2013 NYC Marathon Training Thread

[dudesky1000]

This is the part where I write a full blown post... I think.

I am running the marathon again this year! Except this time (fingers crossed) it won't be cancelled! I'll be posting my diaries and recaps here, thoughts, progress, tips, etc. etc. so feel free for now to ask all the questions you'd like.

For those who did not know I had a thread last year where I journaled my weekly runs (particularly the long runs) over the course of my very first marathon training season. I had been doing... okay. I injured myself a few times for stupid reasons and subsequently my training was very hodge-podge and I paid for it in the end. I hadn't been doing too bad, and still had the training to run the marathon, but in the end it was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy which rocked the world of many here on the Beast Coast.

I run for a pediatric IBD charity called IBDKids, and to my knowledge I am one of their fastest runners. I am a crohn's patient myself and have been since I was 14. I am now 19. I did end up running the marathon anyway on November 4th last year, but ran through a pulled calf and finished a hair under 4 hours. Since then I have run 2 official Half Marathons, the NYC Half in March with a PR of 1:38:48 (beat my previous time by ~7 minutes) and then the Brooklyn Half in May miraculously setting another PR of 1:37:20 after what was a very sloppy effort.

This coming week we our long run is what I like to think of as the first really, really long run of the season, 12 miles. Wednesdays are still the speed workouts, as always. Again, feel free to ask anything about my training, my diet, goals, previous experiences, etc. I am here to help! 

[Philip]

Yeaaaa!!! Looking forward to your updates!

[arsenette]

Good luck! And yes last year was a nightmare.. let us know how you are doing again! So November again right? (btw link on your post the thread from last year.

[dudesky1000]

Here is the old thread from last year: sasukemaniac.proboards.com/thread/4335/ran-own-marathon-reflections-advice

[dudesky1000]

Tomorrow is what I like to consider the first LONG run of the training season: 12 miles. This will consist of two laps around central park, including the feared Harlem Hill that is not a part of the regular 5-mile loop. I haven't run all week, so I am planning on attacking this one. A calm first lap (I'll shoot for around 8:30 min/mile here) and a tough second lap, where I will hopefully be able to keep up 6:30 minute miles. That adds up to around 1:30:00! Let's see if I can do it.

I plan to continue this kind of post because it is my belief that if I write out my plans, I am more likely to follow through with them. I have learned this is especially important with runs that are meant to be EASY, so I don't eagerly over-do things.

[dudesky1000]

Reference to last year's 12-mile run post:

Jul 28, 2012 15:41:46 GMT -5 dudesky1000 said:

Well, today I learned how to NOT prepare for a run. Even though I've been doing this for a long time, I've been lucky enough to avoid getting 'bonked' or 'hitting the wall' as long as I've been running seriously.

Today that luck was broken, thanks to horrible preparation on my part. Apparently the secret ingredient to a good 12-mile run is not 5 hours of sleep, no breakfast and a low-carb, high-protein dinner. I have to say, I was really shocked... no matter how much will power I had, I couldn't keep even a slow pace for even 3 minutes once I hit the 10-mile mark. I had to resort to walking.

My first lap (and I'm sure this didn't help either) was the best 6-mile lap I've ever done on this particular course, 46 minutes. Rookie mistake: That's not nearly my best (on other courses I've scored 42 minutes), and I felt very comfortable for the beginning of the second lap, but I really had no business going THAT hard for the first half of a mostly uphill 12-mile run. Maybe if I had settled for 52 minutes on the first lap, I would have been able to finish without walking.

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed with my performance. Next Saturday happens to actually be a rest day, followed by another 12-miles ...............

My time: 1:50:53 (12.45 miles)
My Half-Marathon Personal Best: 1:43:10 (13.1 miles)

Today, I am glad to write, was a much different story!

Last year I clearly hit the wall. Bonked out. Conked out. However you spell it!   It seems that no matter how badly I wanted to, I just couldn't get my body to cooperate. This is very interesting to me, considering today I fared much better on the exact same course, same conditions, same time of the morning, same day of the week. Hmmmmm...

