Weekly recap: 11/10 - 11/16

Total Runs: 5
Days Off: 2
Treadmill Miles: 22.0
Total Mileage: 32
Other: none

This was a very busy week on the work front. I found myself running late on the treadmill and a little light on sleep. The weekend was also busy with a late night dinner at Mon Amie Gabi (fantastic place) on Saturday, long run Sunday morning, a surprise party midday, and then the Redskins-Cowboys game on Sunday night. If only the game had gone better...

Thanks for reading.

Correction: 19 Weeks to Go

As Mikey noted earlier, my initial weekly countdown was wrong.

Targeting The Yuengling Shamrock Marathon on March 22, 2009 leaves me 19 weeks to prepare.

Weekly recap: 11/3 - 11/9

Total Runs: 5
Days Off: 2
Treadmill Miles: 13.1
Total Mileage: 29.6
Other: two bike workouts including a FTP test

It was a solid week of training overall. Nothing too special. The Functional Threshold Power test on Tuesday took something out of my legs but I was fully recovered by Friday. The key workout for the weekend was Sunday's 10 mile run.

11/9 long run

OK - so Sunday I did my first long run since Baltimore. I drove out to the C&O Canal Path with Karolina and my brother. It was a perfect autumn day for running. We parked near Lock 11, did some easy stretching and started running south towards Georgetown. It's a gradual downhill heading towards the district making things easier at the start.

Mikey and I started things slow for the first mile and gradually settled into 7:50 - 7:45 pace. It wasn't too crowded and we chatted away while making our way towards Fletchers Boathouse. I carried a single gel flask filled with two servings of Raspberry Hammer Gel and water. It a nice diluted mix that provides 200 calories. Given the cool temperature, I didn't carry a water bottle. When we hit 5 miles on my Garmin Forerunner 305, we stopped for a few seconds and then made our way back towards Lock 11. We passed Karolina after a few minutes later and told her where to turnaround. She was running well at her pace and always smiling!

After an easy 6th mile, we slowly started to pick things up. Right around that time my stomach started to send me signals. Luckily there was a bathroom at Lock 6 and I was able to take care of things. After a short break, we started running again and this time we really started to pick things up. I wanted to get down to my marathon goal pace of 7:15 for the final couple miles. With Mikey gradually picking things up, we got down to 7:25, 7:10, and then 6:58 over the final three miles. My HR went from averaging in the low 150s to threshold (169).

Overall, it was a solid long run. I felt relaxed and comfortable the whole way until picking things up at the very end. Nutrition was OK except for the potty stop which was likely due to the heavy dinner I had the night before a the Dogfish Head Ale House.

Below is the data from my Garmin.

Mile	Split	HR	Pace
1	0:08:37	130	0:08:37
2	0:07:51	144	0:08:14
3	0:07:51	147	0:08:06
4	0:07:46	150	0:08:01
5	0:07:47	151	0:07:58
6	0:08:12	150	0:08:01
7	0:07:41	154	0:07:58
8	0:07:25	156	0:07:54
9	0:07:10	166	0:07:49
10	0:06:58	169	0:07:44

Summary: 10 miles, 1:17:24, 7:44 pace, 151 average HR.

Thanks for reading.

Matias Kills It

OK - So my buddy Matias ran the New York Marathon this weekend and absolutely killed it! He ran a 2:38 which is wicked fast. Here is a look at his splits.

Distance	5 km	10 km	15 km	20 km	13.1 mi	25 km	30 km	35 km	40 km	26.22 mi
Time	0:19:07	0:37:37	0:56:20	1:15:03	1:19:11	1:34:16	1:52:47	2:11:47	2:30:30	2:38:49
5k Split	0:19:07	0:18:30	0:18:43	0:18:43		0:19:13	0:18:31	0:19:00	0:18:43
Pace	0:06:10	0:06:04	0:06:03	0:06:03	0:06:02	0:06:05	0:06:04	0:06:04	0:06:04	0:06:03

He ran a solid race the entire way. He started out at 6:10 pace and then quick settled into the low 6:00s. His overall pace never changed by more than a couple seconds and the largest variance in his 5k splits was about 30 seconds from 20 t0 25 km and also from 30 to 35. I'm not positive, but I think this is when the runners reach some of the hills at the Queensboro Bridge. He also finished strong dropping his overall pace the final 2 KM so he must have been running at sub 6 pace. Awesome.

Here is what Matias had to say on the Georgetown Running Company Blog:

"The plan worked though, keeping the heartrate between 174-176 on the flats, and not letting it go above 180 during any of the first 20 miles. It was tough because at mile 15 there's the Queensboro Bridge and had to let my pack go, but I think it helped keep things together towards the end."

What's amazing is that Matias is so well conditioned that he can run his heart at 174 BPM for over two and half hours. That puts his threshold almost 10 beats higher than mine (168). Amazing! It leaves me to wonder if I should be doing more interval/threshold work to raise that line up into the mid 170s. No one is the same, but it's always cool to look at the data.

Another story from Matias which speak volumes about the marathon:

"Oh and classic moment of the race was at the half marathon mark where a young gun says "Alright! Half way there!" followed by a seasoned veteran of the sport asking him if NYC was his first marathon (which is was) and then telling him somewhat viciously that the halfway point of the marathon was at the 20 mile marker. Ouch."

That second quote is right on.

Thanks for reading.

Election Day

As you know, today is election day in the US. Unlike past elections, this year has drawn significantly higher voter turnout. The scene at my local precinct was amazing. The line wrapped around the school lobby and there was a real sense of excitement among the voters. After voting I left with the feeling that I was witnessing a truly historic moment, regardless of the result.

Karolina and I can't wait to get home tonight and see the results come in. It's going to be another late one after staying up to see the Redskins get slaughtered by the Steelers on Monday Night Football.

Thanks for reading.

New York Marathon

So last weekend was the final 'big city' marathon of 2009. The New York City Marathon is one of the largest in the world and this year it attracted a super strong field for both the men and women.

The Science of Sport Blog has posted an awesome analysis of both the Men's and Women's race. Check it out to see some excellent marathon related data.

The Washington Post also did an excellent analysis of the
'marathon wall' based on mile split data taken over the final 10 miles.

I was really pleased to see Paula win her third title. She is the greatest female marathoner in the world, regardless of his missteps at the Olympics. She took the lead within the first few moments of the race and never let anyone get ahead of her.

Karolina and I both hope to run in NYC marathon some day down the road.

20 Weeks to Go

OK - So I'm officially 20 weeks out from my next marathon. Last week was my last 'free' week of training. This is where I basically train on my own without any formal direction. It was a light week of training overall given I spent three days at the Connor/Wasilewski wedding in upstate New York. It was an amazing ceremony and wonderful experience seeing one of my oldest friends get married.

Stats for last week: 4 run workouts - with a long run of 7 miles - for a total of 18 miles. Three of the runs were done on a treadmill. No issues or injuries to report.

Starting this week I'll provide more insight into my training as I receive my targeted workouts from my coach.

Thanks for reading.