the top 10% overall. Three weeks later, I finally got to run the Soldier Field 10, which finishes on the 50-yard line of the stadium. And in mid-June was the Run for the Zoo, which has also been on my to-do list for a while. In addition to having a blast running these events, the races also showed me that I'm pretty much at 3:30 marathon form heading into the Summer training season — so hopefully the result is a Fall marathon much faster than 3:30.

So what's insane? My current training plan: Pfitzinger 18/70+. Note the "+" because that's important. The 70+ plan tops out at 93 miles in a week, and has no rest days. Two-a-days are the norm, not the exception. The standard mid-week run is 15 miles, sometimes with a double the same day. Last September I bragged about running 10 days in a row ... I'm currently in the midst of 20 day streak, with no end in sight. Its nuts, but I'm gonna give a shot.

New Toys - Part Two

The second addition to my mobile computing arsenal is the LG Voyager (a/k/a VX10000) mobile phone from Verizon. In addition to serving as my main phone, this baby has a list of features longer than a Chicago winter: touchscreen, dual displays, full qwerty keyboard, mp3 player, camera and video recorder, email, and a full html/css/dhtml compliant web browser. Oh, did I mention that its GPS enabled and does turn-by-turn directions (with voice) in addition to local point-of-interest searches? Oh, and did I mention that it plays live mobile TV, including CBS, NBC, ESPN and other channels?

Of all the features, I've been most impressed by the web browser on the Voyager. With Verizon's 3G network, internet browsing is a pleasure, especially since I'm no longer limited to cell-phone or WAP specific web site. I've also contributed back to the Voyager community with some creative projects of my own, including a customized home page to replace the default Verizon portal, a browser-based ebook reader, and a customized media portal to access certain streaming online television broadcasts.

We Are the Champions

Its a Christmas miracle! I won the first place crown, bragging rights, and a few hundred bucks in one of my fantasy football leagues today. Thanks go out to my all-star lineup: Ladainian Tomlinson, Tony Romo (6th round pick), Reggie Wayne and Derrick Mason (12th round pick). Honorable mention to my walking-wounded RB committee of Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Kenny Watson. A special nod goes to God for dumping a snowstorm onto New England last week so that the Tom Brady owner lost his only playoff game. Oh, and don't ask how I did in my other league.

New Toys - Part 1

I haven't bought any shiny new toys in a while, but I recently made two nice upgrades to my electronics roster. The first purchase was my Dell Inspiron 1420 laptop. I can't really say that I needed a laptop computer, considering that I don't travel nearly as much as in the past. But there have been plenty of times in recent years when it would have been nice to have real computer access while out of the house/office. So when I found a well-equipped Dell 14" laptop for under $800, I had to pull the trigger.

The 1420 is a sleek, capable little machine; not as powerful as my desktop or server, but definitely a speedy little performer. I now have the whole office setup with remote inter-connections, basically meaning I have full control over every machine everywhere, and complete office and home redundancy for everything. Plus, now I can look like a pompous ass at Starbucks.

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