First of all, I did not work out this week. No base runs, no speed workouts, no weightlifting. That however doesn't mean that I wasn't on my feet all week on the job, which was the reason why I couldn't run in the first place. I regularly work 12-15 hour days so when I have a full week, I barely have time to sleep, let alone train. I did manage to take friday off to rest up before this run however. THAT was crucial... I think.

In fact, I'm not entirely sure what I did right this time. I had the day off to relax, see a friend's concert, eat a decent dinner and give my legs some much needed rest (I'm always on my feet at work). I guess that helped. What I AM sure of is that my preparation was greatly improved compared to last year. I got MAYBE 7 hours of sleep, which is probably generous, but is still much better than 5 hours like before. I made a point of eating half a peanut butter sandwich as soon as I woke up, and was well hydrated. Like last time I had taken a full week off before the run, so no difference there...

Is it just that I'm a better runner today than I was last year? I would like to think so!  But I think it comes down to a few specific things:

-The combination of everything I wrote above
-Today I used an endurance gel after the first lap (6 miles), I didn't even know what endurance gels were this time last year!
-On lap one, instead of coming out swinging, I saved a bit and finished in 50 minutes rather than 46. Over 6 miles, especially when 2 of those are your warm-up, 4 minutes makes a gigantic difference. It might not sound like that big a difference, but coming out at a 7:40 min/mile pace is faaaaar away from an 8:20 pace, literally in an entirely different league. It makes a huge difference for me and at the end of the first lap I felt fresh, and had even slipped my way into a 7 minute per mile pace, feeling good.
-At the start of the second lap, after downing some water and gels, I chose to be strategic rather than generally offensive. I started off at the 8:20 pace I was averaging, gradually sped up to 7:00 again after about a mile, and when one of the major hills came, I pulled back a little bit. On the downhills, I relaxed and let gravity take me down.
-I didn't attack until AFTER the last major hill, when I had already gone about 9-10 miles. ONLY THEN, once I was back on flat ground, did I clutch it and fired off a couple of 6:30-minute miles. The second lap was a strategic, comfortably tough 40 minutes, which according to my post last year, is my best score on this loop!!!
-Confidence of going beyond this distance many times. No physical benefit but mentally there's a lot to be said for that.

It wasn't a perfect run, because I did begin to feel it in the ol' legs during the uphill sections, and I probably could have run even faster during the last 2.5 miles, but it was a great effort nevertheless considering I had to retire half-way through last week's 10-mile run due to injury.

Official Distance: 12.25 miles
Official time last year: 1:50:53 (avg. ~9:03min/mile)
Official Time: 1:30:52 (avg. ~7:26min/mile)
Net Improvement: 20:01   I'm sure this is going to be the biggest net improvement this year lol

NEXT WEEK: 13.1 miles (aka Half Marathon)

[thatoneuser]

Awesome job!!!

[arsenette]

That's awesome! Geez.. 20 minute improvement is a lifetime in marathoning..   Keep up the good work!

[dudesky1000]

Haha, well it was only that good because I sucked so badly last time! I'll be happy if I don't have another run like that this summer. I'm really hoping for a good 13-mile time. The course for 13 miles actually skips over the big scary hill at the top of the park, for both laps, so this time it won't be eating me for breakfast.

Today I did 5 miles in 37 minutes flat. Pretty good for just a couple of days after that long run. I probably could have used another warm-up mile instead of just starting at an 8:30 pace like I did. I finished with two 7 minute miles and they felt a little more difficult that usual. Perhaps I need more rest... but that's just wishful thinking because tomorrow will be 8, count'm 8 miles. Wednesday I'm actually attending a clinic on hill training. Hills are pretty much my weakness (alongside my biggest issue far and away, stamina) so I'm really looking forward to this if I don't end up working on TV that day.

My goal is to really build up the weekly mileage. Hopefully by October when I have to shut my training down I'll have put in a 60 or 70 mile week. Sounds crazy, I know. I don't even know if I'll have the time to run so much, but that's what I'm going to try.

[dudesky1000]

Breaking news!

...My brand new running sneakers just fell apart. LUCKILY just moments before my two-week guaranteed return warranty! I love Jack Rabbit Sports stores, they are extremely customer-friendly. Seemingly out of nowhere, the bottoms of my sneakers seemed to peel off (mind you, I am running in very expensive, professionally-acclaimed training sneakers, I just happened to get a lemon). I returned them for a new pair, but they didn't have a new pair my size on hand, so I will have to wait until Friday. So I went back to wearing my old New Balance 710 Trail's, the sneaker that served me so well during last year's training season.

