Hurt Again...

So as I mentioned in my last post my left knee has felt really balky for the past several weeks, basically since I moronically placed custom orthotics in my running shoes that are already designed to prevent overpronation. I managed to keep running through the discomfort until this past Thursday, when the pain was simply too much to continue to bear. I made an emergency appointment with my physical therapist, which was yesterday. The appointment went well: she does not think there is any structural damage, and after she worked on my knee it felt SIGNIFICANTLY better.

She wants me to take a few more days off before I start running again and had a couple of other recommendations, but quite honestly I was just really happy to hear there is no major damage. The good news is I currently do not have any races on the schedule so this is as good of a time as any to take a break. The key thing will be truly easing back into running next week and not pushing things too hard too soon, which I feel is typically my challenge.

Just Shuffling Along: 2022 Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle Race Report

Usually heading into at race there are two things I know with certainty: (1) what my target is for the race; and (2) a reasonable expectation of what I am capable of. Going into today's Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle I knew neither. While my fitness level was fairly decent, my left knee has continued to be balky for the past few weeks, preventing me from doing any significant speedwork. In addition, I could not completely rule out the possibility the shooting pain that had led me to abandon a couple of runs a few weeks ago would not return mid-race. I actually considered just skipping the race, but given the fact my last several runs have been relatively pain free (including six last week), I decided to go for it.

I arrived in Grant Park about an hour before my wave was supposed to start, giving me plenty of time to warm up, hit the bathroom a couple of times, check my stuff in, stretch, and head to the start line. I was in the first wave after the elite runners and positioned myself toward the middle of my start corral. The first mile felt relatively comfortable, although I was surprised at how slow I was running (according to my Garmin it was 7:03, but I passed the mile marker at least five seconds before). I quickly realized I was once again overstriding and focused on shorter, quicker strides in order to increase my cadence. It worked like a charm and my second mile was 6:44 (having my body warmed up probably helped as well).

The next two miles went by pretty quickly. According to my Garmin they were 5:53 (highly unlikely) and 6:32 (fairly reasonable); at that point I knew I could no longer trust those splits, as there was little correlation between when my watch said I had run a mile and the actual course markers. I felt like I was passing and being passed by runners on a fairly regular basis, which made sense to me given the fact I started with racers fairly close to my ability level. Before I knew it it was time to crest the final hill on Roosevelt Road before turning onto Columbus Drive and heading to the finish line (the last couple of streets are the same route as the Chicago marathon, which is pretty cool). I picked up the pace considerably and overtook several runners in the last few several hundred meters.

I crossed the finish line in 33:34, which placed me 19th in my age group (top 3%) and 715th overall (top 5%). I also beat my time from the only other time I did the race 15 years ago by 1:38. All in all I am happy that I ended up doing the race and with my results, especially considering all of the uncertainty I felt going into it. Thanks for reading!

Just Checking In

Just wanted to quickly check in on my training. I started running again just three days after the marathon and was quickly back to five days a week, albeit shorter distances. I was feeling great and running fast and ending up overdoing it--I was running too fast too often and ended up getting hamstring tendonitis. I went back to physical therapy in late December and was finally discharged late last week. I am back to 100% now and have learned my lesson--it's back to running slow most days of the week, with a weekly speed session and a long run. I am planning to continue concentrating on running until the weather warms up and I can start mixing cycling into my training regimen. As of right now the only race I have scheduled is the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle on March 20th, which I have not done since the late 2000s. I was originally thinking I would shoot for sub-32:00, but given the training setback I will reassess as the race gets closer. That's it for now--thanks for reading!

We Did It!

In 2004 I trained for my first marathon. Originally the goal was just to finish, but as I realized how fit I was it continued to get progressively more ambitious—first to break 4:00, then 3:30, and by the end to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which would have meant 3:10 or better. Well my training was ultimately inadequate and I failed to respect the distance, and after running the first half in 1:35 I hit the wall hard and limped home to a 3:25:52. Ever since then my goal has been to qualify for Boston, and last weekend I finally achieved it at the 2021 Chicago Marathon, my fifth marathon and 17 years after my first.

Going into the race I felt very confident. My training had gone exceedingly well and I was 100% injury free. My only concern was the weather forecast—mid-60s at the start with a forecasted high for the day in the low 80s. That said, I knew there was nothing I could do about it and just focused on controlling what I could control. I arrived in Grant Park about an hour before the race, had a light breakfast, hit the bathroom twice, and headed for the starting line.

I hit the first mile in 7:35, which I could not have been more pleased with. After a quicker than I would have liked second mile I settled in to keeping every mile in the 7:30-7:40 range. I also made sure to hit every water stop, during which I would pour one cup over my head and drink the second. I was surprised by the number of people I was passing throughout the first half of the marathon, including several that were already walking. I guess the first sign the weather conditions were impacting me was when I hit the halfway mark in 1:39:15, my second slowest first half of the marathon split ever. In addition to the heat and humidity, the wind was blowing pretty strongly. That said, given the fact I knew I was as fit as I had ever been, I was still reasonably optimistic.

I continued to focus on banging out 7:30-7:40 miles, which I was able to do pretty consistently until the 30K mark. That is when I had my only major setback of the race. As I toed the starting line I really needed to go the bathroom (I drank a 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade during breakfast, as I was really nervous about getting dehydrated). I was hoping I could hold it until I finished, but it was getting more and more difficult with each passing mile. I finally could not take it anymore and hit a porta potty right after mile 19. Given all of the fluids I had taken in it was not a quick stop by any stretch of the imagination.