Today was a workout I was very much looking forward to: drills on hills. I am not really good with hills at all. And honestly, most people aren't. Hills are so underrated... they are not only speedwork in disguise, but are long distance running's strategic gate-keeper separating the men from the boys. They demand top-notch form, strength, and the brains that ultimately make the difference between someone suffering at the 20-mile marker, and someone blazing home in glorious sprinting splendor.

Basically tonight I figured out that I am very good at the downhill part... just not the climbing. LOL

Tomorrow if I'm not working I'll try to eek in, I don't know, maybe 8 easy miles. Then on Saturday, it's either a Half Marathon or 14 miles, based on how I'm feeling. I'm going to miss the Saturday after (which would technically be my 14 miles on the schedule), because I'll be visiting my grandma down south.

Also, I know that you are not all into long distance running, but please feel free to ask any questions about anything athletic in general. I am more than happy to answer. Training for this sport has given me a knowledge of many things fitness, so don't let the questions stop at running. Remember that I have an intestinal condition so I know my fair share about nutrition and recovery!!

[arsenette]

Geez.. gives new meaning to "burning rubber" on those "new" shoes LOL

[dudesky1000]

Aug 15, 2013 11:48:13 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Geez.. gives new meaning to "burning rubber" on those "new" shoes LOL

LOOOOL

Anyway yesterday I went a little overboard and did 11 slow miles. Perhaps that was too much. I am really just anxious to get my mileage up, I really want to clock in a good 60 or 70 mile week by the time I have to shut things down in October, and the only way I can do that is by seriously building things up now.

Today I DID get my sneakers back, and I also bought a nice new Garmin running watch that will actually tell me my pace and distance based on GPS. It's an expensive purchase for someone like me but I felt it was worth it, plus I have been working a good amount this summer so I figured I could afford it. I went for a 4.5 mile test run today, also to break in the new sneakers, and so far... the watch is pretty good. Supposedly it takes a few times for the GPS to really 'learn' where it is going. So I am optimistic about it.

This was a good mileage week for me. Tomorrow is another 14 which will have made this week:

Sunday: Off
Monday: 5
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: 4 (+hills)
Thursday: 11
Friday: 4.5
Saturday: 14
Total: 38.5 Miles

I'm pretty happy about that, but for tomorrow I just hope I'm not burnt out from this week. Even the little test run I did today was a little tough, and I was going veeerrrrryyy slow. I'm taking it very easy and doing my best to recover from the last couple of days. I am missing next week's long run so I want to make this one count!

[LeakyPimpleNinja]

Wow, good lookin' man. (I don't mean your body but it's not bad, no homo though.) Always great to see motivated individuals who put in that much work.

[dudesky1000]

Haha, it's all good. Thanks for the support!

Short recap that will be elaborated on later: 14 miles completed today, in 1:45:49. Average pace pretty much 7.5 min/mile but now that I have this fancy new watch gizmo I can report my mile splits and even the elevation changes! Crazy, I know.

The short version is that despite already running 26 miles earlier in the week, I felt surprisingly fresh today and never really bonked. I only needed one gel, and by the end felt like I still had a couple of more miles left in me. We hit the big scary hill twice, and my weakness toward hills was definitely exposed, big time, but I ate those downhills for breakfast. Overall, I am very happy.

Long version coming later...

[dudesky1000]

Mini update because there hasn't been much going on lately with my training because of recovery week:

I pulled off a 57 mile week, the most I have ever run in one week. Woo hoo! Even after running that much I didn't feel hurt or burned out. That said, I did leave on a mini-vacation where I could not run, and worked a 3-day week on set (14 hour work days... not running inbetween shifts lol, I am sleeping so I don't collapse)

This week, I went out for a 14 miler but had to stop for fear of getting injured (felt a tinge in my right hamstring). So naturally I went balls out and ran as fast as I could home instead of taking it slow and safe. Bad idea. Never do this. I've had to take off the last couple of days.

I got my NYU gym membership renewed because the school year just started, so today I got back into weightlifting and cycled for an hour. Felt great. Tomorrow I have a looong day of class so probably no running, just resting, which I will need since I probably shocked my body today doing so many new activities. Thursday I'll see how my legs feel, see if I can get in a good 11 miles or so, and on Saturday it's a good ol' 16 mile run, the longest yet!!!

[arsenette]

I can't believe how fast we are getting closer to the date.. it's already September..

[dudesky1000]

Sept 3, 2013 22:57:42 GMT -5 arsenette said:

I can't believe how fast we are getting closer to the date.. it's already September..

I know and I feel like I've been slacking lately, I have to reach my peak mileage by the first week of october and then I have to shut my training down until the race! Not much time to build up...

[Lennon]

This is very impressive, man. I'll have to keep reading up on you. I like to run, but I just recently got back into it since high school. I'm only working my way up to a 5k for a local race. But to you I'm sure that seems like a casual light jog through the park. XD Anyway, very awesome job indeed.

I do have a question for you though. I started running a little differently than I'm use to, and because of it has recently caused a lot of pain in my calves. And it's not that dull pain you get when it feels like your muscles are growing, but a more sharper pain. I know, it doesn't sound good. I've stopped running stayed off my legs so they could rest, but still seems to have some trouble. Do you think it's a severe problem? Or maybe I'm thinking it was just a big shock to my system with this new running style.

[dudesky1000]

Sept 6, 2013 10:59:39 GMT -5 Lennon said:

This is very impressive, man. I'll have to keep reading up on you. I like to run, but I just recently got back into it since high school. I'm only working my way up to a 5k for a local race. But to you I'm sure that seems like a casual light jog through the park. XD Anyway, very awesome job indeed.

I do have a question for you though. I started running a little differently than I'm use to, and because of it has recently caused a lot of pain in my calves. And it's not that dull pain you get when it feels like your muscles are growing, but a more sharper pain. I know, it doesn't sound good. I've stopped running stayed off my legs so they could rest, but still seems to have some trouble. Do you think it's a severe problem? Or maybe I'm thinking it was just a big shock to my system with this new running style.

Thank you! The 5k is actually pretty much my worst event (10k might actually be worst for me but in terms of competitiveness my best 5k time is nowhere near competitive at this time) so don't be fooled! I am a runner who requires a lot of warm up time (sort of like light jogging through the park) to sink into my pace and the 5k doesn't really allow much time for that.

As for your condition, it definitely sounds like a sports injury. As for what kind depends on a few questions:

Where precisely is the injury located? High up on the calf, or lower down the leg, closer to the ankle?
Did this pain occur when you were running up a hill? Down a hill? On flat road?
What kind of pace were you going at? Really fast? Did you start off at a really slow pace and build up to that pace? Or did you just start out of the blocks at that pace?
How long into the run did this begin to occur? How long on a run today does it take for you to start feeling the pain inhibiting your ability to run?
Are you bouncing a lot in your stride?
What kind of sneakers are you using?
Did you stretch BEFORE you ran?

Start with those questions, and I'll probably be able to identify it from that. As for recovery, there's nothing like a good icing down, resting and foam rolling. Give it the time it needs. Let me know.

[dudesky1000]

Yesterday was the 16-mile run!

I know I said I would post a more complete report on the 14 mile run, but, I won't because that seems so long ago I don't even remember much about it! Only that it was two full 6 mile laps of central park (with the big scary Harlem Hill) and a small lap of 1.7 miles to finish off, and the hills absolutely shredded me apart as usual. In the end though, I did end up with negative splits (running every mile or so faster than the last, which is generally agreed upon as the best racing strategy for long distance running). So it was a run I could be very happy walking away from.

I took a recovery week (I'll probably write on the importance of recover weeks sometime later on) after that due to my work schedule and my general need to recuperate from some dense mileage. It helped quite a bit because I was able to go very hard this week without losing steam during the long run.

On tuesday I returned to the gym and did some cross training (also really important), weights and cycling machine. Needless to say I was reeeeaaallly, REALLY sore from this for the rest of the entire week. Wednesday was a tempo run (5.1 miles with 3.4 at a very hard effort albeit sustainable pace) which I was very pleased with... averaged a 6:40 pace which is really good for me 

SO anyway, the 16 mile gorilla in the room. For some reason I really wanted to do this in under 2 hours. I'm not sure why 2 hours means anything in the grand scheme of things... 16 miles in 2 hours doesn't give me a 3-hour marathon pace, nor does it indicate what I will actually be feeling like 16 miles into the race, and it's never really a good idea to 'race' a long training run anyway.