Once I got out of the porta potty I was laser focused on not stopping again or walking at all and finishing strong. I was definitely starting to slow down, but was not falling apart. Eventually I started counting down in my head the number of minutes I still had to run based on the mile and kilometer markers, a tactic I employed many times during my training runs. I was still passing a ton of runners, more and more of which were walking or trying to work out cramps by stretching on the side of the road. Before I knew it the final hill approached. The first two times I ran the Chicago Marathon I walked up most of the hill, and had promised my coach I would run up it if it was the last thing I did. I then pushed through the final few hundred meters before crossing the finish line in 3:23:50. I had stopped my watch when I went to the bathroom to keep accurate mile splits, and my bathroom break cost me almost exactly two minutes.

I have to admit that although I had comfortably qualified for Boston I was initially upset that I had missed my "A" goal of breaking 3:20. But the more I learned about how the conditions had affected everyone, the better I felt about my performance. For example, only the top three men's finishers broke 2:08, and only the top five broke 2:10. And the top woman faded from a 1:07 first half to a 1:15 second half. So I feel like it is a reasonable assumption that with better conditions I would have finished several minutes faster, although this is obviously just conjecture.

After taking Monday completely off I rode my bike on Tuesday and eased back into running on Wednesday. I am not sure what the future holds for my “running career,” but I can finally say I am a Boston Marathon qualifier, and I have to admit that feels darn good. Thanks for reading!

It All Comes Down To This

Tomorrow morning I will be running in the Chicago Marathon, which will be the culmination of nearly a year and a half of training. This will be my fifth marathon, and quite honestly I have never gone into a marathon feeling so confident. My confidence is based on a simple fact: I have never prepared so well for a marathon, not even close. With the exception of the cut back weeks I consistently put in 55-60 miles a week, including running six days a week, a weekly speed workout, and a weekly long run. Three of my long runs were 20+ miles, and I had a handful in the 18-19 mile range as well. I am also 100% healthy--no "niggles" whatsoever. Oh, and I ran 69:47 in a ten mile race and 1:31:42 in a half marathon. So it's just a question of executing tomorrow. We will see how it goes, but at the end of the day I know with 100% certainty I am as well prepared as I possibly can be, and there is a level of solace in that fact alone.

What A Difference 11 Months Makes

So I recently posted on a triathlon forum for the first time in years and realized my auto signature refers to this blog. Thus, I thought it might not be a bad idea to have at least one semi-recent post for anyone with the misfortune of stumbling upon it. What a difference 11 months makes! The last time I posted here I was excited about running for a fifth time in a week and averaging 7:19 pace for five miles. This morning I capped off my sixth straight day of running this week (48+ miles in total) with seven miles at 7:12 pace, which did not feel particularly difficult (a few weeks ago I did the same distance in 6:59 pace).

It is amazing what a year of consistent running can do for you. As of right now I am registered for the Chicago Marathon in October, and am cautiously optimistic it will actually happen as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout progresses. Will try and squeeze in the occasional post going forward, but I cannot promise anything.

The New PR

Now that the weather is becoming a bit warmer my training has gotten more consistent. Today I knocked out my fifth run of the week, a quick five miler. I was feeling better than I was expecting early in the run considering this was my fourth run in five days, so I decided to push the pace more than usual. When I hit the 2.5 mile turnaround my average pace was pretty consistent with the 7:25-7:30ish I have been running the last few weeks at this distance, which was a bit disappointing given the fact I felt like I was working harder than usual. But then I knocked out the third mile in 7:17 and the fourth in 7:01–I must have had a headwind as I ran south the first half of the run. I slowed down to 7:28 in the last mile, but the overall pace of 7:19 was my fastest since I started up my training again by 0:04, which was a good feeling. I know I shouldn’t be obsessing about my pace, but I have to admit I was starting to worry a bit about not getting faster as quickly as I would like. I am also on Strava now, so you can follow every one of my workouts on there if you are really interested (or really bored)...

The “PR”

So after running five days the week before last the weather once again took a turn for the worse last week and I didn’t run at all. I could have gutted out one or two runs if I was really motivated, but with highs most days below 40 degrees and no certainty of whether or not the Chicago Marathon will even happen this fall I just didn’t see the point. Yesterday and today the highs were in the 50s and so I started running again. After doing five miles at 7:35 pace yesterday I ran my five mile “PR” today, clocking 7:29 pace, including the last three miles in 7:23, 7:22, and 7:23. Not fast I know, but given how up and down my training has been I’ll certainly take it. It looks like Spring is finally here to stay in Chicago, so I am planning to really try to stick to five runs a week and gradually ramp up the long run a mile a week, including six tomorrow.

Faster

After four consecutive days of running I took two days off. This morning I ran another five miles at by far the fastest pace since I started back up again—7:32. This was a full ten seconds per mile faster than my last two five milers, and I must say was a confidence builder. I know it’s ridiculous to think I could just start where I left off after having not run or worked out at all for three weeks, but for some strange reason I did. There was even a dumb part of me that wondered if the deterioration in my fitness was COVID-19 related. Thus, it feels really good to run two miles longer than I did six days ago at an eight seconds per mile faster pace.

The Comeback (Again)

Today was my third day in a row of running, with a mile added each day. The good news is I ran the five miles at a lightly faster pace (7:42) than yesterday when I ran four miles (7:44) and just a bit slower than the three miles on Sunday (7:41). So I guess that’s progress. It shouldn’t surprise me that I lost so much fitness in three weeks, but I have to admit it kind of does. It’s also amazing to me that this is now the third time since I started training that I had to take a fair amount of time off and nearly “start from Ground Zero” again. It’s also weird doing all this running outside after having gotten so used to treadmill running. The one benefit is all this time off has been GREAT for my left leg—the pain is completely gone.