Well, I'm a bit of a moron sometimes when I actually get on the road so despite all that I ended up just going for it   I probably really didn't deserve to do well at all, I completely disregarded any kind of warm-up. Now that I have this fancy GPS gizmo I can actually look back at what my average first mile pace is... turns out it is 8:47 before this run. NOW my average is 8:44 because the first mile I ran yesterday was 8:11! For the record this is NOT something I am proud and/or bragging about! It was a foolish technique.

Somehow though, I never really paid for it, and from then on every of the 15 remaining miles was sub-8 minutes. I've never done that before, ever. Despite feeling sore, I felt very well rested and perhaps most importantly, well hydrated. In fact, I think I drank over 4 liters of water the day before the run (and ate a lot of pretzels to retain that, which is worth noting, otherwise I would probably have completely diluted my system). I guess that goes to show how important preparation is, something I am learning again and again this year (thankfully the easy way, as opposed to the hard way last year).

The course was 2 laps of the 5-mile loop (no giant scary hill, but some smaller formidable stuff) and then one loop of Harlem Hill. As always, I was pretty wary doing the hill lap last, but I figured it would be best if I saved it for last. It still chewed me up bad, but to every uphill there IS a downhill, and boy do I love my downhills 

It was a very, very suspenseful run, largely because of the stupid 2 hour goal I set for myself. I probably looked hilarious at the end-- my watch had me at 15.9 miles at 1:58:30 and I wasn't even looking at the road because I was so glued to my watch. It does seem rather silly, but I have to admit, the absolute worst feeling you can have as a runner is to be running for however long, an hour, two hours, whatever, barely miss a goal (no matter how pointless it is) by something like 5 seconds and then be forced to wonder rhetorically "where in those 16 miles could I have run 5 seconds faster???". Honestly it SUCKS. Majorly. And the scary part is that you never know if you will beat it or not until you have finally met the goal. At 13 miles, it would have been very easy for me to think "Wow, I'm making fantastic time here, I just ran a sub-7 minute mile, at this rate I can shoot for one hour 55 minutes!", but suddenly you look at your watch, which says 1:52:30 on it with one entire mile to go, and you irrationally begin to panic. It is a very hard feeling to describe, I guess you have to be in that position to understand. The important lesson is whether you decide to attack or save. If you 'give up' or will make an attempt for it. I find this to be the easiest way to faint/collapse, although I've never done so myself. There is definitely a point where your reasoning shuts off and you could easily decide to run at a pace you can't handle just to make a time goal. There are so many things that can go wrong here... you can ignore how hard you are really breathing, you can forget how dehydrated you are, and worst of all, you can straight up collapse. In fact, there's a great horror story I have about my first half marathon in which the frontrunner was attempting a world record for our age group, and within 400 yards of the finish and a little less than 2 minutes left, he desperately tried to make it but collapsed feet from the goal. Literally, FEET from the goal, with time to spare too

I finished my 16 mile run in 1:59:05.

But I injured myself after the run! As I was waiting for my teammates to finish, I squatted down to stretch and accidentally tumbled over and just like that-- achilles tendon injury. Can barely walk without sharp pain. Look like we are in the same boat now, Lennon!

Next week my coach wants me to jump straight to the grand-daddy of them all, the 20-miler. I would be more excited if I weren't injured! I am a little nervous about it but I think I can handle it. I am a bit relieved to be honest because it means I can avoid the Harlem Hill altogether (4 laps of 5 miles, the hill is on the 6 mile path), which will be a more accurate indicator of what my race will be like (the actual marathon course is mostly flat).

So the summary:

Official Distance: 16.34 miles
Official time last year: 2:20:19 (avg. ~8:45min/mile)
Official Time: 2:01:34 (16 mile mark at 1:59:05) (avg. ~7:27min/mile)
Net Improvement: 21:14 ...I stand corrected, never thought it was possible.

NEXT WEEK: 20 miles ()

Until next time!